Postdoctoral Research Associate in Adaptive Optics in the Centre for Advanced Instrumentation

The Function and Division

The Centre for Superior Instrumentation (CfAI) is a big main analysis group within the Division of Physics at Durham College with roughly seventy workers and analysis college students. CfAI’s mission is to design and develop novel instrumentation primarily based on leading edge applied sciences. CfAI develops state-of-the-art floor and space-based devices for functions throughout a variety of disciplines together with adaptive optics, spectroscopy, biophysics, distant sensing, laser communications, and fusion diagnostics.

CfAI has offered main devices for most of the world’s main astronomical services together with the James Webb Area Telescope, William Herschel Telescope, Gemini Telescopes, Southern African Giant Telescope and the European Southern Observatory’s Very Giant Telescope. Main present ground-based instrumentation initiatives in CfAI embrace HARMONI and MOSAIC, the first-light spectrograph and multi-object spectrograph for the upcoming 39m diameter Extraordinarily Giant Telescope.

The Function

Functions are invited for a Postdoctoral Analysis Affiliate place within the Adaptive Optics group in Durham. The position can be cut up between the event of the AO techniques for the HARMONI and MOSAIC devices for the ELT and one in all a number of AO lab-based analysis initiatives we’ve right here in Durham together with: multi-wavelength AO wavefront sensing and management, predictive wavefront management utilizing Neural Networks, AO for Terahertz imaging, Huge-field AO for photo voltaic telescopes and Novel wide-field laser information star wavefront sensing.

You may be anticipated to contribute to AO system design, integration and efficiency evaluation with an emphasis on the event of the Actual Time Management (RTC) system. You may be doing this alongside our very skilled RTC workforce however a familiarity with (or a willingness to study) RTC software program growth is a requirement for this position. The analysis undertaking you be part of can be dependent in your expertise and your future profession objectives and we’re comfortable to debate which undertaking you might finest contribute to whenever you begin.

This place will present expertise of the complete vary of AO system growth, from preliminary design to system efficiency optimisation and the whole lot in between, while engaged on the most important and most enjoyable AO instrument growth packages on this planet. As such this position will go well with somebody who needs to realize sensible expertise of creating AO techniques work, in addition to creating an in-depth understanding of the software program that’s at their core.