Postdoctoral positions in microlensing and exoplanets

Applications are invited for two postdoctoral positions at the Department of Astronomy (DoA) at Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. The successful applicants will work on microlensing and their personal scientific interests. 60% of their time is dedicated to the pipeline development for the Earth 2.0 Microlensing Space Telescope, including the photometry pipeline, the microlensing event search pipeline, the light-curve analysis pipeline, and the follow-up pipeline. For the remaining 40% of the time, the applicants are welcome to study the microlensing topics using current ground-based facilities, such as the KMTNet microlensing survey, the LCOGT key project for microlensing planet follow-up, or their personal scientific research.

Applicants should have a Ph.D. in physics, astronomy, or a related field by the date of appointment. Applicants do not necessarily need experience in microlensing. Applicants with experience in photometric data reduction, survey, and follow-up are particularly encouraged to apply. The initial appointment will be for two years, with the possibility for a further 1-2 years extension upon satisfactory performance. Successful candidates will be offered internationally competitive salaries and subsidized housing and will also be considered for the ``Shuimu Scholar'' Program (https://postdoctor.tsinghua.edu.cn/thu/index.htm ) at Tsinghua University. They are expected to start no later than September 1, 2024, although the exact starting date can be negotiated.

Tsinghua University is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in China and is also highly ranked internationally. We strongly encourage applicants of any nationality to apply. Successful candidates will have access to domestic and international observing facilities and computational resources of DoA. More information can be found on the DoA website (http://astro.tsinghua.edu.cn ).

The microlensing team at Tsinghua is engaging in various fields of microlensing, including observations (survey, follow-up, and adaptive optics), theory, image reductions, computation, statistical analysis, and simulations. The team, in collaboration with the KMTNet (https://kmtnet.kasi.re.kr/ulens/ ), is leading the study of the Earth 2.0 Microlensing Telescope, which is one of seven telescopes on the first Chinese exoplanet-detection satellite, Earth 2.0, and is to be launched approximately 2027 (https://arxiv.org/abs/2206.06693 ). The Earth 2.0 Microlensing Telescope aims to detect about ~1000 microlensing planets and for the first time determine the mass functions of microlensing planets. The team is also leading an LCOGT key project (https://lco.global/science/keyprojects/ ) and has close collaborations with the KMTNet microlensing survey.

Applications must include a curriculum vitae (CV) with a publication list, a research statement (maximum 3 pages) with a summary of past/current research work, and an overview of future plans. The materials should be sent via email with the subject "Postdoctoral Application in exoplanets + (applicant name)" to [email protected] . The applicants should also arrange for at least two letters of recommendation to be sent to the same email address before the deadline. Applications received by Feb. 15, 2024, will receive full consideration, although applications will be accepted until all positions are filled.