NASA’s Kepler and K2 missions delivered high-precision space-borne photometry, which impact all areas of astrophysics in unique and important ways, including exoplanet science, stellar astrophysics, extragalactic physics, and solar system science. The Bay Area Environmental Research Institute seeks applicants for a two year position to undertake a project working with Kepler and K2 data. The successful applicant will work with an established team of scientists at the NASA Ames Research Center to build new Kepler and K2 light curve products, build catalogs, and implement and improve existing open source tools. The skills that will be developed in this project will be highly applicable to the NASA TESS dataset and other time series photometry missions.
In this project the Research Scientist will extract time series photometry from Kepler's archival data using modern techniques, and will work as part of a team with strong experience with Kepler data. The Research Scientist will be developing a pipeline using existing tools from the lightkurve package to extract background and crowded targets from the Kepler/K2 archive. The project will involve Python coding and large volumes of data (>4 TB). The Research Scientist will be mentored and advised by Dr. Christina Hedges throughout the project. Alongside the project, the Research Scientist will have the opportunity to publish papers, mentor interns, and attend astronomy meetings with the team.
The position is expected to last 2 years. The position comes with a competitive salary for the Silicon Valley area ($90-$105k, commensurate with experience) plus health, vision, and dental insurance, and retirement contributions. The expected start date for the position is April 1st, with some flexibility to start the position later.
Required Qualifications: MSc in a relevant science discipline; demonstrated, strong Python coding experience.
Desired Qualifications: PhD, or equivalent experience; broad understanding of astronomical and/or exoplanet science; open source software development skills; excellent communication skills. Additional desirable experience includes familiarity with the Python/AstroPy ecosystem, the GitHub platform, the lightkurve open source package, and time series astronomy. Direct experience with Kepler or TESS data is beneficial, but not essential. The positions are funded through a cooperative agreement between NASA and the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute (www.baeri.org).
To apply send a CV, a list of three references, and a summary of science interests and relevant technical skills (maximum of 3 pages in length) to resumes@baeri.org. Applications will be reviewed starting January 24, 2020, and will continue to be considered thereafter until February 15, 2020. For more information on the position or the project, applicants are encouraged to contact Dr. Christina Hedges at christina.l.hedges@nasa.gov. Interested applicants who will be attending the 2020 Winter AAS meeting in Hawaii are invited to email Dr. Hedges to organize a face to face meeting at the AAS to discuss the position.