CosmicAI Post Doctoral Research Associate at NSF NOIRLab

National Optical Astronomy Observatory • Tucson, AZ

40d • $50,000 - $73,000 • Hybrid

About The Position

The National Science Foundation (NSF)-Simons CosmicAI Institute seeks to hire a postdoctoral fellow to conduct research on active galactic nuclei and their host galaxies. The fellow, based at NSF NOIRLab, will contribute to multi-wavelength data curation and analysis, and collaborate with CosmicAI researchers to facilitate the application of cutting-edge AI tools and methodologies. The NSF-Simons AI Institute for Cosmic Origins (CosmicAI) advances transformative AI to make astronomy data more accessible to researchers, students, and the public. Through partnerships with universities (UT Austin, UVA, Utah, UCLA, NYU), national facilities (NSF NRAO, NSF NOIRLab), nonprofits, and industry, CosmicAI develops trustworthy, efficient, and explainable AI tools to accelerate research and discoveries about our cosmic origins. NSF NOIRLab is the U.S. center for ground-based, nighttime optical and infrared astronomy. As a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC), it supports programs like Gemini, Rubin, MSO (CTIO and KPNO), and CSDC to drive breakthroughs in astrophysics through advanced observatories and data services. The CosmicAI NOIRLab postdoctoral fellow will lead a project on the analysis of data spanning photometry, images, and spectra from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) as well as model predictions to decipher evolutionary trends of active galactic nuclei and/or their host galaxies. This work will be carried out in close collaboration with CosmicAI team members Stéphanie Juneau (NOIRLab), Robert Nikutta (NOIRLab) and Adam Bolton (SLAC National Lab). CosmicAI fellows have full access to Institute facilities and equipment (e.g., world-class computational resources at the Texas Advanced Computing Center, including Vista, a recently commissioned 600 GPU node cluster) and routinely collaborate with Institute members across all sites to facilitate the development of their research programs. Through NOIRLab's institutional partnership with SLAC, the fellow will also have the opportunity to collaborate with major Department of Energy-funded scientific AI initiatives. CosmicAI fellows at NSF NOIRLab will be expected to spend 50% of their time on institute-related research efforts (e.g., data curation, evaluation, example research workflows), with the remaining 50% available for independent research; ideally, there will be substantial overlap between the two. The CosmicAI Fellowship appointment will be awarded initially for a two-year period that is renewable for a third year, subject to performance and funding considerations.

Requirements

• You have a PhD in Astronomy, Astrophysics, Physics, or a related field.
• Experience with modern machine learning / deep learning techniques and software packages.
• Established record of independent research.
• Research expertise in extragalactic astronomy such as active galactic nuclei and/or their host galaxies.
• Committed to broadly sharing scientific findings and software development with the astronomy community.
• Proficiency working with a geographically distributed, multi-disciplinary team.

Nice To Haves

• Previous experience with multi-wavelength astronomical data curation and data analysis.
• Experience with spectroscopic data and very large datasets.
• Experience with high-performance or high throughput computing (HPC/HTC).

Benefits

• AURA offers an excellent benefits package including paid time off and retirement contributions, competitive salary commensurate with experience, and a very attractive work environment.
• Details on benefits can be found at Benefits by Location - Aura Human Resources.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level
• Industry: Educational Services
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree
• Number of Employees: 501-1,000 employees