Postdoctoral Research Fellow -- Eruptive YSOs and time-domain surveys

We seek to appoint a postdoctoral researcher to work on the project "Eruptive YSOs and the Milky Way time-domain surveys: VVV and VVVX" at the University of Hertfordshire's Centre for Astrophysics Research (CAR). The researcher will work with Dr Philip Lucas (and the Star Formation group), and will also collaborate with the VVV consortium in Chile and elsewhere. Experience in working with photometric datasets is essential; experience with time-domain and spectroscopic data is desirable.

The post will support research in the following main areas: identification of eruptive YSO candidates in the VVV and VVVX surveys; detailed analysis of variable YSO light curves, including exploration of new methods of time-domain analysis to characterise the variability and test theoretical predictions; spectroscopy of variable YSOs from VVV and UKIDSS; adaptive optics imaging and imaging polarimetry of variable YSOs; modelling of spectroscopic and imaging data; variability-based selection of samples of normal YSOs from the surveys.

The post is funded by the Science and Technology Facilities Council 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.