Postdoctoral Research Fellow -- Brown Dwarfs

We seek to appoint a postdoctoral researcher to work on the project "Understanding brown dwarfs in the Gaia era" at the University of Hertfordshire's Centre for Astrophysics Research (CAR). The researcher will work with Prof. David Pinfield (and the Low-mass Group), and will also collaborate with members of the Gaia consortium. Experience in the acquisition and reduction of photometric, spectroscopic and/or astrometric observations is essential.

The post will support research in the following main areas; identification and characterization of ultracool companions to Gaia primaries ("Gaia benchmark" systems) using large-scale optical and near-infrared surveys; mapping the relationship between ultracool atmosphere/physical properties and spectroscopic/photometric diagnostics; using parallax distances of the Gaia-detected L/T population to study unresolved brown dwarf binarity, and determining the implications for population studies of the sub-stellar IMF/formation history.

The post is funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council as part of CAR's Consolidated Grant and is available for up to 3 years with a start date of 1st April 2018 or soon thereafter. The starting salary will be on the UH7 academic scale at point 30 and is expected to be £32548 per annum, incrementing annually. Consideration to appointment at a higher salary point will be given in the case of some years of post-doctoral experience.

Applicants must hold a PhD in a relevant area or must have been approved for the award of a PhD degree before taking up the position.

Applications should be submitted online via the recruitment website and should be accompanied by PDF versions of a CV, a list of publications, a summary of previous research (not exceeding two sides of A4 paper), and the contact details of two referees willing to write on your behalf.