ALMA Regional Centre Scientist

For its ALMA Regional Centre at the Headquarters in Garching near Munich, Germany, ESO is opening the position of ALMA Regional Centre Scientist.

The ALMA Regional Centre (ARC) department at ESO provides the interface between the European ALMA Users Community and the ALMA observatory in Chile. In collaboration with a network of ALMA Regional Centre nodes distributed throughout Europe, the ARC supports European ALMA users with the preparation of ALMA proposals and provides post-observation user support. Furthermore, it is involved in the operations of ALMA, helps building tools for users and the observatory, etc.

The ARC, together with the Joint ALMA Observatory in Chile and the network of ARC nodes is also responsible for performing quality assurance on ALMA data for PIs from ESO member states. This quality assurance procedure consists of calibration, imaging, and packaging the data for delivery, and is currently a combination of manual and pipeline processing.

The ARC is looking for a scientist to help with core ARC duties, and in particular with the quality assurance procedure and participate in the commissioning of the ALMA data reduction pipeline.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

• Execute the pipeline as part of quality assurance and check pipeline products;
• Carry out manual calibration and imaging of 'non-standard' modes;
• Provide scientific input into further development of the pipeline and quality assurance procedures;
• General ARC duties, including Helpdesk staffing, astronomer-on-duty shifts in Chile, etc;
• Conduct astronomical research for up to 20% of the time;
• The tasks are not limited to the above and a flexible approach and willingness to adapt are required.

Full vacancy and instructions on how to apply are available from http://jobs.eso.org/