Postdoctoral Excellence Fellowship at Radboud University

Radboud University in Nijmegen, The Netherlands, invites applications for the Radboud Excellence Fellowship. The fellowship is for a duration of 2 yrs (or longer in case of a part-time contract) and open to non-Dutch researchers based outside the Netherlands, who have no previous study or work experience in the Netherlands.

You will be integrated into the Department of Astrophysics, which is part of the Institute of Mathematics, Astrophysics and Particle Physics. The vibrant department consists of 14 faculty, ~15 postdocs, ~30 PhD students. Our department does research in the fields of supermassive and stellar-mass black holes, jets, compact binaries, optical and radio transients, gravitational-wave and radio astronomy, stellar and binary evolution, stellar clusters, Galactic structure and magnetic fields, cosmic-rays and astroparticle physics, and asteroseismology. We are part of the Netherlands Research School for Astronomy (NOVA), are a member of the Virgo collaboration for gravitational wave detections; the Pierre Auger Observatory for cosmic ray detections, and the ENGRAVE collaboration for GW follow-up. We have access to major (inter)national research facilities (ESO, ESA, LOFAR/WSRT, ING telescopes, etc.), as well as to major computer facilities, either via a local cluster or national supercomputing facilities. We are the PI institute of the BlackGEM telescopes and BlackHoleCam on the Event Horizon Telescope that presented the first image of a black hole in 2019.
The Radboud Excellence Fellowship is a university-wide initiative, where fellows are expected, apart from their own research, to actively engage in an interdisciplinary/ intercultural program with fellows in other departments. Radboud University appoints ~20 fellows per year.

Applications consist of a research proposal (max. 1500 words excl. references, including title of the project, subject, methods, aims, motivation of selection of the host institute, bibliography, time schedule etc.), a layman’s summary (100-150 words), a Curriculum Vitae (max. 3 pages, no publication list), two 1-page letters of reference, and a list of the 10 most relevant publications, where the applicant is to enclose a pdf-version of the two most relevant ones. You must hold a PhD in astronomy or physics, obtained not earlier than 8 years before the closing date of this call. Selection will commence on October 10 and will be a two-stage process.
After an initial selection at the Department of Astrophysics the applications of the top candidate(s) will be forwarded to the university-wide program. The selection committee is interdisciplinary (with no astronomers) so the research plan should be appealing to non-specialists.The first down select will take place before October 24,
and selection by the university is expected in November.

Applications are to be sent, by email only and in PDF format, to [email protected], with subject line: Excellence Sept 2022. Letters of reference can be included in the applications, or be sent directly by the referees, before the closing date, to the above submission email address. Information on the Radboud Excellence Initiative can be found at www.ru.nl/excellence.