We invite applications for two postdoctoral positions to work with the 200-hour James Webb Space Telescope Guaranteed Time Observer extragalactic program of the JWST NIRISS Instrument Science Team. This campaign targets lensing clusters with multiple JWST instruments to study a range of topics in galaxy evolution. We expect that one position will be located at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Canada, and the other at Herzberg Astronomy and Astrophysics, National Research Council, in Victoria, Canada.
The JWST Near-IR Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS) provides R~150 slitless grism spectroscopy over 1 to 2.5 microns for every object in a 2.2×2.2 sq arcmin field of view. Soon after JWST launch in early 2019 our NIRISS team will devote 200 hours of guaranteed observing time to the CANUCS program, whose primary component is NIRISS spatially-resolved spectroscopy of thousands of galaxies in fields lensed by massive intermediate-redshift galaxy clusters. This will produce maps of key physical quantities such as stellar populations, ionized gas, metallicity, dust, etc. This slitless spectroscopy program will be supported by extensive imaging and multi-slit spectroscopy with JWST’s NIRCam and NIRSpec instruments, and by existing multi-wavelength datasets. Key science possible with these data will range from studies of galaxies in the Epoch of Reionization, to those at the peak of cosmic star formation at z~1-3, to galaxy populations in massive z~0.5 clusters. For a brie
f description of the CANUCS GTO program, see: http://bit.ly/2yYA9PX
The postdoctoral fellows will first contribute to the development of a comprehensive data simulation and reduction pipeline and will be subsequently involved in the scientific analysis of this exceptional dataset. There will be significant scope for defining and leading scientific investigations within this program. The fellows will also have time for independent research and will be able to apply for Canadian time on ALMA, CFHT, Gemini, Astrosat, JCMT, and JWST.
The appointments are expected to start in or around September 2018 and are expected to be for three years, subject to satisfactory performance. Experience with the analysis of optical/IR extragalactic data is essential, while experience with IR spectroscopy and/or data pipeline development will be considered an asset. Applicants should submit a CV, a statement of research interests and accomplishments, and arrange for three letters of reference to be sent separately to the email address below. The application material should ideally include a description of the scientific investigation(s) that the applicant would be interested in performing using the JWST GTO dataset.
The review of applications will begin on 15 December 2017. All materials should be sent electronically to JWST-GTO@ap.smu.ca and addressed to Drs. Marcin Sawicki and Chris Willott. Any inquiries about these positions may also be sent to the same address.