NEW OPENING FOR A SEVERO OCHOA POSTDOC POSITION: "Machine Learning and Big Data applied to astronomical surveys, classification, and image processing"

  Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas   Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía   Excelencia Severo Ochoa   HR Excellence in Research
Deadline: 
November, 18th 2020
Type: 
SO-IAA postdoc
Code: 
SO_R5_002
Introduction: 

IAA-CSIC offers a postdoctoral contract in the framework of the Project “Severo Ochoa”. Candidates are expected to carry out their activity in the research line of Stellar Systems and Galactic Centre, led by E. Alfaro and R. Schoedel, respectively.

Tasks: 

- Estimation of stellar parameters via Machine Learning and related techniques from photometric measurements obtained by large astronomical surveys (for example ALHAMBRA and J-PLUS). The imaging data will have to be preprocessed to distinguish between different source types (star, galaxy, other) and to perform a morphological classification of the detected galaxies.
- Collaboration with the Galactic Centre group in searching for star clusters in photometric and proper motion measurements of stellar catalogues of the Galactic centre.
- Collaboration with the Galactic Centre group in searching for ways to apply machine learning and related techniques to the PSF (point source function) extraction and posterior PSF fitting photometry in extremely crowded fields.
- Contact and exchange with other groups at the IAA-CSIC who are using Machine Learning and Big Data techniques to support their efforts.
- Careful documentation of the work and of the software created, preferably in English.

Requirements:
The candidate should be a physicist with significant expertise in Machine Learning and Big Data algorithms and applications. Ideally, the candidate is a Doctor of Computer Sciences (or similar) and possesses already experience with applying these methods to astronomical images and processing of data arrays.

Period (months): 
18 months

The fellowships include a competitive salary and full health insurance. Selected candidates will be included in SO-IAA grants, which provide additional funds for scientific visits, attendance to advanced schools and workshops, and other training activities.

IAA is an equal opportunity institution. Applications to this program by female scientists are particularly encouraged.

Should you need any further information or assistance concerning the application, please contact the IAA at severoochoa[at]iaa.es