PhD Researcher: Exoplanet Dynamos & GPU HPC

AALTO UNIVERSITY; Finland; On-site; EUR 32,000 - 39,000; Full time

Job summary

Aalto University seeks a Doctoral researcher in computational astrophysics to advance dynamo models and exoplanet-relevant stellar activity studies. You will work in a cross-disciplinary setting, using HPC, GPU-accelerated simulations, and ML tools to connect dynamo theory with coronae and winds.

The role combines research with teaching duties within the Department of Computer Science, located in Otaniemi, Espoo, Finland.

Qualifications

• Master’s degree completed before the contract starts (e.g., astrophysics, computational science, or closely related).
• Computational physics/scientific computing and numerical methods for PDEs.
• High-performance computing (parallel distributed programming, GPU programming).
• Astrophysical fluid dynamics and/or magnetohydrodynamics.
• Radiative transfer in astrophysics.
• Machine learning or data analysis for physical sciences.
• Strong programming skills (C/C++/Fortran and Python) and reproducible workflows/version control.
• Motivation to pursue independent and collaborative research, and strong English communication.

Responsibilities

• Develop data-driven differential rotation constraints in global dynamo models calibrated against solar/stellar observations.
• Design/run/analyze large-scale global solar/stellar dynamo simulations on HPC resources.
• Perform model selection and prepare datasets for ML analysis across activity cycles.
• Interface with SWMF modules to model stellar coronae and winds from dynamo maps.
• Disseminate results in journals/conferences and contribute to open data releases.

Skills

High-performance computing

GPU programming

MHD

Astrophysical fluid dynamics

Radiative transfer

Machine learning

Python

C/C++/Fortran

English communication

Data analysis

Education

Master’s degree in astrophysics or related field

Tools

SWMF

GPU acceleration

Job description

Aalto University seeks a Doctoral researcher in computational astrophysics to advance dynamo models and exoplanet-relevant stellar activity studies. You will work in a cross-disciplinary setting, using HPC, GPU-accelerated simulations, and ML tools to connect dynamo theory with coronae and winds.

The role combines research with teaching duties within the Department of Computer Science, located in Otaniemi, Espoo, Finland.