Applications are invited for two postdoctoral research associate positions working with Dr Adriano Fontana and collaborators in the framework of ASTRODEEP, a project funded by the European Commission (FP7 Space). ASTRODEEP is a collaboration between the Rome Astronomical Observatory (A.Fontana, PI), University of Edinburgh (J.Dunlop), CEA-Saclay (D.Elbaz) and CDS Strasbourg (S.Derriere).
ASTRODEEP is a combined program of software development, data processing and scientific analysis with the final goal of understanding the formation and evolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes using refined methods for the extraction of information in extragalactic ultradeep surveys. ASTRODEEP brings together the expertise of the team to combine the deepest multi-frequency data from the space (HST, XMM, Chandra, Herschel, Spitzer) and groundbased telescopes of 5 key extragalactic fields (CANDELS+COSMOS fields),
The team at the Rome Observatory is one of the major co-I of the HST survey CANDELS and is PI of 2 ESO Large Programs (an IR imaging one using Hawk-I and a spectroscopic one using FORS2) to complement the CANDELS HST data with high quality VLT data. The candidates will be in a unique position for the scientific exploitation of these data and beneficiate from the local expertise of the team.
One of the two positions is primarily aimed at the development and testing of specialised software tools for the PSF-matched photometric analysis of deep extragalactic imaging surveys with wide range of image quality. A solid background in scientific computing is a preferential title.
The second position is more devoted to the sceintific exploitation of the combined HST+VLT+Spitzer data set. Candidates with a solid background in observational astronomy are preferred.
More information about ASTRODEEP and about these two positions are found in htto://www.oa-roma.inaf.it/astrodeep.
The INAF-Osservatorio Astronomico di Roma is located about 10 km south-est of Rome. The positions are for one year initially with the intended extension of additional years. Applications received after Dec 15, 2012 will not be evaluated. The successful candidate may start in early 2013.
