Postdoctoral Position (f/m/d) in Modelling of Planetary and Stellar Signals in Transmission Spectra

The Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS) in Göttingen isone of the world's leading research institutions in the field of solar physicsand planetary research with around 300 employees. The interdisciplinary research focus is the investigation of the development, diversity and dynamics of planets, moons, small bodies, the sun and solar-like stars.The MPS develops and operates scientific instruments for current and future space missions (e.g. ESA, NASA), and carries out cosmochemicallaboratory investigations of meteorites as well as numerical modeling on state-of-the-art supercomputers.

We are offering a

Postdoctoral Position (f/m/d) in Modelling of Planetary and Stellar Signals in Transmission Spectra

within the project “LiVe” funded by the "Pioneering Research – Exploring the Unknown Unknown” program of the Volkswagen Foundation. The project is jointly run by MPS and MIT in collaboration with the MPI for Chemistry and the University of Graz. The first part of the project (led byMIT) aims to establish the possibility of Venus-like exoplanets hosting lifenot in water, but in concentrated liquid sulfuric acid. The goal of the second part (led by MPS) is to explore whether the biosignature of suchlife forms could be detected by the James Webb Space Telescope (or in the future by the Extremally Large Telescope) despite the contaminationby the magnetic activity of the host star.

Your Tasks

• Modify existing photochemistry codes to assess feasibility ofpotential biosignatures in the transmission spectra of Venus-likeexoplanets.

• Use existing stellar atmospheric codes to model the contaminationof these biosignatures caused by the host star and develop anobservational strategy to minimize it.

• Publication of the results in scientific journals and presentation atinternational conferences;

• Preparing telescope proposals.

Your Qualification

• PhD (or soon to be expected PhD) in stellar or exoplanetaryphysics or a closely related field

• Experience with numerical modelling

• Experience with analyzing the JWST data will be a bonus.

Additional Information

• The position is to be filled as soon as possible and for a period ofthree years.

• The position is rated EG 13 according to TVöD Bund.

• An individual travel budgets for conferences, etc. will be provided.

• Review of applications will start on 1 October 2024, and continueuntil the position is filled.

We look forward to receiving your application documents (CV, publication list, statementof research interests - max. 2 pages - and the names and contact details of twoscientists willing to provide reference letters). Please submit these via the digitalapplication portal

(https://www.mps.mpg.de/career/jobs).

If you have any questions,please do not hesitate to contact Alexander Shapiro apply.job.24296909@hokifyjob.com and Nadiia Kostogryz apply.job.24296909@hokifyjob.com

The Max Planck Society endeavours to achieve gender equality and diversity.Furthermore, the Max Planck Society seeks to increase the number of women in thoseareas where they are underrepresented and therefore explicitly encourages women toapply. The Max Planck Society is committed to increasing the number of individuals withdisabilities in its workforce and therefore encourages applications from such qualifiedindividuals.