Research Fellow in Cosmology with Transients

The University of Birmingham Astrophysics and Space Research group is looking for one or more postdoctoral research fellow to work on cosmology transient surveys and strong lensing. The position is open to work with the group of Dr. Suhail Dhawan on the UKRI/ERC project NGCOSMO.

The projects can include (but not limited to):
• Inference of H0 with strong gravitationally lensed supernovae
• The local distance ladder measurement of H0
• Dark energy inference with Supernovae
• Synergies between LSST and Euclid surveys

We are members of LSST and Euclid and the applicant will also have access to independent programs with SOAR, Liverpool telescope, GTC, VLT and 4MOST as well as JWST/HST programs as part of large and diverse international collaborations. There are ample supercomputing resources from both local and international collaborative facilities. The position comes with a generous allowance to cover travels to conferences and research visits, and guaranteed access to the university's high-performance supercomputer BlueBEAR. Additionally, the successful candidate will have the opportunity to supervise students, acquire teaching experience, participate in outreach activities, organize international meetings, and get any support or training needed for their personal and career development.

Main Duties:
• Develop research objectives and proposals for own or joint research, with assistance of a mentor if required
• Contribute to writing bids for research funding
• Analyse and interpret data
• Work on telescope time proposals and ongoing survey programs for transient observations
• Work towards building a systematics controlled framework for measuring cosmology with lensed supernovae
• Apply knowledge in a way which develops new intellectual understanding
• Disseminate research findings for publication, research seminars etc
• Supervise students on research related work and provide guidance to PhD students where appropriate to the discipline
• Contribute to developing new models, techniques and methods
• Undertake management/administration arising from research
• Contribute to Departmental/School research-related activities and research-related administration
• Contribute to enterprise, business development and/or public engagement activities of manifest benefit to the College and the University, often under supervision of a project leader
• Collect research data through a variety of research methods, such as scientific experimentation, literature reviews, and research interviews
• Present research outputs, including drafting academic publications or parts thereof, for example at seminars, conference presentations and as posters
• Provide guidance, as required, to support staff and any students (with the possibility of supervising year 4 and PhD students) who may be assisting with the research
• Deal with problems that may affect the achievement of research objectives and deadlines
• Promote equality and value diversity acting as a role model and fostering an inclusive working culture

Person Specification:
• First degree in area of specialism and normally a higher degree relevant to research area or equivalent qualifications
• PhD in Physics or a related field or be on track for completion by the start date
• Expertise in observations and theoretical modelling of strongly gravitationally lensed transients and their use in cosmology to measure the Hubble Constant
• Strong record of research in astronomy; experience with time-domain astronomy appreciated but not required
• High level analytical capability
• Ability to communicate complex information clearly
• Fluency in relevant models, techniques or methods and ability to contribute to developing new ones
• Ability to assess resource requirements and use resources effectively
• Understanding of and ability to contribute to broader management/administration processes
• Ability to contribute to the planning and organising of the research programme and/or specific research project
• Ability to co-ordinate own work with others to avoid conflict or duplication of effort
• Knowledge of the protected characteristics of the Equality Act 2010, and how to actively ensure in day to day activity in own area that those with protected characteristics are treated equally and fairly

The School of Physics and Astronomy is a world-leading physics department, excelling in both research and teaching. It hosts over 130 academic and research staff, around 50 technical and support staff, and over 130 graduate students. Our physics research was recently ranked top in the UK for 4-star-category research by the national Research Excellence Framework 2021 exercise. The School is an Institute of Physics Juno Champion since 2014 and holder of an Athena SWAN Silver Award.

UK and International travel may be required for this role.