One of the main problems in astrophysics today is to understand how galaxies assemble their mass, how their baryons accrete into dark matter halos and at what rate they form stars. To do so, it is essential to understand the physical processes that govern star formation in the interstellar medium of galaxies. Molecular and atomic transitions, continuum emission and recombination lines in the radio range are essential tracers for probing the MIS and therefore galaxies up to the highest redshift. Interpreting the observations requires massive data analysis techniques and cutting-edge numerical models, the development of which relies on multidisciplinary teams.

Université PSL is launching a call for applications for a Junior Professor Chair in astrophysics entitled " Studying galaxies and the interstellar medium in the era of large radio-telescopes ".

The position is open to all researchers wishing to develop their activity in Astrophysics. The position includes an internationally competitive salary and competitive start-up package.

The activity will take place at the Laboratory for the study of the Universe and eXtreme phenomena (LUX), Observatoire de Paris, Université Paris Sciences et Lettres (LUX, Observatoire de Paris-PSL, https://lux.observatoiredeparis.psl.eu).
This is a tenure track position with a reduced teaching load leading to a full professor position in three years. The position will start on December 2025 (or at a mutually agreed later date).

Mission

The recruited person will play an important role in structuring teaching at PSL and could propose to develop new teaching packages centered around two major areas for astronomy and astrophysics, and more generally for the overall scientific community: (i) the use of AI applied to data processing and (ii) training in environmental responsibility and sobriety (going as far as eco-design) within major instrumental and/or computation projects.
The first area, innovative techniques in data management, processing and analysis, could take the form of teaching modules offered within the Graduate Astrophysics Programme, as well as within the cross-disciplinary DATA programme. Job opportunities will target both the academic world and high-potential emerging professions such as data scientist.
The second area could take the form of Master Classes using a reversed pedagogy, offered within the Astrophysics graduate programme but also in the form of a PSL-week open to students at Masters level or on doctoral courses.
The recruited person will be responsible for setting up and running these courses, which could ultimately lead to the creation of new courses within the PSL Masters.

Research

The Laboratoire d'étude de l'Univers et des phénomènes eXtrêmes (LUX) at Paris Observatory and the Laboratoire de Physique at the École Normale Supérieure are jointly opening a Tenure Track position (CPJ) at the interface between the OP/LUX (where he/she will be recruited) and LPENS teams in order to strengthen the synergies and skills in galaxy and interstellar medium physics, signal processing and analysis, Artificial Intelligence, mathematical and statistical modeling and numerical computation and modeling of these laboratories.

The person recruited will contribute to the understanding of fundamental questions linked to the physics of the ISM in galaxies in order to understand the mechanisms of galaxy evolution in a context of increasingly massive data and major complementary space and ground-based projects (e.g. JWST, VLT,…). The person recruited will be an expert in galactic or extragalactic observations, and will be the driving and operating large-scale observation programmes, particularly in the field of radio astronomy (i.e., ALMA, ASKAP, IRAM, LOFAR, MeerKAT, NenuFAR, SKA…) and will compare these observations with state-or-the-art modeling implementation.