CMB-S4

CMB-S4 Next Generation CMB Experiment

Job listings

This page is for advertising positions related to CMB research broadly defined, e.g., postdocs, faculty, laboratory and technical positions. To post positions, please send the description and link to C. Reichardt.

CMB Postdoc at Harvard
The Harvard CMB group invites applications for two Harvard Postdoctoral Fellow positions to pursue research related to cosmic microwave background measurements with the BICEP Array telescopes, the South Pole Observatory, and CMB Stage 4. The multi-institutional BICEP program produces extremely deep maps of polarization of the CMB at multiple frequencies from the South Pole, measuring gravitational lensing and galactic foregrounds and placing leading constraints on primordial gravitational waves. The BICEP Array project is upgrading the current program with new instrumentation to include over 30,000 detectors and five frequency bands, to be deployed and operated over the next five years. The program will continue to produce maps with groundbreaking sensitivity, while validating technologies and methodologies essential to Stage 3 and Stage 4 CMB science goals. A major focus is analysis of current and upcoming BICEP data, including joint analysis with data from the 10m South Pole Telescope and external datasets, to continue to improve lensing measurements, component separation, and constraints on primordial cosmology, as well as forecasting and design optimization for future efforts. These include the operational South Pole Observatory and the ongoing instrument development for the Small Aperture Telescopes of CMB Stage 4.

Successful candidates will play a variety of leading roles spanning receiver and telescope design, instrumentation development, deployment and operation, real time control code, optimization of data reduction and simulation on leading HPC infrastructure at Harvard and NERSC, and development of high-level analyses for survey combination and cosmological interpretation. Applicants should indicate which roles best match their experience and interest. Successful candidates will actively represent this research at conferences and take leading roles in preparation of results for publication. The postdoctoral fellow positions offer a highly competitive salary, an independent research fund and an allowance for relocation expense. The position will be renewed annually based on satisfactory performance, for an expected total length of three years. Joint appointments with collaborating institutions are possible and may be considered on a case by case basis. Applications will be reviewed starting January 2021 and will continue to be accepted until all positions are filled.

SPT Winterover Positions for the 2022 Austral Winter Season
The SPT-3G experiment on the 10-meter South Pole Telescope (SPT) is seeking two winter-over scientists for the 2022 Austral winter season. The SPT Winter-Over will be a member of a two-person crew located at the NSF Amundsen-Scott South Pole research station in Antarctica. The crew will be responsible for the hands-on maintenance and operation of the SPT telescope and SPT-3G camera, which has 16,000 transition edge sensor (TES) bolometers with frequency bands at 95, 150, and 220 GHz. The winterover team will participate in the preliminarily analysis of SPT-3G data, including on-site map-making and astronomical transient detection alerts, participate in coordinated world-wide observations with the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) receiver on the SPT, and will be an integral member of the SPT collaboration.

A continuous stay at the South Pole, lasting approximately eleven months, is required. The candidates will be members of a small community at the South Pole Station that will be isolated for eight months. During this time, community members participate in a wide range of activities including fire or trauma team, kitchen tasks, general cleaning, and station opening and closing duties. The candidates need to be physically qualified to work at polar and high altitude sites for roughly one year. The successful candidates will attend the NSF contractor orientation program and will be expected to pass physical and psychological evaluations required by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Office of Polar Programs.

HAWC+ SOFIA Polarimetry Postdoc at Villanova University

The Department of Physics at Villanova University invites applications for a Postdoctoral Research position focused on far-infrared data analysis with Prof. David Chuss. This is a grant-funded position and is subject to continuing based on the availability of funding. The successful candidate will take a leadership role in the analysis and scientific interpretation of new observations planned for the High Angular Resolution Wide-Field Imager+ (HAWC+), which is operating on SOFIA (NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy). The work will focus on the production of large polarimetric maps from the SOFIA data in collaboration with other institutions including JPL/Caltech, UCLA, and the University of Wisconsin. The position is planned for two years, with a possible extension for a third year.

BICEP3 Winter-over Engineer
The Winter-Over Engineer will oversee the BICEP3 experiment at the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station during the winter observing season from January to November 2022.

Responsible for daily operations and service of the BICEP3 telescope; will maintain and troubleshoot BICEP3 instrument components, including electronic, cryogenic, and mechanical subsystems, in consultation with the BICEP3 team. Will manage BICEP3 computer systems, including organization and transfer of observing script queues and data files; will update control software as needed. Will communicate regularly, via internet and satellite telephone, with the BICEP3 team in North America; will report on telescope performance and activity, and discuss operations at South Pole. Will collaborate with the Winter-Over Engineer for BICEP Array, the other on-site telescope of the BICEP/Keck experimental program, handling tasks that call for several personnel. This position will supervise the work of science tech staff at the South Pole including the science support technician, the machinist technician, and the utilities technician who support the BICEP3 project.

During the period prior to the 2022 winter observing season, the Winter-Over Engineer will prepare for winter duties and may also assist the BICEP3 team in preparation of the BICEP3 telescope for winter service. This pre-winter preparation will take place prior to January 2022 at Harvard and/or on-site at the U.S. Antarctic Program Center in Colorado, with a schedule to be determined based on experience and availability.

