Recruit

POSITION DESCRIPTION
The Space Sciences Laboratory (SSL) at the University of California, Berkeley, seeks applicants for Postdoctoral Scholar position. SSL has a long history of developing and operating space instruments and full missions and seeks to hire the next generation of scientists and engineers to continue this legacy of research in space, to advance our current capabilities and to take advantage of numerous recent developments in space science and technology that enable new scientific discoveries.

UVEX: The Ultraviolet Explorer Exploring the Dynamic Ultraviolet Universe is a new NASA Medium Explorer mission to explore the ultraviolet sky, with an expected launch date in 2030. With a wide-field, two-band imager and long, multi-width slit spectrometer, UVEX is equipped to address key scientific themes identified in Pathways to Discovery in Astronomy & Astrophysics for the 2020s (Astro2020).

This position will be involved with UVEX low-mass, low-metallicity science (LMLZ) science. A main objective of UVEX is to find and characterize millions of local (z<0.3) star-forming LMLZ galaxies that are predicted to exist, but only a small fraction of which are currently known. The UVEX science case is described in Kulkarni et al. 2021. UVEX is developing new methods for finding LMLZ galaxies using a combination of data from UVEX and optical/IR facilities such as Rubin and Euclid, and potentially spectroscopic data from facilities such as DESI and PFS. This position presents an opportunity to enter the UEX mission in the early stages and help to define LMLZ science for the next decade. The position will be supervised and mentored by Prof. Daniel Weisz, who is in the UC Berkeley Department of Astronomy, and works closely with partners at SSL.

SSL is committed to filling these positions by attracting a pool of candidates with representation along all axes of diversity. SSL invites applicants from all backgrounds and life experiences to apply.

Responsibilities of the UVEX Position Include:

• Developing new techniques to photometrically identify LMLZ galaxies (e.g., photometric redshifts)
• Modeling galaxy spectral energy distributions and expanding techniques to work on millions of objects.
• Interfacing UVEX and related data and cosmological simulations of LMLZ galaxies
• Giving presentations and writing papers to share within the team and with the broader community.

UC Berkeley is committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging. The excellence of the institution requires an environment in which the diverse community of faculty, students, and staff are welcome and included. Successful candidates will demonstrate knowledge and skill related to ensuring equity and inclusion in the activities of their academic position (e.g., teaching, research, and service, as applicable).

The University of California, Berkeley is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age, or protected veteran status.

Please refer to the University of California’s Affirmative Action Policy and the University of California’s Anti-Discrimination Policy.

In searches when letters of reference are required all letters will be treated as confidential per University of California policy and California state law. Please refer potential referees, including when letters are provided via a third party (i.e., dossier service or career center), to the UC Berkeley statement of confidentiality prior to submitting their letter.

As a University employee, you will be required to comply with all applicable University policies and/or collective bargaining agreements, as may be amended from time to time. Federal, state, or local government directives may impose additional requirements.