Assistant- or Associate-Professor
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Department:

Physics and Astronomy - 319000

01/16/2024

Yes

Permanent Faculty

Assistant- or Associate-Professor

Tenured/Tenure Track

FAC0004918

Full-Time Permanent

40

1

North Carolina, US

Dependent on Experience and Qualifications

07/01/2024

A global higher education leader in innovative teaching, research and public service, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill consistently ranks as one of the nation's top public universities. Known for its beautiful campus, world-class medical care, commitment to the arts and top athletic programs, Carolina is an ideal place to teach, work and learn.One of the best college towns and best places to live in the United States, Chapel Hill has diverse social, cultural, recreation and professional opportunities that span the campus and community.University employees can choose from a wide range of professional training opportunities for career growth, skill development and lifelong learning and enjoy exclusive perks for numerous retail, restaurant and performing arts discounts, savings on local child care centers and special rates on select campus events. UNC-Chapel Hill offers full-time employees a comprehensive benefits package, paid leave, and a variety of health, life and retirement plans and additional programs that support a healthy work/life balance.

Our primary mission is providing instruction of the highest quality in physics and astronomy to undergraduate and graduate students at UNC-CH. Training in physics is fundamental among the natural sciences because it provides understanding of the forces governing the structure of matter, from subatomic particles to the large-scale structure of the universe.

Our departmental instructional mission spans all segments of the student community. Over 60% of all college graduates from UNC-CH have taken a course in our department. Among them: undergraduate liberal arts majors who should master the power of quantitative reasoning; undergraduates seeking a degree in another of the natural sciences, who need physics as a foundation for their advanced scientific training; the small number of undergraduates who major in physics, to whom we provide broad and rigorous training. Our graduate education and research advances frontiers of knowledge at the two extremes of space and time, from the very small) the realm of particle physics) to the very large (the realm of astronomy, while expanding the boundaries of knowledge in the many subfields spanning length scales between. Forefront physics and astronomy research requires access to well-equipped laboratories and extensive computing capabilities; it also must be supported by comprehensive and accessible library collections. Again, in research at this advanced level, the bridging aspect of physics provides basic interdisciplinary insight for many other sciences.

This instructional mission is supported by a strong managerial, administrative, and technical staff. Duties of these employees range from budget planning and management for the numerous research grants held by faculty in the department to maintaining course and student records. These activities are usually accomplished in a standard 40- hour week schedule.

The Department of Physics and Astronomy at UNC Chapel Hill seeks a tenure-track faculty member to design and carry out cutting-edge research programs that make use of our unique observational facilities. This will be the first of several hires aimed at building strength in our astronomy program. UNC Chapel Hill is the founding member of the SOAR project and has 61 nights guaranteed annually on the highly subscribed telescope atop Cerro Pachon, Chile. SOAR is equipped with high-speed queue-based spectroscopic capabilities and resides within 2 km of the Rubin Observatory (https://noirlab.edu/public/programs/ctio/soar-telescope/). UNC is also the lead institution for the Argus Array extremely-wide-field 5m-class time-domain-survey telescope, the Skynet rapid-response array located on four continents, and the Evryscope all-sky survey; our labs built SOAR's Goodman high-throughput spectrograph.

We are seeking leading candidates to be hired at either the Assistant- or Associate-professor level, in all areas of observational astrophysics and/or telescope instrumentation. We are specifically interested in candidates who leverage SOAR's capabilities, in possible combination with other internal and external facilities. In addition, we are seeking candidates whose approach to teaching and mentoring will promote student success in a public university serving a diverse constituency that includes a large proportion of first-generation university students (see https://physics.unc.edu/community/ and https://www.unc.edu/story/first-generation-students-at-carolina/).

Successful candidates will have the opportunity to work in collaboration with our groups in general observational astronomy; exoplanets and stars; experimental astrophysics; computational astrophysics and gravity; high-energy and cosmology theory; and neutrino and nuclear astrophysics. Our instrumentation labs are designed for large and small telescope instrumentation projects, with holographic-spectrograph-grating manufacturing capabilities and an extensive machine shop with full-time machinists. UNC Chapel Hill has significant high-performance computing resources, including the 17,000-core Longleaf cluster (https://help.rc.unc.edu/longleaf-cluster/) optimized for I/O intensive workloads with dedicated GPU and large-memory partitions. The Research Triangle area is a dynamic collaborative environment with UNC-Chapel Hill, Duke University, and North Carolina State University all located within close proximity.

A PhD in astrophysics, astronomy, or related field is required. Candidate must have Postdoctoral experience in observational and/or instrumental astrophysics.

A PhD in astrophysics, astronomy, or related field is required. Candidate must have Postdoctoral experience in observational and/or instrumental astrophysics.

Not Applicable.

Applicants must provide a full CV, cover letter, research statement, teaching/mentoring statement and the contact information for three references who can write a letter of recommendation on their behalf. We will request the letters from the references if and when needed. Candidates selected for the short list will be asked to provide the contact information for a fourth reference who can provide a recommendation letter. Application review will begin on February 16 and will continue until the position is filled.