We are looking for an enthusiastic PhD student who will search for new physics beyond the Standard Model, by investigating the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism through a precise characterization of properties of diboson interactions. The focus will be on the high-energy tails of the distributions, which are more sensitive to effects from new physics. 

What are you going to do

You will study the reconstruction and identification of angular properties of hadronic decays from very energetic weak bosons using machine learning techniques. You are also going to contribute to detector construction and/or operations. During this time there is the possibility to stay at CERN for a period of one year. This should lead to a dissertation (PhD thesis). We will draft an educational plan that includes attendance of courses and (international) meetings. We also expect you to assist in teaching undergraduates and Master students. 

What do we require

We are looking for a candidate with:

• a (almost) completed master’s degree in high-energy physics, or a closely related field;
• a strong interest in data analysis;
• good software skills (C++, python, ROOT);
• (some) research experience in experimental particle physics.

Fixed-term contract: 18 months.

Our offer

A temporary contract for 38 hours per week for the duration of four years (the initial contract will be for a period of 18 months and after satisfactory evaluation it will be extended for a total duration of four years). 

The salary, depending on relevant experience before the beginning of the employment contract, will be €2,434 to €3,111 (scale P) gross per month, based on a fulltime contract (38 hours a week). This is exclusive 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus. A favourable tax agreement, the ‘30% ruling’, may apply to non-Dutch applicants. The Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities is applicable.

Are you curious about our extensive package of secondary employment benefits like our excellent opportunities for study and development? Take a look here.

University of Amsterdam

With over 6,000 employees, 30,000 students and a budget of more than 600 million euros, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is an intellectual hub within the Netherlands. Teaching and research at the UvA are conducted within seven faculties: Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Economics and Business, Law, Science, Medicine and Dentistry. Housed on four city campuses in or near the heart of Amsterdam, where disciplines come together and interact, the faculties have close links with thousands of researchers and hundreds of institutions at home and abroad.  

The UvA’s students and employees are independent thinkers, competent rebels who dare to question dogmas and aren’t satisfied with easy answers and standard solutions. To work at the UvA is to work in an independent, creative, innovative and international climate characterised by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the city of Amsterdam and society.

Faculty of Science – Institute of Physics

The Faculty of Science has a student body of around 7,000, as well as 1,600 members of staff working in education, research or support services. Researchers and students at the Faculty of Science are fascinated by every aspect of how the world works, be it elementary particles, the birth of the universe or the functioning of the brain.

The University of Amsterdam’s ATLAS group is part of the Institute of Physics and embedded at Nikhef,  the national institute for subatomic physics in The Netherlands. The University of Amsterdam is one of the six major Dutch universities that constitute the institute together with the Dutch Foundation for Scientific Research (NWO). At Nikhef, approximately 190 physicists and 75 technical staff members work together in an open and international scientific environment. Together, they perform theoretical and experimental research in the fields of particle and astroparticle physics.

The Nikhef ATLAS group consists of groups in Amsterdam and Nijmegen, for a total of 15 staff, and typically 5 postdocs and 20 PhD students. As a founding member of the ATLAS collaboration, the group has a long-term involvement in both detector construction (the semiconductor tracker, barrel muon chambers, readout, alignment, and data acquisition) as well as operations (trigger and muon tracking reconstruction). For the phase-2 upgrade (2025-2027), we will assemble and commission one of the end-caps of a new all-silicon inner tracking system (ITk) in Amsterdam and develop a new universal readout system (FELIX) for all ATLAS detector systems. The group also has a strong record in physics data analysis, with strong focus on Higgs boson physics, top quark physics and machine-learning assisted searches for new physics signatures. Nikhef also hosts an ATLAS Tier-1 data processing center and offers substantial additional computing resources for end-user data analysis and simulation.