IAC POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP Exoplanets NIRPS 2026 PS-2026-040

Sociedad Española de Astronomía; España; On-site; PHP 2,516,175 - 3,594,536; Full time

Job summary

Sociedad Española de Astronomía invites applications for a postdoctoral fellowship in exoplanet research. The candidate will work on identifying and characterizing low-mass exoplanets, utilizing high-resolution spectroscopy through the NIRPS instrument.

The ideal applicant should possess a Ph.D. in Astrophysics or Physics, along with an impressive research background. This position offers a unique opportunity to be involved in groundbreaking astrophysical studies.

Qualifications

• Must possess a Ph.D. degree in Astrophysics or Physics.
• An excellent research record relevant to the duration of their career.
• Experience in exoplanet search and characterization using spectroscopy.

Responsibilities

• Identify low-mass exoplanets around nearby cool stars.
• Characterize confirmed exoplanets using NIRPS.
• Engage in scientific exploitation of HARPS3.

Skills

Experience with high-resolution spectroscopy

Research in astrophysics

Characterization of exoplanets

Education

Ph.D. in Astrophysics or Physics

Tools

NIRPS

HARPS

ESPRESSO

Job description

IAC POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP Exoplanets NIRPS 2026 PS-2026-040

TheIAC (Tenerife) invites applications forONE postdoctoral contractto work on the project linked to the line of research “Very Low Mass Stars, Brown Dwarfs and Planets”. The contract is funded by the project “Scientific exploitation of NIRPS and DESI: high resolution spectroscopy to study exoplanets and the most primitive stars of the Milky Way” (Ref. PID2023-149982NB-I00), led by Dr. Jonay I. González Hernández.

Research topics at the IAC include most areas of astrophysics: Solar Physics (FS), Exoplanetary System and Solar System (SEYSS), Stellar and Interstellar Physics (FEEI), The Milky Way and The Local Group (MWLG), Formation and Evolution of Galaxies (FYEG), and Cosmology and Astroparticles (CYA-CTA). All of these are supported by an ambitious instrumentation programme. Further information about the IAC's research programme, its Observatories and the 10.4m GTC is available at the IAC's web page:https://www.iac.es/en

Tasks:The successful candidate willpursue researchin the following fields:

• Identify low-mass exoplanets (Earth-like, super-Earths and sub-Neptunes) around nearby cool stars in their habitable zone, using the Guaranteed Time Observations (GTO) program of the NIRPS infrared spectrograph (the PI is a member of the executive board and the science team of the NIRPS project).
• Characterize low-mass exoplanets (Earth-like, super-Earths, and sub-Neptunes) with confirmed transits in the TESS and PLATO missions, using NIRPS GTO programs.
• Identify and characterize exoplanets using other spectrographs such as ESPRESSO, and participate in the RoPES program with data from HARPSN and HARPS.
• Participate in the initial scientific exploitation of HARPS3 (the PI is a member of the HARPS3 consortium science team) to find and characterize Earth-like planets around Sun-like stars in their habitable zones.

Particular attention will be given to applicants with experience in the field of the search and characterization of exoplanets with high-resolution, high-stability stellar spectroscopy.

Requirements: The candidates must have an excellent research record, commensurate with the duration of their research career. They must be in possession of a Ph.D. degree in Astrophysics or Physics by the application deadline.

Applications from candidates not in possession of a PhD will be rejected without further consideration.

Candidates who have obtained their doctorate at the IAC must provide accreditation of a period of complementary training at other research centres. The required period is a full continuous year or 18 accumulated months (including periods of training during the doctoral studies stage and after obtaining the Ph.D. degree, but not periods prior to the predoctoral contract at the IAC)by the application deadline.We encourage, in particular, applications by women and by members of minorities.