A post-doctoral position is available at the Bologna Astronomical Observatory (OA-Bo - INAF). The fellowship is funded by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) as part of the support to the Italian participation in EUCLID (see http://www.asi.it/en/activity/cosmology/euclid and
Euclid is an ESA M-class mission to map the geometry of the dark Universe. The mission will investigate the distance-redshift relationship and the evolution of cosmic structures. It achieves this by measuring shapes and redshifts of galaxies and clusters of galaxies out to redshifts ~2, covering the entire period over which dark energy played a significant role in accelerating the expansion.
The EUCLID NIR spectrometric channel (P.I. A. Cimatti, Bologna University) will produce spectra for about 160 million galaxies with H(AB) < 22.0. These data will be used for both constraining dark energy and cosmological parameters (through the analysis of the baryonic acoustic oscillations) and studying the formation and evolution of galaxies.
The fellow is expected to investigate the expected scientific output of the EUCLID spectroscopic mission (or its future development in an ESA/NASA combined Dark Energy Mission) concentrating on one of its two main aspects: a) Dark energy and cosmology; b) Formation and evolution of galaxies and cosmic structures. Informal inquiries may be addressed to Dr. Giovanni Zamorani at OA-Bo (email email@example.com ).
The duration of the fellowship is one year, renewable for a second year upon positive assessment of research activity and funds availability. The gross yearly salary is €32,250. Starting of appointment is foreseen as soon as possible and, in any case, not later than September 2009. By the starting date the candidate must have a PhD. in Astronomy, Physics or a related field. All requirements for the PhD must be completed before starting the fellowship.
Interested individuals should send a Curriculum Vitae, list of publications and a statement of research interests in electronic form (PDF format preferred), to Dr. Giovanni Zamorani at the address: firstname.lastname@example.org , with ?EUCLID/ASI fellowship? in the subject. They should also arrange to have two letters of reference sent directly to the same e-mail address. For full consideration, applications and letters of reference should be received by April 1, 2009