About the project
We are looking for a fully-funded Postdoctoral fellow at the University of Bern to work on the atmospheres of transiting sub-Neptunes. The fellow would contribute to the SNSF-funded “Exo-Neptune Census” starting grant led by Assistant Professor Hugh Osborn which will perform a population-level analysis of sub-Neptune radii, masses & atmospheres to understand the formation, composition and evolution of these planets. The postdoc would, in particular, be expected to work on extracting atmospheric volatile abundances & bulk planetary volatile compositions from JWST observations of sub-Neptunes.
The Exo-Neptune census, funded by SNSF for 5 years, also includes PhD students working on both the detection of new Neptune-like exoplanets in photometric timeseries, and their bulk characterisation with space- and ground-based facilities such as CHEOPS, HARPS, HARPS-N, ESPRESSO, etc. Additionally, PD Dr. Daniel Kitzmann & Prof. Brice-Olivier Demory and their respective groups at Bern provide key expertise on atmospheric observations and retrievals, while Professors Yann Alibert & Christoph Mordasini bring significant expertise in theoretical modelling of interior structures & planetary evolution. The group is also well-linked with ongoing projects at the observatory of Geneva and ETH Zurich. The successful PostDoc would have the opportunity to interact closely with these respective groups.
