Applications are invited for one postdoctoral position at the Nicolaus Copernicus Astronomical Center (NCAC), in Warsaw, Poland, to work on defining the top-level requirements of the Galactic and stellar science cases for the 12-m Wide-field Spectroscopic Telescope (WST).
The successful applicant will join the team at CAMK led by Dr. hab. Rodolfo Smiljanic and work on the project “The Wide-Field Spectroscopic Telescope” within a Horizon Europe grant for Research Infrastructures funded by the European Commission (Grant agreement ID: 101183153). The project is an international collaboration with 19 institutions in Europe and Australia, including NCAC.
The overall project goal is to prepare a conceptual design for a 12-m telescope with large field-of-view (FoV; > 3 deg2) fully dedicated to multi-object spectroscopy. WST is planned to have three instruments operating simultaneously; i) an integral field spectrograph with a FoV of 3x3 arcmin2; ii) a low resolution spectrograph (R ~ 3000-4000) fed by 30000 fibres; and iii) a high-resolution spectrograph (R~40000) fed by 2000 fibres. WST is a major instrumentation project with potential to revolutionize ground-based astrophysics in the 2040s. The consortium will propose WST as the next large facility of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) answering to the Expanding Horizons initiative.
The postdoc position in Warsaw will focus on transforming the diverse science cases proposed by the WST Galactic and stellar astrophysics working group (WG) into instrument requirements. The postdoc will closely collaborate with other WG members and will contribute to defining and writing driving science cases for WST, review those cases to understand their technical requirements, prepare mock target catalogues and spectral simulations, develop figures-of-merit to quantify if the goals of the science cases can be achieved with the WST survey plan, and help in organizing remote and in-person meetings.
We seek a resourceful and creative researcher with background in any aspect of observational, theoretical, or computational stellar or Galactic astrophysics and broad scientific interests. The ideal candidate has good knowledge of English, solid programming skills, and ability to work well as part of a large group. We treasure diversity in the team and strive to foster an inclusive environment where anyone can feel welcome and valued regardless of background or identity.
The position is offered for 18 months. The starting date is expected to be March 2026.
The gross monthly salary will be of around 9400 PLN and a travel budget is available.
Candidates are expected to have a valid PhD degree in astronomy or astrophysics obtained within 7 years from the date of starting the employment (career breaks such as for maternity/paternity leave can be taken into account).
The application should be sent by e-mail (as pdf files) to recruitment@camk.edu.pl by August 31th, 2025, 23:59 CEST. Review of the applications shall commence immediately after that and short-listed candidates may be invited for interviews.
Candidates should submit the following documents:
- a copy of their PhD diploma or a binding statement of its date of completion;
- a CV including the list of publications;
- a short statement of research achievements and interests (maximum 2 pages);
- a scan of the signed GDPR form (NCN GDPR document).
Recommendation letters will be requested only for candidates included in a first short list.
Questions about the position can be sent to: rsmiljanic@camk.edu.pl.
