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Institute of Astronomy

POSTDOCTORAL AND PREDOCTORAL POSITIONS IN ASTROPHYSICS

As part of its current Research Training Networks (RTN) programme, it is expected that the European Commission will provide four years of funding for a research network dedicated to studying the physics of the intergalactic medium (IGM). This network (European Network for Research on the Physics of the Intergalactic Medium) will link the following eight astronomical institutions: Institute of Astronomy, University of Cambridge (co-ordinating partner); Max-Planck Institut für Astrophysik, Garching, Germany; European Southern Observatory, Garching, Germany; Department of Physics, University of Durham; Institut d'Astrophysique de Paris, France; Arcetri Observatory, Florence, Italy; Leiden Observatory, the Netherlands; Technion, Haifa, Israel.

The principal research topics addressed by the network will be: formation of the first objects; re-ionization and the end of the dark ages; large-scale structure in the diffuse IGM; protogalaxy haloes, winds, and the metal enrichment of the IGM; star-forming galaxies and active nuclei as sources of UV and X-ray radiation; intracluster gas and the IGM at low redshifts. The project will address these topics with theoretical as well as observational methods.

As part of this programme, it is planned that a total of ten two-year postdoctoral and four three-year predoctoral (i.e. leading to a Ph.D. Degree) positions will be available from autumn 2000 in the above institutes. According to the rules of the TMR programme, these posts are open only to nationals of a European Union country (and Associated States) other than that in which the post is held. Applicants should also be under thirty-six years of age, and should not have been resident in the country where they propose to work for more than eighteen months in the two years before the start of the post. Postdoctoral salaries and predoctoral fellowships at each institution will be paid in accordance with the local regulations for these positions. Funding will be available for the selected scientists to spend substantial amounts of time in network institutes other than their host.

Applications should be sent to Piero Madau, Institute of Astronomy, Madingley Road, Cambridge, CB3 0HA (tel. +44 (0)1223 337515, e-mail pmadau@ast.cam.ac.uk), by 1 February 2000, and should include a full curriculum vitae, a publication list, a summary of current research interests, and a list of the institutes at which the applicant would prefer or would be willing to work. Three letters of reference (two for predoctoral applicants) are required by this same date. Applications from women and minorities are particularly welcome. Further details concerning the network are available at http://www.ast.cam.ac.uk/~pmadau/IGM.html.


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Cambridge University Reporter, 24 November 1999
Copyright © 1999 The Chancellor, Masters and Scholars of the University of Cambridge.