Position Title: Postdoctoral position on the hydrodynamics of planet formation.

Profs. Simon Casassus and Sebastián Pérez invite applications for a research fellowship on comparing hydrodynamical simulations of planet formation against observations. Their current research interests are described at http://diskhydro.das.uchile.cl. The fellowship is based at the Astronomy Department at Universidad de Chile (UCH) and at the Physics Department, Universidad de Santiago de Chile (USACH), and fits within a collaboration with the Informatics department at USACH, with whom Dr. Casassus and Dr. Pérez have developed software on GPU architecture for hydrodynamics and image synthesis.

Profs. Casassus and Pérez seek astronomers with expertise in theoretical aspects of planet formation, circumstellar disks (protoplanetary and debris), or on the early evolution of planetary systems. Fellows will have the opportunity to join existing projects, and are also expected to develop new research lines on the broad theme of planet formation. Partially observational backgrounds will also be considered, especially if they allow the development of new telescope proposals intimately connected to disk physics. While holding the position the fellow will be eligible for the 10% host country observing time on all international observatories in Chile, including facilities such as ALMA, SPHERE, GPI and MUSE.

The position is funded by an ALMA/CONICYT grant, and is available from June 2019. The starting date is negotiable and can be postponed up to May 2020. Appointments are for one year, with renewal for an additional year contingent upon satisfactory progress. The fellow will be encouraged to apply for funding continuity for up to three years using FONDECYT postdoctoral funding (in similar terms as for the present position).

Fellows will receive a salary of CLP22.1M (10% tax, and with a typical currency exchange rate of USD1=CLP686), as well as a research budget of CLP4.98M (including a portable computer, travel, per diem, general expenses and 0.5M towards health insurance).

Interested researchers should send a CV (including publication list) and proposed work plan (max of 3 pages) to Prof. Simon Casassus simon@das.uchile.cl and Prof. Sebastian Perez sebastian.astrophysics@gmail.com. Applicants should also request for at least 2 letters of recommendation to be sent directly from the writers. Applications received by July 20 2019 will receive full consideration, but the position will remain open until it is filled.