Postdoc on CCAT-prime 850 GHz camera, May 15, 2021

Applications are invited for a postdoctoral research position in experimental cosmology and astrophysics at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, BC. Members of our group study the CMB and astrophysics as participants in the South Pole Telescope (SPT, https://pole.uchicago.edu/), CCAT-prime (https://www.ccatobservatory.org/), Polarbear/Simons-Array, ACT, and CMB-S4 collaborations.

UBC is funded to build the polarization sensitive, 850GHz (350um) KID camera for the CCAT-prime telescope. The successful applicant will have the opportunity to actively contribute to the design, construction and testing of this instrument, with close collaboration with the Cornell CCATp group. The applicant will also have opportunities for cosmological/astrophysical analysis of data from the SPT-3G receiver and Polarbear-2/SA, as well as in technology development for CMB-S4.

Note: Deadline has been extended beyond what is in the AAS ad.

LiteBIRD postdoc at Stockholm, May 15, 2021

The Oskar Klein Centre for Cosmoparticle Physics at Stockholm University invites applications for a Postdoctoral Fellow focusing on the design and testing of lightweight metamaterial candidates for broadband millimeter-wavelength absorbers to be used by the LiteBIRD satellite. The Centre houses research groups from Stockholm University and KTH Royal Institute of Technology. The Centre hosts a vibrant research programme on dark matter, dark energy, transient and multimessenger astrophysics, structure formation, and related particle physics questions, including LHC-based studies. Theoretical activities at the Centre include particle and astroparticle phenomenology, neutrino theory, gravitation and string theory.

Note: Deadline has been extended beyond what is in the AAS ad.

Two postdocs at UIUC, May 15, 2021

Applications are invited for two postdoctoral research associate positions in experimental and observational cosmology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Research will be in collaboration with Professors Jeffrey Filippini and Joaquin Vieira, as well as the broader cosmology faculty at U. Illinois. Preferred start date is Fall 2021.

Opportunities are available in multiple current projects, with particular focus on: (1) camera development and commissioning for the Terahertz Intensity Mapper (TIM), a NASA-funded balloon-borne spectrometer mission using kinetic-inductance detectors; and (2) cosmic microwave background instrumentation efforts for CMB-S4, the South Pole Telescope (SPT), and SPIDER. The position may include opportunities for deployment to Antarctica for instrument commissioning and operations.

Bicep Array Winterover

The BICEP-Array winter over Researcher is solely responsible for the success or failure of the entire experiment once the Austral summer team leaves. The experiment represents an investment of approximately $20 million and 40-person years of effort by a team of more than 20 people. Poor judgment or decision making could result in the experiment being crippled for the remainder of the winter season resulting in huge implied costs and loss of scientific competitiveness. We plan carefully for every eventuality and keep many spare parts on site. Nevertheless, the possibility for unrecoverable failure due to human error exists and has occurred in the past.

The researcher will start work in September or October 2021 and deploy to South Pole via New Zealand in late October or early November. They will remain at South Pole until November 2022 through the long Antarctic night. During this period, they will have sole responsibility for maintaining and operating the telescope while science data is recorded.

During the winter the Researcher will receive considerable support and guidance via internet and satellite telephone communications. Nevertheless, the position requires an exceptionally stable individual who is self-motivated, but also able to communicate and take direction well. It is critical that the work be conducted competently. Decisions, judgments and recommendations made by the Researcher will have a major impact on the success of the project.

Research Fellow in Physical Modelling for Experimental Cosmology at UCL, May 23, 2021

The Astrophysics Group at UCL is involved with a diverse range of subjects covering cosmology and extragalactic research, star formation, planetary and exo-planet science and instrumentation. Many of the fields span from observational to theoretical and computational topics. We are seeking a postdoctoral researcher who will work on physical modelling and simulations of components and sub-systems related to Cosmic Microwave Background and Far Infrared Astronomy experiments. The post-holder will be based in the Astrophysics Group in the Bloomsbury campus.

The post-holder will perform original research in the areas of physical modelling of optical components and/or detectors in the millimeter wavelength region. This modelling will take the form of Finite-Element Analysis packages (COMSOL etc.) as well as ab-initio in house modelling codes. The modelling and simulations will aid in the design and characterization of ongoing CMB experiments such as the Litebird satellite (JAXA), the telescopes and instruments part of the Simons Observatory collaboration as well as other experiments which make use of similar technology.

MCSS Postdoctoral Fellowship at Washington University in St. Louis, May 24, 2021

The McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences (MCSS) at Washington University in St. Louis invites applications for a postdoctoral position in the broad field of space sciences.  We welcome applicants with interests in Astromaterials, Cosmochemistry, or Meteoritics; Experimental, theoretical, or observational Astrophysics; Planetary Science; Particle and Nuclear Physics, Cosmology and Gravitation; and Earth as a Planet. In their application materials, the candidate should describe their research interests and list potential collaborators from among the faculty fellows of the MCSS.  Any prospective applicant interested in working with the CMB group should contact Johanna Nagy.  Opportunities are available for multiple projects including SPIDER and CMB-S4 with both instrumentation and analysis.