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Job Opening
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JOB VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT
- Project Research Fellow (Project Researcher on Annual Salary System) with Patricio Sanhueza at ALMA Project, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) -

Release Date : April 7, 2023
https://www.nao.ac.jp/en/contents/job-vacancy/job-20230407-alma.pdf


1. Job Title: Project Researcher (Project Research Fellow), one position

2. Division: ALMA Project (Possible transfer to a different department in NAOJ after August 31,2024)

3. Work Location: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), Mitaka, Tokyo

4. Area of Expertise: Astronomy and/or related fields

5. Job Description:
Applications are invited to apply for a Project Research Fellow (postdoctoral position, funded by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research) at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) to work with Patricio Sanhueza and Fumitaka Nakamura. The Project Research Fellow will be based at the NAOJ ALMA Project headquarters in Mitaka, Japan.

The successful candidate will be 100% dedicated to science, and will work on observations of dust, spectral lines, and magnetic fields in high-mass star-forming regions using existing ALMA data at relatively low (0.3”; ~500-1000 au) and high (0.06”; ~100-200 au) resolution. Applicants with experience running star-formation simulations or knowledge analyzing simulated data are also welcomed to apply.

Candidates with experience/interest in any of the following specific topics will have priority:
6. Terms of Appointment:
The successful candidate is expected to start the job as early as reasonably possible after the job offer has been accepted. The term of employment will be two years and 8 months if the fellow starts the position on August 1, 2023, including the probation period of six months. The end of the contract must be on March 31, 2026.
Note:
  1. If the successful candidate had been employed by the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS, which is an executive institute that manages NAOJ) within six months retroactively from the start date, the term will be set so that the total employment period does not exceed ten years.
  2. If the successful candidate had been employed as an NAOJ Project Researcher (including Project Research Fellow) or a Researcher (Part-time Contract Employee), the term will be set so that the total accumulated period of employment does not exceed five years.
  3. Annual performance review will be conducted.

7. Qualifications:
  1. The applicant must have a PhD degree or is expected to have it by the start date.
  2. The applicant must be proficient in spoken and written English. Knowledge of Japanese is advantageous but is not required.
  3. The applicant must be proficient in Python programming language and be comfortable working in a Linux environment.

8. Labor Conditions:
  1. Work Type and Work Hours:
    The Discretionary Labor System for Professional Work shall be applied. (Standard work hours: 38.75 hrs/week, from 8:30 to 17:15 with an hour intermission)
  2. Holidays:
    Saturdays and Sundays, National Holidays, New Year holidays (December 29th - January 3rd), Paid days off (annual leave, summer holidays, etc.)
  3. Social Insurances:
    MEXT Mutual Aid Association (health insurance), Employees' Pension Insurance, Employment Insurance, Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance
  4. Remuneration:
    The project researcher will be employed under an annual salary system, and will receive a salary of 350,000 JPY per month. Commuting expenses (up to 55,000 JPY per month) will be provided. Retirement allowances are not provided.
  5. Others:

9. Selection Process:
A candidate will be selected through screening of application documents and interview (face-to-face or online). The expense for the interview will not be covered by NAOJ.

10. Required Application Documents: (*To be prepared in English)
  1. Cover letter (one page). Indicate here a possible starting date and the names of the recommenders
  2. Curriculum Vitae
  3. Publication list (separate refereed and non-refereed papers)
  4. Research statement, not to exceed four pages. This should include both a summary of past research activities and a statement of research interests, where the latter is mostly focused on star formation research using ALMA data.
  5. Two reference letters. Please ask your references to upload the letter directly using the URL indicated in 12. before the application deadline. Applicants are responsible for ensuring that the letter is submitted before the closing date for application.

11. Closing Date for Application:
May 12, 2023, 12:00(noon) (Japan Standard Time).

12. Submission:
Applicants are required to apply via the NAOJ Nextcloud on the web.
  1. Please access the following URL for registration:
    https://forms.office.com/r/h6E0Hd3PUy
  2. After you submit registration form, you will receive an email showing the URLs for (a) uploading your application documents, and (b) for your reference letter.
  3. Please ask your reference to upload the letter via the URL (2)(b).
  4. Please upload the application documents (from 10. (1) through 10. (4) above) via the URL (2)(a). These files must be in PDF format (max 50MB each, 100MB in total, at most 10 files).

13. Contacts:
If you have any question related to the job description, please contact;
    Patricio Sanhueza, ALMA Project, NAOJ
    E-mail: patricio.sanhueza_AT_nao.ac.jp (replace _AT_ with @)
Additional information on the science project can be found at:
http://www2.nao.ac.jp/~patricio/index.html
If you have any question related to the other items, please contact;
    E-mail: job12-pjt-researcher2_AT_nao.ac.jp (replace _AT_ with @)

14. Remarks

15. Name of recruiter
Inter-University Research Institute Corporation, National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS), National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)



Additional Information about the possible research for the postdoc position

The main goal of the project is to understand how the magnetic field affects the formation of high-mass stars. This goal can be reached from different angles using the available observations. At ~0.3" angular resolution, the continuum and line polarization can reveal the magnetic field. The molecular line emission, H13CO+ and/or CS for example, can display velocity gradients (streamers, accretion flows) that are useful to understand the dynamics of the systems and the magnetic field morphology. Molecular outflows can be traced by using SiO, SO, CH3OH, C18O, 13CO, CS, among others. The direction/morphology of the outflows can also be important for the interpretation of the magnetic field morphology.
Chemistry could be used to define some evolutionary sequence at the core scale and search for a correlation with the magnetic field.

