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Specialist of in-flight calibration of space-borne astronomical instruments | Closing date: 2016-08-15 Contact: Dr Carlo Ferrigno |
The Department of astronomy at the University of Geneva hosts a flourishing activity in space missions devoted to all branches of astronomy and astrophysics. This heritage builds upon the successful establishment of the INTEGRAL Science Data Centre (ISDC), which is in charge to process, distribute, and archive the data of the ESA INTEGRAL satellite. This activity is completed by the packaging and distribution of the scientific analysis software.
A one-year position for a specialist of in-flight and ground calibration of space instruments is issued within the ISDC for the year 2017. | ▸ more | The Department of astronomy at the University of Geneva hosts a flourishing activity in space missions devoted to all branches of astronomy and astrophysics. This heritage builds upon the successful establishment of the INTEGRAL Science Data Centre (ISDC), which is in charge to process, distribute, and archive the data of the ESA INTEGRAL satellite. This activity is completed by the packaging and distribution of the scientific analysis software.
The INTEGRAL satellite has been operative since 2002 and it still yields breakthrough results. In particular, the large active shield of the spectrometer and the wide-field imager are a key tool to search for electromagnetic counterparts of gravitational wave events in the gamma-ray domain. It should be noted that ISDC leads a memorandum of understanding between the INTEGRAL collaboration and the LIGO-Virgo consortium to follow-up gravitational wave triggers. This endeavor has become of paramount interest after the detection of the first gravitational wave events by the LIGO interferometer in late 2015. A novel need has thus emerged for calibrating the response of the instruments on board INTEGRAL towards other facilities and to optimize the search strategy.
With this main task, a one-year position for a specialist of in-flight and ground calibration of space instruments is issued at the University of Geneva within the INTEGRAL Science Data Centre for the year 2017.
The position requires the applicant:
to have a demonstrated experience in calibrating the instruments on board space missions;
to test and develop analysis software in the main programming and scripting languages (e.g., C, C++, FORTRAN, python);
to optimize the long-term maintenance of analysis tools towards distribute computing strategies;
to have working proficiency in written and oral English.
to be in posses of a Master in physics or astronomy, a PhD would be an asset
Preference will be given to candidates with:
an established knowledge about the calibration of instruments on boardINTEGRAL, especially IBIS and the SPI anti coincidence shield
Basic communication skills in French are envisaged
Ability to perform team work is encouraged
Further information
Scientists at the Department of astronomy at the University of Geneva are engaged in gamma- and X-ray observations of various phenomena, including gamma-ray bursts, active galactic nuclei, and X-ray binaries. The candidate can take advantage from a direct collaboration on these themes to improve his/her scientific activity, which should be preferentially focused in exploiting INTEGRAL data.
Contact
Carlo Ferrigno, manager of ISDC carlo.ferrigno @ unige.ch
Candidates should apply on-line on the dedicated webpage of the University of Geneva
http://www.unige.ch/adm/dirh/emplois/postesadministratifsettechniques/
The names and coordinates of two references are requested
Applications are accepted until August 15 2016 and only qualified candidates application's will be considered.
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