The Lagrange Laboratory of the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur (OCA, Nice, France) is seeking to fill a three-year postdoctoral position on Milky Way evolution and abundance analysis in the WEAVE era.
The successful applicant will join the “Galaxies and Cosmology” group at the Lagrange Laboratory, as well as a vibrant French collaboration composed by researchers at the Observatoire de Strasbourg and Observatoire de Paris (GEPI).
They are all deeply involved in major Milky Way projects, such as WEAVE/Galactic Archaeology activities, Gaia/DPAC preparations for Gaia DR3, APOGEE, MOONS and 4MOST, as well as Milky Way simulations.
Job description
Understanding the Milky Way implies having precise and accurate chemical abundances, ages and stellar orbits, in order to identify unique stellar formation sites and scale appropriately the star formation histories of the different regions of the disc and from the accreted components.
The synergy between the Gaia space satellite and the ground-based spectroscopic survey WEAVE will give access, for the first time, to more than 30 tracers of the past of our Galaxy for a million stars of the extended Solar neighborhood, and to a dozen of tracers for another two million stars outside of it.
The successful applicant will aim to use the information coming from the different Contributed Data Products of WEAVE (abundances and stellar parameters) and combine it with machine learning algorithms to compute and publish, on a regular basis, a homogeneous catalogue of abundances. In addition to having a long-term legacy to the community, the produced catalogue will be the basis of the analysis of the successful applicant to characterize the properties of the in-situ galactic disc and the accreted populations.
We are seeking candidates with an expertise in Galactic evolution, the Milky-Way, and/or abundance determination (expertise in machine learning techniques would be an asset), to work on the creation of the homogeneous chemical catalogue of WEAVE and on the interpretation of it in the context of galactic archaeology. This work will be performed in close collaboration with Georges Kordopatis and Vanessa Hill as well as colleagues from Observatoire de la Cote d’Azur, Observatoire de Paris (GEPI) and Observatoire de Strasbourg.
Employment conditions
Position is for three years, supported by the Agence Nationale de Recherche (ANR) (MWDisc project). Net annual salary will be in the range 27-38k€, depending on experience, with included social benefits, covering spouse and children.
Position is expected to begin at the earliest in January 2022 and no later than June 2022.
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
Our team promotes a diverse and inclusive environment and welcomes applicants regardless of age, disability, gender, nationality, race, religion or sexual orientation.
Application procedure
Documents that will be required for your application are:
- Curriculum Vitae
- Research Description and Plan (maximum 4 pages)
- Three letters of recommendation
- Complete list of publications
All applications must be submitted by email to georges.kordopatis@oca.eu with the following subject “MWDisc ANR postdoc application”.
Deadline
Applications and recommendation letters should be send before November 15th, 2021 to receive full consideration.
