Durham Astronomy Research Cluster

Durham University is one of the UK's leading centres for astronomical research with world-class groups working in a wide range of fields covering the observational, theoretical and instrumentation aspects of astronomy.

RAS Biographical memoir of Sir Arnold Wolfendale

Fellowship and Postdoctoral Research Positions in Observational and Theoretical Cosmology and Extragalactic Astronomy and Planetary Science We invite applications for postdoctoral positions within the broad area of extragalactic astronomy, cosmology, and planetary science at Durham University. We currently have several open postdoctoral positions, including: Observational studies of dark matter [UKRI FLF funded]. The successful candidate will join the active cluster lensing group at CEA and ICC. The group is strongly involved in the BUFFALO survey, a large treasury HST programme which makes use of gravitational lensing in massive clusters to study the distant universe and the cluster physics, with the main aim of constraining the nature of dark matter. Moreover, the group is involved in SuperBIT, a balloon-borne telescope to be launched in 2023, which will provide wide-field, high resolution and multi-wavelength observations of several tens of massive clusters. With the release of the first James Webb observations over the summer, the group has been devoting a large effort into working on these data as well. Our expertise range from strong to weak gravitational lensing, mass modeling techniques, the study of the high redshift Universe, the physics of clusters, including galaxy evolution and that using imaging and spectroscopy from the ground and space. We thus welcome applications from people interested in finding clues on the nature of dark matter using galaxy clusters as laboratories. Contact Prof. Mathilde Jauzac for more details. We also anticipate other positions becoming available before the application deadline. Please submit all application documents to the Academic Jobs Online website. To ensure full consideration, complete applications, including references should be received by 14th December 2022.

Durham is ranked joint sixth globally for the number of highly cited researchers in Space Science (which covers research into astronomy and astrophysics), according to the Clarivate Analytics Highly Cited Researchers 2018 list.

There are 28 academic staff across the combined astronomy groups, with over 100 postdocs, postgraduate students and support and technical staff involved in astronomy research. The Durham Astronomy Research Cluster hosts the following groups:

Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy Institute for Computational Cosmology Centre for Advanced Instrumentation

In November 2016, the three main astronomy groups in the Department of Physics, the Centre for Advanced Instrumentation, the Centre for Extragalactic Astronomy and the Institute for Computational Cosmology, moved into the brand new Ogden Centre for Fundamental Physics building, designed by the world renowned Studio Daniel Libeskind.

The Durham Astronomy Research Cluster is one of the five high-impact research themes within Durham University. Please see https://www.dur.ac.uk/research/themes/cosmology/ for our latest news and press releases.

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