Post-Doctoral Research Associate: Department of Physics and Astronomy - UTK

University of Tennessee • Knoxville, TN

1d • Onsite

About The Position

The Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, invites applications for a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Computational Astrophysics, starting August 2026 (or earlier by mutual agreement). This is a grant funded position. The project aims to enable large-scale, multiphysics simulations of core-collapse supernovae (CCSNe) and related problems in general relativistic astrophysics. The postdoctoral researcher will join a multidisciplinary team of physicists, applied mathematicians, and computational scientists to develop computational tools that will enhance our understanding of CCSNe and provide improved predictions of their neutrino and gravitational-wave signals. The UTK–ORNL astrophysics group has a strong track record of securing time on leadership-class HPC systems, including the Oak Ridge Leadership Computing Facility (OLCF) and the National Energy Research Scientific Computing (NERSC) center.

Requirements

• Ph.D. in physics, astrophysics, mathematics, computational physics, or a closely related field, to be completed before the start of employment.
• Applicants who expect to complete their degree by the start date are encouraged to apply.
• Demonstrated ability to publish research in peer-reviewed journals (preferably with lead-author publications).
• Programming experience in C, C++ or Fortran.
• Broad understanding of building computational tools for scientific investigation.
• Experience with implementing and testing numerical methods for solving partial differential equations.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with parallel programming (e.g., MPI, OpenMP).
• Experience with GPU programming (e.g., CUDA, OpenACC).
• Experience with adaptive mesh refinement frameworks (e.g., AMReX).
• Experience with advanced time integration libraries (e.g., SUNDIALS).

Responsibilities

• The successful candidate will contribute to the design, implementation, and application of novel methods for relativistic neutrino kinetics within the toolkit for high-order neutrino-radiation hydrodynamics ( thornado ).
• The project emphasizes advanced numerical techniques, including discontinuous Galerkin discretization and implicit–explicit time-stepping, combined with adaptive mesh refinement and multiscale time integration, for deployment on high-performance computing (HPC) systems.
• The postdoc will play an active role in the preparation and execution of large-scale computational campaigns on these resources.

Benefits

• Travel support for conferences and workshops.
• Mentoring opportunities with graduate and undergraduate students.
• Access to world-class HPC facilities through group allocations.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree