Carnegie-Princeton Postdoctoral Fellowship

Submission Information
Publish Date: 
Monday, September 19, 2022
Archive Date: 
Monday, November 7, 2022
Job Summary
Job Category: 
Post-doctoral Positions and Fellowships
Institution Classification/Type: 
Small Academic
Institution/Company: 
Carnegie Institution AND Princeton University
City: 
Pasadena AND Princeton
State/Province: 
CA and NJ
Country: 
United States of America
Announcement
Job Announcement Text: 

The Observatories of the Carnegie Institution for Science and the Department of Astrophysical Sciences of Princeton University invite applications for a four-year postdoctoral fellowship in astronomy, to begin in fall 2023. Fellows are expected to work two years at the main offices of the Observatories in Pasadena and two years at Princeton (one-year term renewed annually at a rank of Postdoctoral Research Associate or more senior research position), in an order to be negotiated with the applicant. Carnegie-Princeton Fellows will carry out original research in any area of astronomy or astrophysics, either independently or in collaboration with staff, faculty or students at the host institutions. The principal selection criteria will be outstanding research accomplishments and promise of future achievement. Top candidates will indicate directly how they will exploit resources from both Carnegie and Princeton. Preference will be given to researchers working in those areas in which Carnegie and Princeton have active research interests.

The fellows will have access to all of the resources and facilities of both institutions. In particular: The Carnegie Institution owns and operates the Las Campanas Observatory in Chile, which includes the twin 6.5-meter Magellan telescopes, and the 2.5-meter du Pont and 1.0-meter Swope telescopes. Carnegie is also a full institutional member of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey V. Based in Pasadena, between the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the California Institute of Technology, the Observatories provide an exceptional intellectual environment and access to resources for theorists, observers, and instrumentalists alike. The Department of Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton is a major partner in the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, the Simons Observatory, and the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time. The department is collaborating with the Japanese astronomical community on large imaging and spectroscopic surveys with the Subaru Telescope, focused on extragalactic astronomy (the Hyper Suprime-Cam survey). In addition, we are heavily involved in the Prime Focus Spectrograph Survey. The successful applicant will have the right to join all these surveys. Carnegie-Princeton Fellows will also have access to the extensive Princeton research computing facilities. These include a variety of high-performance (petaflop) clusters with both CPUs and GPUs, large shared-memory systems for data analysis and visualization, and multiple petabytes of data storage. Together with research groups in other departments in the university and the nearby Institute for Advanced Study, the department offers an unparalleled environment for research in theoretical and observational astrophysics and cosmology.

The position provides support for observing, travel, computing and publications, and the observing and computational facilities at both institutions will be accessible for the entire duration of the position. Further information on the host institutions is available at obs.carnegiescience.edu and https://web.astro.princeton.edu/.

Interested persons should submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae, bibliography, a research statement describing the applicant's previous research and future research plans (up to five pages including references), a broader impact statement (one page), and provide contact information for three references. The broader impact statement should articulate the applicant's past accomplishments and future plans in any of the following areas: contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion, mentoring, service work, and outreach. For further information, please see https://obs.carnegiescience.edu/broader-impact-statement-information-2022-fellowship-applications and https://web.astro.princeton.edu/climate. Applications must be sent to BOTH the Observatories and to Princeton via the web at https://obs.carnegiescience.edu/fellowships/ AND https://puwebp.princeton.edu/AcadHire/position/27583 by November 1, 2022 at 11:59pm EST. Letters of reference are requested to be submitted by November 7, 2022 at 11:59pm EST.

Princeton and Carnegie strive to enable a scientifically excellent, equitable, and inclusive community, and therefore aim for diverse groups of people to collaborate and thrive in their departments. With this in mind, we will take into consideration personal experiences, as well as efforts in education, outreach or other service activities related to astrophysics or other sciences. Applicants are asked to describe such experiences and their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, describing how they have contributed to such community characteristics in previous positions and how those contributions have been informed by their life experiences. Candidates from under-represented groups and backgrounds are encouraged to apply.

Selection of the successful candidate(s) will be made by a joint Carnegie-Princeton committee. All applicants will automatically be considered for all postdoctoral positions in the Astrophysical Sciences department at Princeton and for the Carnegie Fellowship at The Observatories; however, they should clearly state in the cover letter that they wish to be considered for the Carnegie-Princeton Fellowship. A PhD in Astronomy or a related field is required.

This position is subject to Princeton University’s background check policy.

Princeton University and the Carnegie Observatories are Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employers and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

For questions or additional information, please send email to [email protected] and/or [email protected]. For additional information on the fellowship program at Carnegie, please visit: https://obs.carnegiescience.edu/fellowships/. For additional information on other positions in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences, please visit: https://web.astro.princeton.edu/jobs.

Application Deadline: 
Tuesday, November 1, 2022
Current Status of Position: 
Accepting Applicants
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