PhD in Exoplanet Atmospheres & Biosignatures (LIFE)

ETH Zurich; Zürich; On-site; CHF 54,000 - 66,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fully funded PhD position

Job summary

ETH Zurich invites one or two Doctoral Students to join the Exoplanets and Habitability Group led by Prof. Sascha P. Quanz. The project focuses on atmospheric characterisation of temperate terrestrial exoplanets and links to the LIFE space mission.

You will work with ETH researchers and LIFE collaborators, develop modelling and retrieval methods, and explore ML approaches, contributing to life-detection science and mission requirements.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in astrophysics or related field.
• Strong interest in exoplanet science and habitability.
• Experience in atmospheric modelling, retrievals or ML methods.
• Strong programming skills, preferably Python.
• Ability to work across disciplinary boundaries and with diverse teams.
• Excellent English, spoken and written.

Responsibilities

• Develop research on characterisation of temperate exoplanet atmospheres.
• Investigate non-Earth-like atmospheres and biospheres.
• Use and develop atmospheric retrieval and modelling approaches.
• Explore ML/AI approaches for atmospheric inference and interpretation.
• Assess robustness of methods and compare approaches when useful.
• Collaborate with LIFE teams to translate results into science requirements.

Skills

Python programming

AI/ML familiarity

English proficiency

Teamwork

Exoplanet science interest

Education

Master's degree in astrophysics

Tools

Python

AI/ML tools

Job description

ETH Zurich invites one or two Doctoral Students to join the Exoplanets and Habitability Group led by Prof. Sascha P. Quanz. The project focuses on atmospheric characterisation of temperate terrestrial exoplanets and links to the LIFE space mission.

You will work with ETH researchers and LIFE collaborators, develop modelling and retrieval methods, and explore ML approaches, contributing to life-detection science and mission requirements.