Euclid's Galaxy Clustering Systematics

Submission Information
Publish Date: 
Friday, November 12, 2021
Archive Date: 
Friday, December 17, 2021
Job Summary
Job Category: 
Post-doctoral Positions and Fellowships
Institution Classification/Type: 
Research Laboratory
Institution/Company: 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory/NASA
Street Line 1: 
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Street Line 2: 
M/S 241-211
Street Line 3: 
91109
City: 
Pasadena
State/Province: 
CA
Zip/Postal: 
91109
Country: 
United States of America
Announcement
Job Announcement Text: 

New ideas are all around us, but only a few will change the world. That’s our focus at JPL. We ask the biggest questions, then search the universe for answers—literally. We build upon ideas that have guided generations, then share our discoveries to inspire generations to come. Your mission—your opportunity—is to seek out the answers that bring us one step closer. If you’re driven to discover, create, and inspire something that lasts a lifetime and beyond, you’re ready for JPL.

Located in Pasadena, California, JPL has a campus-like environment situated on 177 acres in the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains and offers a work environment unlike any other: we inspire passion, foster innovation, build collaboration, and reward excellence.

JPL is unique among NASA Centers in that its staff are Caltech employees, yet can access NASA technical resources. Cross-discipline teamwork is standard here: colleagues across JPL's science and engineering organizations and on Caltech's academic campus often work together. Learning to speak and understand other disciplines' languages is a doorway to the creativity needed to do what has not been done before. JPL staff are encouraged to create mission concepts that address humanity's core questions through a combination of science and technology. They are supported in developing ideas into proposals and hardware, and in communicating funded missions' results to the scientific community and the broader public. JPL seeks to employ scientists and engineers who are passionate about lifelong learning and excited to both contribute to and lead team efforts. We emphasize the importance of partnering across discipline boundaries and creating a friendly, constructive work environment to overcome space exploration's challenges. The Postdoctoral scholars at JPL benefit from an informal mentoring network, an annual conference showcasing their results, a dedicated seminar series, exposure to diverse career paths, and social connections across the JPL and Caltech community for advice on housing, childcare, and other aspects of living in southern California.

The Postdoctoral Program at JPL invites applications for a postdoctoral scholar position within the JPL ‘Dark Sector’ cosmology research group. Our group is active in a wide range of current and upcoming cosmology surveys, including: the Dark Energy Survey, the SuperBIT balloon project, the Ultraviolet Near-Infrared Optical Northern Sky (UNIONS) Survey, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (formerly WFIRST), the Vera Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time, ESA’s Euclid mission, COSMOS JWST survey and the Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx) mission.

The postdoctoral scholar in this position will be expected to:

Develop tools for the simulation and mitigation of systematic effects, which will be the limiting factor for Euclid, due to its great statistical power and are therefore crucial for the galaxy clustering analysis.

Collaborate with members of the JPL ‘dark sector’ research group

Contribute to the creation and maintenance of a positive, collaborative research environment.

Qualifications:

It is advantageous if the candidate has an established interest in measuring the redshifts of galaxies, and cosmological large-scale structure, particularly galaxy clustering analysis in redshift space as a probe of cosmology, dark energy and gravity.

Candidates should have a Ph.D. in:

Astronomy

Astrophysics

Physics, or related fields

A publication record that indicates active participation in the field of astronomy or astrophysics.

The successful candidate will ideally have a good technical knowledge of working with Python and its data analysis libraries (e.g. Numpy, SciPy, Pandas).

Experience and interest in developing and implementation of astronomical pipelines would be particularly important, and experience with astrophysical spectroscopic analysis and galaxy redshift measurement would be advantageous.

The appointee will carry out research in collaboration with the JPL advisor, Katarina (Dida) Markovic, resulting in publications in the open literature.

The postdoctoral scholar will have access to local facilities, including Palomar Observatory, the JPL Supercomputing Facility, and the JPL/Caltech Optical Observatory Precision Projector Laboratory (PPL) image sensor testing facility. Postdoctoral Scholar positions are awarded for a minimum of one year and with sufficient progress may be renewed up to a maximum of three years.

A complete application will consist of:

1) A cover letter describing the particular interest in the opportunity, and the specific connections and potential collaborations that are envisioned

2) A CV that includes contact information, a bibliography which clearly shows refereed publications, and contact information for three reference letter writers

3) A statement describing current and proposed research of no more than 3 pages.  For this last item, the applicant may choose to separate the current and proposed statements, or to have them written as one unit.

For full consideration, please submit these by December 15, 2021. 

Information about science at JPL can be found at https://science.jpl.nasa.gov.  For more information, please contact Dr. Dida Markovic ([email protected]).

Applicants may be subject to additional program requirements by NASA. Postdoctoral Scholar positions are awarded for a minimum of one-year period and may be renewed up to a maximum of three years.

JPL is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, color, religion, national origin, citizenship, ancestry, age, marital status, physical or mental disability, medical condition, genetic information, pregnancy or perceived pregnancy, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, protected military or veteran status or any other characteristic or condition protected by Federal, state or local law.

In addition, JPL is a VEVRAA Federal Contractor.

EEO is the Law.

EEO is the Law Supplement

Pay Transparency Nondiscrimination Provision

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a federal facility. Due to rules imposed by NASA, JPL will not accept applications from citizens of designated countries or those born in a designated country unless they are Legal Permanent Residents of the U.S or have other protected status under 8 U.S.C. 1324b(a)(3). The Designated Countries List is available here.

Application Deadline: 
Wednesday, December 15, 2021
Selection Deadline: 
Wednesday, December 15, 2021
Current Status of Position: 
Accepting Applicants
Apply to Job
Attention To: 
Dr. Dida Markovic
Title: 
Scientist
Institution/Company: 
Jet Propulsion Laboratory/NASA
Street Line 1: 
4800 Oak Grove Drive
Street Line 2: 
M/S 241-211
City: 
Pasadena
State/Province: 
CA
Zip/Postal Code: 
91109
Country: 
United States of America
Inquiries About Job
Attention To: 
Dida Markovic
Subject: 
Euclid's Galaxy Clustering Systematics