Emplois

We invite applications for a PhD position in cosmology at the University of Geneva available immediately, with a starting date no later than January 2023. The successful candidate will join the Cosmology and Astroparticle physics group at the University of Geneva to work under the supervision of Dr. Alberto Roper Pol and in close collaboration with Prof. Chiara Caprini.

 
The candidate must have completed a Master degree in physics or equivalent by the starting date. The position is funded for 4 years. The gross salary ranges from CHF 47’000 to CHF 50’000 per annum. PhD students are required to participate in academic activities such as teaching or the organisation of seminars.
 
The project is funded by the SNSF Ambizione grant “Exploring the early universe with gravitational waves and primordial magnetic fields”. The PhD student is expected to contribute to the study of early universe mechanisms of magnetic field generation, with particular focus on electroweak magnetogenesis, and to the study of the impact of primordial magnetic fields in the generation of gravitational wave (GW) backgrounds. The project has a strong numerical component and the PhD student is expected to develop the skills to perform numerical simulations in high-performance computing infrastructures using the open-source Pencil Code to study the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence produced in the primordial plasma. Experience in Python, Mathematica, Matlab, or similar is required, and familiarity with C/C++ or Fortran 90 would be desirable but not necessary.
 
The goal of the project is to develop an understanding of the cosmological GW background that is produced from first-order phase transitions in the presence of primordial magnetic fields and, in general, due to the contribution of MHD turbulence. The resulting GW signals can be studied using GW detectors such as LISA and PTA. In particular, the PhD student will have the possibility to join the UniGe LISA group and contribute to their activities as part of their project.
 
The Cosmology and Astroparticle physics group is strongly involved in the study of gravitational wave physics and cosmology, see https://cosmology.unige.ch/.
Senior members of the group are: Camille Bonvin, Chiara Caprini, Julien Carron, Ruth Durrer, Stefano Foffa, Martin Kunz, Lucas Lombriser, Michele Maggiore, Antonio Riotto, and Francesco Riva.
 
Interested candidates can contact Dr. Alberto Roper Pol (alberto.roperpol(at)unige.ch), and submit a curriculum vitae, a transcript of all courses with grades, a copy of a master thesis or equivalent, and the name of one or two people who can be contacted for reference.
 
The deadline to send an application is 01/10. Interviews will be conducted the first week of

October and the final decision will be notified by mid October.

Fellowships

We welcome applications from highly qualified applicants seeking to hold external fellowships with us. These can be very competitive and we encourage applicants to submit internal applications to the department first, which will undergo a pre-selection. The internal deadlines vary with the fellowship, please enquire with a faculty member closest to your area of interest for further detail.

An internal application consists of a CV (including details of references), an up-to-date publication list, and a preliminary version of your research proposal.

A partial list of fellowships that can be held in our department follows below. This list is not exhaustive, if there are other national or international fellowships you would like to propose being hosted here, please get in touch.

Deadlines

FNS Ambizione

1 November 2022

Internal: 15 October 2022

FNS PRIMA

TBA

Internal: 30 September 2022

European Research Council

Marie CurieERC starting grant.