Postdoctoral Fellowships at the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences for 2025

Deadline: March 7, 2025, 12 PM (noon; in CEST/UTC+2 timezone)

The Astronomical Institute (ASU, https://asu.cas.cz/en) is the leading astronomical research institute in the Czech Republic, located at the Ondrejov Observatory and in Prague. Its main activities are in the formation, evolution, dynamics and physical properties of galaxies, stars and star systems, research on the physics of compact objects including black holes and gravitational waves, research on the Sun, solar activity and its effects on processes on Earth and in interplanetary space, research on the Earth's immediate environment, the dynamics of natural and artificial bodies in the Solar System, and research on interplanetary matter and its interaction with the Earth's atmosphere.

For 2025, ASU will consider research project proposals for postdoctoral fellowships in the fields of research conducted at the Institute.

Applicants are required to get in touch with our staff members to discuss their support of the application and to discuss a research project and implementation plan (theory, observation, and data analysis are all welcome). A list of supervisors for hosting postdoctoral fellows in 2025 is provided below.

Application Deadline: March 7, 2025, 12 PM (noon; in CEST/UTC+2 timezone)
Submission: by email to sekretariat@asu.cas.cz with the subject POSTDOC 2025

Required application parts (all in PDF):

- cover sheet listing: full name, birth date, nationality, current position, the exact date of PhD defence, name of the host/supervisor at ASU, short motivation (½ page max)
- curriculum vitae
- list of publications
- summary of the most significant research results achieved to date and proposed research project (2 pages max in total)
- outline of the implementation plan for 2 years (4500 characters max)
- recommendation letters (to be delivered separately)

Applicants must arrange for a minimum of two recommendation letters to be sent directly to the same electronic address as above. The letters may be issued up to 9 months before the application deadline.

Applications can be submitted slightly before finishing PhD, in which case a statement from the current supervisor stating the planned date of the defence should be included. Applicants MUST then prove they have been awarded the PhD degree by March 26.

The appointment is initially for one year; an extension for another year is expected upon satisfactory scientific performance. A necessary condition is to satisfy legal requirements for employment in the Czech Republic (EU member state). Salary will be based on the domestic level (cca 1700 EUR/month before taxes; health insurance included). There is a possibility of staff accommodation in Ondrejov; in Prague, private accommodation has to be arranged. The starting date of employment is expected to be July 1, 2025, but it is negotiable.

Applications from applicants who are less than two years away from obtaining their PhD will be considered separately. A shortlist will be preselected within 2 weeks from the application deadline and listed applicants will be invited for an online interview. Once the evaluation process is completed, all applicants will be notified.

Further information:

• http://www.asu.cas.cz for the list of working groups at the Institute. 
• http://www.euraxess.cz for details about the research employment and work conditions in Czech Republic. 
• http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/comparison.jsp to compare cost of living.

List of researchers and topics:

• Jaroslav Dudík, jaroslav.dudik@asu.cas.cz, Solar flares and eruptions

• Petr Kabáth, petr.kabath@asu.cas.cz, Exoplanets and their atmospheres

• Jana Kašparová, jana.kasparova@asu.cas.cz, Solar flares in X-ray domain

• Georgios Loukes-Gerakopoulos, georgios.loukes-gerakopoulos@asu.cas.cz, Gravitational waves from small mass ratio black hole binaries

• Marek Skarka, marek.skarka@asu.cas.cz, Stellar variability

• Jiří Svoboda, jiri.svoboda@asu.cas.cz, Multiwavelength observations of black holes across the mass scale

• Artem Koval, artem.koval@asu.cas.cz, Solar radio bursts

• Petr Hellinger, petr.hellinger@asu.cas.cz, Solar wind turbulence

• Abhijeet Borkar, borkar@asu.cas.cz, Multiwavelength study of AGN, star formation and galaxy evolution

• Soňa Ehlerová, sona.ehlerova@asu.cas.cz, Structures in the interstellar medium

• Jan Palouš, palous@ig.cas.cz, Feeding supermassive black holes

• Richard Wünsch, richard.wunsch@asu.cas.cz, Formation of stars and star clusters

• Pavel Jáchym, pavel.jachym@asu.cas.cz, Evolution of galaxies in galaxy clusters

• Michaela Kraus, michaela.kraus@asu.cas.cz, Pulsations in blue supergiants and evolution of massive stars

• Brankica Kubátová, brankica.kubatova@asu.cas.cz, Multi-wavelength analysis of massive hot stars and inhomogeneous stellar winds

• Jiří Kubát, kubat@sunstel.asu.cas.cz, Radiative transfer and modeling of stellar atmospheres and winds

• Michal Dovčiak, michal.dovciak@asu.cas.cz, X-ray astrophysics of black holes in AGN and XRBs - spectra, timing and polarization in theory and observations

• Rhys Taylor, rhys.taylor@asu.cas.cz, Arecibo studies of galaxy evolution

• Olga Maryeva, olga.maryeva@asu.cas.cz, Physical properties of evolved massive stars and their nebulae

• Petr Škoda, petr.skoda@asu.cas.cz, Astroinformatics, advanced machine learning and usage of large language models and pre-trained transformers in astronomy

• Michalis Kourniotis, michail.kourniotis@asu.cas.cz, Machine-learning classification of massive stars

Inquiries:
Mrs. Lenka Čiháková
sekretariat@asu.cas.cz

Postdoctoral Position at the Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences

Closing date: March 31, 2025

The Astronomical Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Ondřejov, Czech Republic, invites applications for a postdoctoral position (at the Prague worksite of the Institute), which will be open from July 1, 2025 in the scope of the project “Plasma turbulence in the solar wind”funded by the Czech Science Foundation.

The successful candidate will work under the leadership of Petr Hellinger (petr.hellinger@asu.cas.cz) on properties of plasma turbulence in the solar wind, performing numerical simulations of decaying turbulence in weakly collisional solar wind plasmas, analyzing their results using advanced techniques (such as those based on the Kármán-Howarth-Monin or spectral transfer equations), and comparing these results with in-situ observations.

Astronomical Institute is a Public Research Institution and the largest professional astronomical organization in the Czech Republic. It is located at the Ondřejov Observatory and also partly in Prague (see http://www.asu.cas.cz/en/).
The appointment is initially for one year; an extension for another year and half (until the end of 2027) is expected upon satisfactory scientific performance. A necessary condition is to satisfy legal requirements for employment in the Czech Republic (EU member state). Salary will be based on the domestic level (cca 1800 EUR/month before taxes) and it includes health insurance. The starting date of employment is expected to be the 1st of July 2025, but it is negotiable. For informal inquiries about the position please feel free to contact Petr Hellinger.

Successful candidates must hold PhD degree not older than 8 years at the time of start of the employment (in case of maternity leave or long-term illness, these periods are not counted into the limit). Applications can be submitted before finishing PhD, in which case a statement from the supervisor stating the planned date of the defense should be included.

Applications must contain Curriculum Vitae, list of publications, and a specification of the research topic the applicant plans to contribute to. The applications are to be submitted by email to:

info@asu.cas.cz (subject: GACR-SWT postdoc).

Please, arrange for a minimum of two letters of reference to be sent directly to the same electronic address (and the subject) as above. The letters may be issued up to 9 months before the application deadline.

To receive full consideration, the application deadline is Mars 31, 2025 till the end of the day (Prague/Central Europe timezone). The receipt of applications will be acknowledged by email. Once the evaluation process is completed, applicants will be notified about the result. The institute reserves the right not to take any of the candidates.