Open Position PhD position in ATLAS Group at IFAE

About IFAE

The Institut de Física d’Altes Energies (IFAE) is a public consortium of the Generalitat de Catalunya, the Autonomous Government of Catalonia, and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB, a public university) whose main objective is to carry out research and to contribute to the development of high energy physics from a theoretical, experimental and technological point of view. IFAE has the status of a “University Institute" attached to the UAB and its premises are within the campus of the University.

About the ATLAS group

The Collider Physics group at IFAE is focused on the scientific exploitation of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN. This is research line that started in 1992, when IFAE joined the ATLAS Collaboration at the LHC. The ATLAS detector was designed to explore a wide range of phenomena predicted by the Standard Model (SM) of particle physics, while also maximizing their sensitivity to beyond-the-SM processes. These investigations are expected to provide answers to open questions in the description of Nature such as the origin of particle masses, the mechanism for electroweak symmetry breaking, or the presence of a new underlying symmetry (e.g., supersymmetry) that could explain the nature of dark matter or the unification of forces at very high energies. The design, construction and operation of the ATLAS detector, online event selection, event reconstruction and data analysis, all require world-wide efforts, which are reflected in the size of the ATLAS Collaboration, formed by 176 institutions from 40 countries. Its members are a team of physicists, engineers, technicians, students and support staff from around the world. It is one of the largest collaborative efforts ever attempted in science, with over 5500 members and almost 3000 scientific authors.

With a 30-year involvement in the ATLAS experiment, IFAE has played mayor roles in the construction and operation of the Tile Hadronic Calorimeter (TileCal), the preparation of the High-Level Trigger infrastructure and physics selection algorithms, and the physics analyses. IFAE currently maintains a strong presence in the ATLAS experiment, with major responsibilities on the maintenance and operation of the TileCal hadronic calorimeter and the Level-1 Topological Trigger system, and participates in the Pixel detector upgrade. The group has also developed an exciting and broad research program that includes precision measurements of the top quark (e.g., four-top-quark production) and the Higgs boson (e.g., top-Higgs Yukawa coupling, di-Higgs and tri-Higgs production), and searches for new phenomena beyond the Standard Model (e.g., supersymmetry, vector-like leptons, leptoquarks, additional light or heavy Higgs bosons, etc.). During Run 3 of the LHC, which started in July 2022 and will last till mid 2026, the centre-of-mass energy of proton-proton collisions increased to 13.6 TeV and the total delivered integrated luminosity will reach ~330 fb-1. With the increase of both energy and integrated luminosity with respect to Run 2, more stringent tests of the SM and more sensitive searches for new phenomena are possible. IFAE is in a privileged position to analyze the ATLAS data, with strong synergies with IFAE’s Theory Division and significant computing resources from the PIC computing centre.

Job profile and tasks

The successful candidate will be expected to have:

• A Master’s degree in Physics or satisfy the requirements to be admitted in the Physics PhD program of the UAB (https://www.uab.cat/en/phds/physics ) before the start of the contract
• Proficiency in the English language
• Strong academic record
• Research experience in experimental particle physics during the Master studies
• The selected candidate will join the IFAE ATLAS group and work on physics analyses in addition to participate in detector upgrade tasks in preparation for the High-Luminosity LHC.
• Specific requirements and merits to be assessed:
• A strong CV with excellent academic results and strong recommendation letters from professors or supervisors of the bachelor’s or master’s theses.

The evaluation criteria and their weighting for the submitted applications will be the following:

Offered contract

• Predoctoral Contract (4 year).
• The position will correspond to “Predoctoral Researcher (R1)” within the professional categories of the IFAE.
• Full-time contract (40h/week).
• Salary will be proportional to experience and qualifications within the corresponding category range.
• Work with interesting experimental science. Opportunity to gain first-hand learning experience. Personal growth, innovation and learning every day.
• The selected candidates are expected to join the IFAE as soon as possible.

Application and Selection process

Applications should be submitted to iriu@ifae.es and rrhh@ifae.es stating the job reference (IFAE2026/25_ATLAS_PhDStudent) as the subject of the message. The mail should include an up-to-date CV, a letter of interest and arrange for two letters of reference to be sent to the above e-mail addresses.

You may contact Dr. Imma Riu (iriu@ifae.es ) and Dr. Tamara Vázquez (tvazquez@ifae.es ) for any questions related to this job opening.

Sending CVs to the above addresses implies consent to the IFAE’s legal warning on data privacy.

The application must contain a personal identification number (DNI, NIE or passport) in order to proceed to the verification of absence of conflict of interest required by Recovery and Resilience Mechanism of the Spanish Government.

IFAE is committed to equal opportunities, diversity and inclusion. With the aim of promoting a real gender balance in the institution, women will be especially encouraged to submit their candidacy in the calls. Likewise, IFAE reaffirms its commitment to the integration of people with disabilities and underrepresented groups in the scientific field and in accordance with article 59 of the EBEP to reserve seven percent of places so that at least two percent of the total staff are people with disabilities.

A Selection Committee will evaluate the received applications. If more than one candidate seems equally suitable for the position, the Selection Committee will arrange an on-line interview with each one of them as part of the Selection process. In compliance with article 121 of the Spanish Public Sector Legal Regime Act, staff with a pre-existing relationship with the Consortium administration (Generalitat de Catalunya and Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona) will have priority in the awarding of the position.

Funding Statement