Research Intern, COSMIC AI Grant
Research Intern, COSMIC AI Grant
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Salary Not Disclosed
1 Vacancy
Job Description
NSFs NOIRLab in collaboration with the NSFSimons CosmicAI Institute is offering a unique Science Internship opportunity for students or recent graduates in astronomy astrophysics or a related field. This project places interns at the cutting edge of datadriven astrophysics exploring the physical processes that shape galaxy evolution through spectroscopic analysis and machine learning (ML). Whether youre aiming for graduate school your first coauthored publication or a deeper understanding of how AI is transforming astronomy this internship offers an unmatched opportunity to work with cuttingedge tools and leading experts.
The selected intern will work directly with Dr. Stephanie Juneau a NOIRLab research scientist whose expertise lies in extragalactic astronomy galaxy evolution and AI applications in astrophysics. This is an outstanding opportunity to contribute to an active research initiative at the intersection of artificial intelligence big data and cosmology.
About the Role
This internship is part of a broader initiative under the NSFSimons AI Institute for the Cosmic Origins (CosmicAI) which brings together academic institutions (UT Austin University of Virginia University of Utah UCLA) national observatories (NRAO NOIRLab) nonprofits and tech industry collaborators. The goal: to revolutionize how we use AI in astronomynot just to process vast datasets but to uncover the hidden physics behind them in transparent and explainable ways.
CosmicAI empowers researchers and students alike to build nextgeneration tools for astronomical discovery focusing on questions like:
- How do galaxies form and evolve
- What is the role of supermassive black holes in galaxy life cycles
- Can AI reveal patterns invisible to human observers
Responsabilities
During the internship the selected candidate will:
- Access and analyze spectra of galaxies from NOIRLabs SPARCL database including datasets with existing machine learning encodings.
- Install and run stateoftheart spectral fitting software (e.g. STARLIGHT pPXF or custom MLbased models) using the Astro Data Lab platform.
- Extract and interpret physical properties such as stellar mass star formation history and gas content from fitted spectra.
- Deliver reproducible research via Jupyter notebooks outlining the full analysis workflow.
- Contribute to a draft of a scientific publication coauthored with NOIRLab scientists presenting key findings and implications for using AI in galaxy evolution studies.
- If time allows explore and test new MLbased encodings or dimensionality reduction techniques (e.g. autoencoders tSNE UMAP) applied to spectral data.
Value Proposition
- Handson experience working with real astronomical data from leading national observatories.
- Exposure to advanced data science tools machine learning models and astronomical databases.
- Mentorship from experts in astrophysics and AI with potential for future research collaborations.
- The opportunity to coauthor a scientific papera significant addition to any earlycareer researchers CV.
- Familiarity with working in collaborative research environments like NOIRLab and largescale AI institutes.
Required Qualifications
- Currently pursuing or recently completed a degree in astronomy astrophysics physics or a closely related field.
- Foundational knowledge of extragalactic astronomy including galaxies and AGN.
- Python programming skills especially with scientific libraries (e.g. NumPy Matplotlib Astropy).
- Comfortable with astronomical data formats (e.g. FITS) and Jupyter Notebooks.
- Strong written and verbal communication in English.
- Selfmotivated curious and able to work independently while being part of a larger research team.
Preferences
- Previous experience in astronomy research projects.
- Familiarity with machine learning methods or tools (e.g. scikitlearn TensorFlow PyTorch).
- Experience working with spectroscopy data and spectral modeling.
- Ability to use SQL or ADQL to query astronomical databases.
Work Enviroment
This position operates in a professional office environment and routinely utilizes standard office equipment including computers phones and copiers. The work environment is generally quiet and may involve working in close proximity to others depending on the needs of the specific function.
Physical Demands
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
- Must be able to remain in a stationary position at least 50% of the time.
- Occasional need to move about inside the office environment to access files office tools attendance in a meeting room etc.
- Constantly operates a computer and other office productivity tools that require fine motor skills such as a calculator copy machine computer printer etc.
- May occasionally need to position self to maintain computer and related tools.
- Seldomly needed to move objects up to 10 pounds.
- Constant communication with other individuals. Must be able to discern and exchange information as appropriate to the situation.
- Constant need to distinguish discern and identify a variety of objects and fine details with accuracy.
- Some travel may be necessary in or outside the contiguous United States including travel to the various observatory sites (Arizona Chile and Hawaii).
- Occasional work at high elevation summit sites may be required (summit elevations range from 6800 feet to 14000 feet).
The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by individuals assigned to this position. They are not intended to be an exhaustive list of all duties responsibilities and skills required by personnel so classified.
Salary
$17.20/hour.
How to Apply
Apply by May Tuesday 6th for priority consideration. This position will remain open until it is filled. Please submit a cover letter and a CV or resume PDF files preferred. Please name any attachments with the following format: Lastname Docname.
Individuals needing assistance with the employment process can request assistance at
Required Experience:
Intern
Employment Type
Full-Time
