Postdoctoral Research Associate I, Exoplanet Atmospheres & Machine Learning

As a Postdoctoral Research Associate, you will work in the research group of Prof. Daniel Apai and support an equitable scholarly environment in research, mentoring, and service. Your work will focus on analyzing and interpreting time-resolved spectroscopic observations of exoplanets and host stars with the goal to extract the maximum information content.

Throughout your postdoctoral journey you will be able to apply for time on any Steward facility directly as a PI.

UA/SO offers a world-class research environment in space science and astrophysics with strong interdisciplinary programs across the Departments of Astronomy, Physics, Optical Sciences, and Planetary Sciences. We provide direct access to various world-class observational and computational facilities for ground-based radio and optical observing.

Target start date is March 2025.

Outstanding UA benefits include health, dental, vision, and life insurance; paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays; UA/ASU/NAU tuition reduction for the employee and qualified family members; access to UA recreation and cultural activities; and more!

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• Lead the data reduction and analysis of time-resolved spectrophotometric observations of transiting exoplanets and host stars, obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the Pandora SmallSat space telescope.
• Adopt and use state-of-the-art analytical and modeling methods, including Machine Learning-based techniques (when appropriate).
• Develop integrated, multi-component stellar photosphere/planetary atmosphere models to model and interpret the entangled signal and derive the maximum information content possible from the observations.
• Study population-level trends in stellar activity, photospheric heterogeneity, and planetary properties.
• Lead and contribute to follow-up proposals for the James Webb Space Telescope.
• Collaborate with faculty and scholars in support of an inclusive academic environment (including organizing collaborative meetings, supervising/mentoring graduate and undergraduate students).
• Additional duties as assigned.

• Must have completed all the requirements for a
  PhD. in Astronomy, Physics, Astrophysics, or related science at the time of
  hire.

• Candidates with a PhD in physics, astronomy, astrophysics are preferred.
• Research experience relevant to one or more of the following scientific areas: Exoplanet atmospheres, stellar activity, time-resolved photometry/spectrophotometry, comparison of data and high-dimensionality models, stellar photospheres.