Postdoc Position in Neutrino Astronomy (KM3NeT)

The Nikhef organization
Nikhef is the national institute for subatomic physics in The Netherlands. At Nikhef, approximately 175 physicists and 75 technical staff members perform excellent theoretical and experimental research in the fields of particle- and astroparticle physics. Nikhef participates in the ATLAS, LHCb and ALICE experiments at CERN, the VIRGO interferometer in Pisa, the XENON Dark Matter detector in Gran Sasso and the Pierre Auger cosmic rays observatory in Argentina, and is a major contributor to the  KM3NeT neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean.

The Research group
The Nikhef neutrino astronomy group is responsible for a large part of the detector design and construction of the KM3NeT detector and we have led the analysis of the data from the first detection lines.  The candidate will join a team that aims toward the identification of the sources of high energy cosmic neutrinos, which is now a key question in Astroparticle physics. The postdoc will overlap with the construction phase of the KM3NeT detector. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to contribute to the development of statistical tools for neutrino astronomy, to performance studies, and to the analysis of data of the first phase of the KM3NeT detector with the goal of extracting the first neutrino science.

The position
Candidates are sought that have an interest in data analysis in the areas of detector commissioning,  event reconstruction and classification, as well as the high-level data analysis for testing  neutrino source hypotheses using advanced statistical methods. Candidates interested in incorporating other (multi-messenger) data and novel neutrino production models in the analysis also are encouraged to apply as the project will also require expertise on these topics. 

The postdoc position is for 2 years with the possibility of  a one-year extension.

Requirements
A PhD in (astro-)particle physics or related field is required. Knowledge of statistical data analysis with C++, Python and/or ROOT is advantageous.

Further information on the position can be obtained from Dr Aart Heijboer (aart.heijboer@nikhef.nl).

Offer
The candidate will be employed by the NWO-I foundation for a period of two years with a possible extension of one year and will obtain the status of postdoctoral researcher. She/he will receive a competitive salary. The conditions of employment are excellent and include extra months’ salary payment in May and December. The conditions of employment of the NWO-I-foundation can be found at https://www.nwo-i.nl/en/employees/
Application
Qualified applicants are encouraged to apply by clicking the 'apply now' button below. Please be prepared to upload a motivation letter and curriculum vitae and have the email addresses of at least two referees ready, who is willing to send a letter of recommendation on your behalf. The deadline for applications is October 31th, 2020.

All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply.