Postdoctoral position: participation to the exoplanet search project SPECULOOS

The University of Liege invites applications for a postdoctoral research position in the field of exoplanets.

Profile: The applicant should have a PhD thesis in astronomy (or equivalent). He/she cannot have resided or exercised his/her main activity in Belgium for more than 24 months during the last three years, and he/she cannot have defended his/her thesis more than 6 years before the start of the post-doc fellowship. He/she must have a strong knowledge in observational astronomy and instrumentation, transiting exoplanets, data analysis, and high-precision photometry. The ability to write and speak fluently in English is mandatory.

Job description: the successful applicant is expected to work on the exoplanet transit search project SPECULOOS. The postdoc will spend 7 months at IAC (Tenerife) per year to foster the collaboration between ULiege, MIT, and the IAC that operate together the SPECULOOS-North facility (Tenerife). He/she will be involved in all aspects of SPECULOOS: technical monitoring and operations of the telescopes, data analysis, scientific exploitation, publications of results and presentation in conference meetings, outreach/communication. He/she will also be allowed to develop his/her own research projects at ~30% of his/her time, preferably based on the synergy between SPECULOOS and TESS or CHEOPS. The collaboration with IAC will give him/her access to the Teide and La Palma telescopes, including the 10m GTC.

Terms: The applicant will work under the direct supervision of Dr. Michaël Gillon, in close collaboration with the whole SPECULOOS team. The contract is for one year, renewable for one year depending on mutual satisfaction. Starting date: around Oct 1st 2020. Monthly payment: ∼2500€ (after tax). Travel grants and equipment will be provided. Candidate’s application should include a cover letter, a CV, and a list of publications. It should be sent to the email address [email protected]. In addition, two letters of recommendation have to be sent separately to the same email address.