Radio Astronomical Instrumentation Postdoctoral Scholar

Overview

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.

Responsibilities

The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, is offering a postdoctoral position in the area of radio astronomy and instrumentation.  We seek a highly qualified candidate to develop instrumentation to enable radio astronomical observations with the radio antennas of NASA’s Deep Space Network (DSN).  With a series of 34 m and 70 m diameter antennas, there is the potential to develop new instrumentation to conduct highly sensitive radio astronomical observations either on a stand-alone basis or as part of international interferometric networks.  Of particular interest are candidates with expertise in instrumentation and observations at radio frequencies that would complement the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and current and future NASA missions.  The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work on a combination of radio astronomical hardware design and integration, instrument characterization, digital signal processing, and commissioning, resulting in publications in the open literature.  There are additional opportunities to perform joint work within other JPL or Caltech research areas, such as cosmology and cosmic origins. Dr. Joseph Lazio will serve as the postdoctoral advisor. The position is for one year with the possibility of annual renewals up to a maximum duration of three years. 

Qualifications

Applicants should have a recent PhD in astronomy, physics, or a closely related field.  Of particular interest are candidates with expertise in the development and commissioning of instrumentation (both hardware and software) and observations at radio frequencies that would complement the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) and current and future NASA missions, particularly far-infrared/sub-millimeter.

Applicants should submit the following to this site: a curriculum vitae, brief statement of research interests, and list of publications. In addition, applicants should arrange to have three letters of reference e-mailed to Dr. Joseph Lazio ([email protected]) by May 7, 2019 for full consideration.  Applicants should have obtained their PhD degree within the last five years.