11-05-2011: PhD position HiSPARC

 

Nikhef is the National Institute for Subatomic Physics in the Netherlands with ca. 250 employees of which about 120 physicists. It is a collaboration between 4 universities and the funding agency FOM. The institute coordinates and supports major activities in experimental subatomic physics in the Netherlands such as the experiments at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, notably ATLAS, LHCb and ALICE. Furthermore astroparticle physics is part of Nikhef's scientific programme, in particular through participation in the ANTARES project: a detector built in the Mediterranean Sea. Nikhef also participates in the international Pierre Auger Observatory, a large detector in Argentina that consists of 1,600 water basins with which cosmic radiation is investigated.

Nikhef plays a coordinating role in HiSPARC, a collaboration between Dutch universities, scientific institutes and high schools to study the nature and origin of high energy cosmic rays. Together they build a distributed network of particle detectors to sample cosmic ray air showers. The detectors are organized in 5 clusters each sending their data to a central server via the internet. Data are accessible through web services. HiSPARC has close contacts with similar projects in Europe and the USA.
 
The HiSPARC Group has an opening for a

PhD position

The successful candidate will take a leading role in exploiting the science of HiSPARC, which includes the implementation of a newly designed DAQ system and development of tools to assure data quality. He/She will use existing data analysis tools and develop new tools to allow a comprehensive analysis of all available data. The main goal of the analysis will be a study of the cosmic ray spectrum between energies of 10¹⁵ and 10¹⁹ eV. In this exciting energy region, it is likely that the chemical composition changes. Furthermore, cosmic rays are no longer confined by the milky way, thus the origin will move from galactic to extra-galactic. For a proper interpretation of the results, Monte Carlo simulations (CORSIKA) will be necessary. Since the HiSPARC collaboration consists of high schools as well as scientific institutes, the successful candidate needs to be able to present her/his analysis for all participants.

Requirements
Nikhef offers young researchers outstanding opportunities in the field of scientific research, in which international cooperation and quality are keywords. If you have a Master degree in a relevant field (physics, astronomy, computer science) and enjoy working in a team, are interested in modern electronics and data-processing systems and have the perseverance to complete a PhD thesis within four years, you are the candidate for experimental PhD research at Nikhef.

Training
You will receive a thorough training within the international research school Subatomic Physics. You will profit from the structured and multidisciplinary training and research programme and have the opportunity to experience working in an international collaboration.

Conditions of employment
You will be employed by the FOM-foundation and will obtain the status of junior scientist. You will receive a 4 year contract. Your gross monthly salary will be up to a maximum of  €. 2.610,-- . The conditions of employment of the FOM-foundation are laid down in the Collective Labour Agreement for Research Centers (CAO-Onderzoekinstellingen), more information is available at the website www.fom.nl

Information
For further information please contact Prof. dr. B. van Eijk (phone: +31 20 5925091 / email).

Application
Interested candidates should provide a curriculum vitae and a motiviation why you would like to join the HiSPARC Group before July 1st. 2011 to Mr. Teus van Egdom, Nikhef / HiSPARC, Science Park 105, 1098 XG, Amsterdam, or by email.

Please quote vacancy: 110359

All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply.