Tenured or Tenure-Track Faculty Position in Astronomical Instrumentation or Experimental Astrophysics
Share
Job Location:
Austin, TX - USA
Monthly Salary:
Not Disclosed
Posted on:
20 hours ago
Vacancies:
1 Vacancy
Job Summary
The Department of Astronomy at the University of Texas at Austin invites applications for an open rank (assistant associate or full professor) faculty position in Astronomical Instrumentation. We welcome applications from candidates with an emphasis on Instrumentation in any field of astronomy. The search will begin with a target start as early as August 2026 but will continue until the position is filled.
Information on departmental and McDonald Observatory resources and research programs can be found at: .
UT Austin is a major founding partner in the consortium for the next-generation 25-m Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT: ). UT Austin faculty members have access to McDonald Observatory which hosts the 10-m Hobby-Eberly Telescope equipped with instruments such as the VIRUS wide-field integral field spectrograph and the Habitable-zone Planet Finder (HPF) precision-RV spectrograph. McDonald also hosts the HJST 2.7-m telescope with the Immersion Grating Infrared Spectrograph (IGRINS) the 2.1-m and 0.8-m telescopes and a node for the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) network. The UT Astronomy Program provides vibrant collaborative opportunities on large astronomical surveys including the Hobby Eberly Telescope Dark Energy Experiment (HETDEX) and numerous surveys using JWST HST TESS and other national/international facilities. For instrument/technology development MDO offers easy access on the Austin campus to machine shops Class-100 clean room spaces electronics benches mechanical assembly areas and optical/photonic test facilities including fiber IFU labs. The in-house large machine shops are equipped with multiple CNC and manual machines and a wire-EDM machine for complex part fabrication aided by several precision metrology machines. 3D printing machines are available to aid rapid prototyping. MDOs highly experienced Austin-based instrument scientists/engineers are available for collaboration and support for instrument projects. Campus-wide UT Austin hosts micro-photonics/electronics fabrication/metrology facilities at the Texas Material Institute ( and the Micro Electronics Research Center ( Computational resources include the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC: ) which designs and operates some of the worlds most powerful computing resources and is known for its leadership in high performance computing visualization big data analytics and machine learning.
UT Austin hosts a broad range of Centers and interdisciplinary initiative including the Center for Planetary Systems Habitability (CPSH) Cosmic Frontiers Center (CFC) Wootton Center for Astrophysical Plasma Physics (WCAPP) Weinberg Institute of Theoretical Physics and the NSF-Simons AI Institute for Cosmic Origins (CosmicAI).
Applicants should have a Ph.D. in Astronomy Physics Planetary Science or related fields or an equivalent engineering degree with demonstrated interest in astronomical research. The primary selection criteria will be excellence and leadership in astronomical research with instrumentation as a primary component as well as a commitment to excellence in teaching and supervision of undergraduate and graduate students. Potential applicant profiles include candidates who will lead development construction and/or transformational science with next-generation instrumentation at McDonald Observatory GMT and other national/international ground and space-based observational facilities and candidates who develop technologies for next-generation astronomical facilities. Applicants are encouraged to highlight throughout their application their relevant experiences and skillsets in supporting academic success of all students (e.g. their specific approaches for teaching mentoring research and/or scholarly work).
Key Skills
- Controlling Experience
- E & I
- Distributed Control Systems
- Calibration
- NEC
- Tube Bending
- Spectrophotometer
- Sterile Processing
- Schematics
- Maintenance
- Programmable Logic Controllers
- Troubleshooting
About Company
ARL:UT is a University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) and has a long history of excellence in the areas of sonar, GPS, and information science. Since 1945 our laboratories have been dedicated to improving national security through applications of acoustics, electromagnetics, and i ... View more
