The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Project at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) invites applications through the NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) to carry out postdoctoral research in astrophysics or planetary science. The applicant will work directly with one of the JWST Project Scientists and will be resident at GSFC. The proposed research should be highly relevant to JWST (such as analyzing JWST data, proposing new JWST observations, analyzing complementary datasets, or making simulations to compare to JWST results), or should propose instrumentation work that is highly relevant to JWST and/or the Habitable Worlds Observatory, including wavefront sensing and control, detectors, microshutters for space-flight multi-object spectroscopy, integral field spectroscopy, and coronagraphy.
Each NPP application needs to specify a sponsor for the proposed research. The applicant should choose as a sponsor the member of the JWST Project Science Team that best matches their research interests, and contact that sponsor well before the NPP deadline for advice on preparing the application. The JWST Project Science team at NASA’s GSFC consists of scientists who together work to maximize the scientific impact of JWST, and who also conduct scientific research and sponsor postdoctoral fellows doing research. Research topics of interest to the JWST Project Scientists include deep or wide surveys of galaxies and active nuclei; gravitationally lensed galaxies; multi-wavelength galaxy evolution, integral field or multi-object spectroscopy of galaxies; debris disks; exoplanets using coronagraphic or transiting techniques; Solar System Objects; and infrared instrumentation, including advanced detectors, wavefront sensing, and optics.
The next NPP Fellowship application deadline is November 1, 2023. The NPP Fellowship appointment is initially for one year, and can be renewed for up to two more years based on performance and availability of funding. Appointments come with competitive stipends and a generous travel budget. Applicants will be judged on their academic accomplishments, letters of reference, the merit of their research proposal and its relevance to NASA programs. Applications should be submitted through the NPP website to research opportunity 0098-NPP-NOV23-GSFC-Astrophys.
