Open Position PhD Position for the Gamma-ray Group

Opening Date:
Closing Date:
Ref:IFAE2024/47_GAMMA-RAY_PHDstudent

About IFAE

The High Energy Physics Institute in Barcelona (IFAE) announces the opening of one 4-year PhD student position in the Gamma-ray group. IFAE is a worldwide-recognized center for fundamental research in Particle Physics, Astroparticle Physics and Cosmology, and provides an international, dynamic, and competitive environment for training of young researchers.

About the Gamma-ray Group:

The IFAE Gamma-ray group has a vast expertise in technical and scientific aspects of gamma-ray astronomy, participating with a leading role in the MAGIC telescopes and the CTA observatory projects. Since 2020, we have been involved in the High Energy cosmic-Radiation Detection (HERD) project for the construction of a next-generation cosmic ray detector in the Chinese Space Station (CSS). HERD has been proposed by China, Italy, Switzerland, and Spain and will start operating at around 2027, for at least 10 years. HERD main scientific goals are the search for signatures of dark matter particles; the determination of the physical mechanisms producing the knee structure in the cosmic ray spectrum; and providing continuous, wide field-of-view monitoring of the high-energy gamma-ray sky above few 10s MeV. Our group is developing trigger and data-acquisition electronics for the Fiber Tracker and the Plastic Scintillator Veto subdetectors of HERD, with potential applications in space gamma-ray detectors in general, as well as assessing of the capabilities for gamma-ray astronomy for future space missions.

Evaluation process:

The process of evaluation and selection guarantees the principles of competition, publicity and transparency. The recruitment of fellows consists in an open selection and the evaluation of candidates will be carried out according to the criteria of the call:

  • Criteria 1: Academic and / or scientific-technical trajectory of the candidate (up to 50 points):

    • Scientific-technical contributions (up to 45 points): The academic record and other curricular merits of the candidate.
    • Mobility and internationalization (up to 5 points): The relevance and impact on the candidate’s research career stays in national and international centers and / or in the industrial sector.

  • Criteria 2: Adequacy of the candidate to the research activities to be carried out (up to 50 points). More information about the evaluation criteria in the Article 12 of the official call (here).

What we offer:

The successful candidate will enjoy a predoctoral grant part of the predoctoral actions integrated in the framework of Proyectos de Generación de Conocimiento 2023, funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Agencia Estatal de Investigación, FEDER and FSE (project code PID2023-146051NB-C21). The program covers the pre-doctoral contract for a period of up to 48 months to carry out the thesis. The candidate will develop a PhD thesis on astroparticle physics data analysis as well as instrumentation and/or software development related to gamma-ray space missions.

  • Full time contract (40 hours/week).
  • Predoctoral contract; will have a duration of maximum 48 months.
  • IFAE Professional category: “Investigador(a) predoctoral (R1)”.
  • Salary will be commensurate with experience and qualifications within the corresponding category range

Requirements to apply:

Candidates must be enrolled or admitted to a doctoral program at a Spanish university, for the 2024/2025 academic year, o hold a degree that allows admission to the official doctoral programme on the date the contract is formalized. The start date of the contract will latest 1st February 2025.

Application submission:

Interested candidates should submit the application to jrico@ifae.es and rrhh@ifae.es with the reference IFAE2024/47_GAMMA-RAY_PHDstudent before 15 November 2024. The application should include a CV, University and master scores, a letter of motivation and one or two reference letters. Sending CVs to the above address implies consent to the IFAE’s legal warning on data privacy.

A Selection Committee will evaluate the received applications.
IFAE is an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity in the workplace and social integration of people with a disability. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates. People from groups that are typically underrepresented in the labour market in general and in Science and Engineering in particular, such as women, minorities, or people with a disability, are particularly encouraged to apply.

You may contact Dr. Javier Rico (jrico@ifae.es ) for any questions related to this job opening.

Funding Statement