Missions

The mission is a project in theoretical nuclear physics and nuclear astrophysics at the frontier of research on heavy ion collisions, finite nuclei, and neutron stars. The project aims to develop innovative research using state-of-the-art approaches to describe finite nuclei and heavy ion collisions, analyzing the global properties of the nuclear interaction to further constrain the nuclear equation of state. The candidate will work in close collaboration with the team members, as well as with our partners in the USA and France.

Activities

The following activities are envisaged:
- The use of statistical methods and machine learning techniques to quantify uncertainties in the results.
- Formal derivation of the theoretical equations to be solved.
- Developing new codes (parallel programming and/or HPC) and obtaining reliable results.
- The candidate is expected to actively participate in making the codes accessible to a wide community: writing comments in the codes, writing notes and maintaining during the project, as well as feedback from the community.
- Writing progress reports and articles.
- Presenting results to the community (workshops, conferences).
- Working as part of a team in a collaborative, multidisciplinary environment, with virtual meetings and the use of collaborative tools, such as github, overleaf, or multi-partner discussion channels (slack or other).

Skills

To be qualified, the candidate must:
- hold a PhD in theoretical physics or a related field.
- have defended his/her thesis within the last 2-3 years (or 4 years after the thesis in the case of a second postdoc).
Not all of the following expertise/knowledge is required to apply for this position, but some will be appreciated and should be highlighted in the application:
- Experience in theoretical methods applied to the description of finite nuclei, for example the Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov approach, heavy ion collisions or the equation of state and phase transitions of dense matter, including the phenomenology of neutron stars.
- The ability to develop computer code for physics problems, knowledge of numerical methods and computer languages, such as Python, C or Fortran95, and a facility for sharing code, for example using GitHub.
- Demonstrated ability to develop innovative approaches to solving scientific and technical problems.
- Verbal and written communication skills required for scientific reports and publications, as well as for making scientific presentations.

Work Context

The position is within the CNRS-MSU International Research Laboratory in Nuclear Physics and Nuclear Astrophysics, housed at FRIB MSU and located in East Lansing, Michigan. The supervisory team is composed of P. Danielewicz, W. Lynch, J. Margueron, and B. Tsang. Working as part of a team in a collaborative, multidisciplinary environment, with virtual meetings and the use of collaborative tools, such as GitHub, overleaf, or multi-partner discussion channels (slack or other). Most of the codes developed during this project will be made open-source for further improvements and for the scientific community.

Constraints and risks

There are no constraints or risks in the laboratory. The work will be done in an office, with a workstation, paying attention to posture and screens. The usual travel constraints apply for external missions (collaborative missions, workshops, conferences).