The Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network (LCOGT) seeks an Observatory Director, who will be responsible for leadership of the scientific, operational, engineering, and financial management of the institution.
LCOGT is building a global network of robotic 2 meter, 1 meter, and 0.4 meter telescopes to concentrate on time domain astrophysics. Current facilities include the two 2m Faulkes Telescopes at Haleakala, Hawaii, and Siding Spring, Australia, three 1m telescopes at CTIO in Chile, one 1m telescope at McDonald Observatory in Texas, and one 0.8m telescope at the Sedgwick Reserve in Southern California. By early 2013 three more 1m telescopes will be deployed to the South African Astronomical Observatory, two to Siding Spring, and one more to McDonald Observatory. The 2m telescopes have CCD imagers, high-speed / lucky imagers, and robotic low-resolution (FLOYDS) spectrographs. The 1m telescopes have imagers and will soon have high-resolution (NRES) spectrographs. Telescope deployment for the baseline 1m network is expected to be complete by mid-2013. Additional funding would be required to extend the network further. There are also plans to deploy as many as sixteen 0.4m telescopes, with half the time expected to be used for science, and half for education and outreach.
In addition to the core scientific goals, LCOGT is committed to education and outreach. Some time on the network is currently provided to the Faulkes Telescope project in the UK for middle school, high school, and university undergraduates. Several citizen science programs are also underway at LCOGT.net.
LCOGT is located in Santa Barbara, California, in close proximity to the University of California, Santa Barbara, and the Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics.
Partner institutions include the UCSB Physics Department, the Scottish Universities Physics Alliance (SUPA), Siding Spring Observatory/ANU, the University of Hawaii, Cerro-Tololo Inter-American Observatory, the University of Texas, SAAO, Caltech/IPAC, the University of Colorado, the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias, and Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory. LCOGT is a member of several research projects, including the Intermediate Palomar Transient Factory, Pan-STARRS1, LaSilla-QUEST, and LSST. Individual LCOGT scientists are also involved in Kepler, WASP, HATNet, Robonet-II, PESSTO, the Supernova Legacy Survey. More information about LCOGT can be found at lcogt.net.
The Observatory Director is expected to continue to develop LCOGT into a world-leading scientific institution. This will include overseeing a series of key scientific projects with partner institutions to exploit the unique capabilities of the network, and managing a scientific, engineering, and administrative staff of approximately 25 people. Other duties include oversight of the organization’s budget and continued efforts to monetize a fraction of the network time to offset some operational costs.
Required qualifications:
• A PhD in astronomy, astrophysics, or a related field;
• Involvement in frontier scientific research;
• A demonstrated ability to lead a team of scientists, engineers, technicians, and administrative support personnel;
• 5 years or more of functional experience at an observatory, or other major scientific research facility;
• Several years of program management experience, with responsibility for budget planning and administration;
• A demonstrated ability to work collaboratively with other institutions.
The Observatory Director position will report to the LCOGT Board of Directors. Salary will be commensurate with experience. An attractive benefits package and relocation expenses are also offered.
Applications will be reviewed starting March 1, 2013, although applications will be accepted until the position is filled. Please submit a letter of interest, statement of experience, curriculum vitae, and a list of at least five references (including their contact information) to directorsearch@lcogt.net. Confidential inquiries may be directed to the search committee members (Tommaso Treu, chair, tt@physics.ucsb.edu; Andy Howell, ahowell@lcogt.net; Joergen Christensen-Dalsgaard, jcd@phys.au.dk; Mark Phillips mmp@lco.cl; Josh Winn, jwinn@mit.edu).
LCOGT is a 501(c)(3) exempt private foundation and an equal opportunity employer.
