General Summary of Position:

The full-time Research Scientist will work closely with faculty, research staff, post-docs, graduate students and undergraduate students to carry out new and on-going experimental research for the PICTURE-D exoplanetary imaging balloon mission in the areas of wavefront control, end-to-end Structural Thermal Optical Performance (STOP) modeling and science data processing. This work will be performed under the direction of the principal investigator and is contingent upon funding availability.

Minimum Qualifications (Required):

Education:

• Must have a Ph.D. in Physics, Astronomy, or related field

Experience:

• Minimum 2 years after Ph.D. study in developing space or balloon instrumentation, coronagraph testbed research, and/or exoplanetary astronomy
• Optical laboratory experience required

Additional Considerations: 

• Highly desirable: High publication rate, 1-2 first author papers per year plus one conference proceeding.
• Experience with optical propagation simulations, optical design software, thermal and mechanical modeling, STOP analysis.

Special Instructions to Applicants:

Only current UML Employees within the Grants & Contracts (MTA/GRACE) bargaining unit will be considered during the first 10 business days of the posting. All other candidates will be considered after that period.

This is a Grants & Contracts (MTA/GRACE) bargaining unit position, Grade P16.

Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled; however, the posting may close when an adequate number of qualified applications is received.

This position is contingent upon funding.

Please include a resume and cover letter with your application.  Names and contact information of three references will be required during the application process.