Research Assistant Professor- Astronomy (Large Synoptic Survey Telescope)

The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) in the Astronomy department is a planned, large-aperture, wide-field, ground-based telescope that will survey half the sky every few nights in six optical bands. It will create the world's first high-definition movie of the universe, detect hazardous asteroids, help uncover the mysteries of dark energy and dark matter, and more. With an 8-meter class telescope, a 3.2 gigapixel camera with a 2-second readout, and a state-of-the-art petascale data management system, the LSST will process, archive, and distribute over 15 TB of data produced every night. Once completed, the LSST will be the largest and most modern optical survey project ever built.

The LSST Data Management system will be constructed by a team of about 50 members residing at partner institutions across the United States and Chile. It will include a data processing system spanning two continents, new state-of-the-art image processing algorithms, petascale computing clusters with tens of thousands of cores, large distributed databases, and next-generation analysis toolkits, among others. All LSST DM code is free software (GPL v3), written in modern Python and C++.

The University of Washington (UW) LSST team is responsible for the development of the algorithms and software that will analyze this nightly data stream (including the detection and characterization of transients, variables, and moving sources). To support this work, the Astronomy Department of the University of Washington (www.astro.washington.edu) seeks to fill a full-time 12 month, non-tenured, research faculty position at the level of Research Assistant  Professor. The anticipated start is September 1, 2019.

Qualifications

The requirements for the position are: (i) a PhD or foreign equivalent in physics, astronomy, computer science or a related field, (ii) 5+ years of experience with managing software engineering groups (iii) 3+ years of experience with Earned Value and Agile Project Management techniques, and (iv) experience in teaching or mentoring students and postdoctoral fellows. Strong C++ and Python skills, and experience with the development and application of image subtraction techniques to large astronomical surveys or the distribution of astronomical alerts is required.

The initial appointment will be for three years. Pending appointment renewal, external funding to help support the position is anticipated to be available for up to the duration of LSST construction (4 years), with the potential opportunity for continuation into Survey Operations (10 years).

Application Instructions

Please submit a statement of professional interests for research and teaching (maximum 3 pages), CV, bibliography, and contact information for three letters of reference to Interfolio. You can access the Interfolio ad at this web address: http://apply.interfolio.com/55847

Applications will be accepted until the position is filled; to ensure full consideration, please send your application by May 14, 2019. If you have any questions please email the Astronomy Department at [email protected].