At 0.06" resolution (not full-Stokes), the fragmentation level of the 0.3" cores can be found. How the fragmentation depends on the magnetic field at lower resolution is of great interest. Several hot core tracers are detected at high-angular resolution that can help to study the disk population in high-mass star-forming regions, and how they relate (if they) with the magnetic field.

Experience connecting observations with simulations is welcome. Interest on this topic can be carried out independently or with the help of collaborators with expertise in the area.




__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Closed Job Vacancy(2022)
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Project Research Fellow (Project Researcher on Annual Salary System) at ALMA Project,National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)


Release Date : April 8, 2022
https://www.nao.ac.jp/en/contents/job-vacancy/job-20220408-alma.pdf


1. Job Title: Project Researcher (Project Research Fellow), one position

2. Division: ALMA Project

3. Work Location: National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), Mitaka, Tokyo

4. Area of Expertise: astronomy and/or related fields

5. Job Description:

Applications are invited to apply for a Project Research Fellow (postdoctoral position, funded by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research) at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) to work with Patricio Sanhueza and Chat Hull. The Project Research Fellow will be based at the NAOJ ALMA Project headquarters in Mitaka, Japan.

The successful candidate will be 100% dedicated to science, and will mostly work on ALMA observations of dust, spectral lines, and magnetic fields in low- and high-mass star-forming regions using existing ALMA data. Candidates with experience/interest in any of the following topics will have priority:

6. Terms of Appointment:
The successful candidate is expected to start the job as early as reasonably possible after the job offer has been accepted. The term of employment will be two years if the fellow starts the position on September 1, 2022, including the probation period of six months. The end of the contract must be on August 31, 2024.
Note:
  1. If the successful candidate had been employed by the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS, which is an executive institute that manages NAOJ) within six months retroactively from the start date, the term will be set so that the total employment period after April 1, 2013 does not exceed ten years.
  2. If the successful candidate had been employed as an NAOJ Project Researcher, the term will be set so that the total accumulated period of employment does not exceed five years.
  3. Annual performance review will be conducted.

7. Qualifications:
  1. The applicant must have a PhD degree or is expected to have it by the start date.
  2. The applicant must be proficient in spoken and written English. Knowledge of Japanese is advantageous but is not required.
  3. The applicant must be proficient in the Python programming language and be comfortable working in a Linux environment.

8. Labor Conditions:
  1. Work Type and Work Hours:
  2. The Discretionary Labor System for Professional Work shall be applied. (Standard work hours: 38.75 hrs/week, from 8:30 to 17:15 with an hour intermission)
  3. Holidays:
  4. Saturdays and Sundays, National Holidays, New Year holidays (December 29th - January 3rd), Paid days off (annual leave, summer holidays, etc.)
  5. Social Insurances:
  6. MEXT Mutual Aid Association (health insurance), Employees' Pension Insurance, Employment Insurance, Industrial Accident Compensation Insurance
  7. Remuneration:
  8. The project researcher will be employed under an annual salary system, and will receive a salary of 350,000 JPY per month. Commuting expenses (up to 55,000 JPY per month) will be provided. Retirement allowances are not provided.
  9. Others:
    - Day-care center for children (from 57 days old). *Availability depends on the situation.
    Childcare staff does not provide English support.
    - Smoking is prohibited on the premises excluding designated outdoor smoking areas.
    - Travel and relocation costs to NAOJ will be covered, subject to the travel regulations of NINS
    (details must be arranged with the administration office).
    - Travel expenses (e.g., conferences, collaboration trips) and working supplies (e.g., computer, external hard drives) will be covered.

9. Selection Process:
A candidate will be selected through screening of application documents and interview (face-to-face or online). The expense for the interview will not be covered by NAOJ.


10. Required Application Documents: (*To be prepared in English)
  1. Cover letter (one page). Indicate here a possible starting date and the names of the recommenders
  2. Curriculum Vitae
  3. Publication list (separate refereed and non-refereed papers)
  4. Research statement, not to exceed four pages. This should include both a summary of past research activities and a statement of research interests, where the latter is mostly focused on star formation research using ALMA data.
  5. Two recommendation letters. Please ask your recommenders to upload the letter directly using the URL indicated in 12. before the application deadline. Applicants are responsible for ensuring that the letter is submitted before the closing date for application.

11. Closing Date for Application:
May 31, 2022, 12:00(noon) (Japan Standard Time).

12. Submission:
Applicants are required to apply via the NAOJ Nextcloud on the web.
  1. Please access the following URL for registration:
  2. https://forms.office.com/r/8CfX8RJ8Ck
  3. After you submit registration form, you will receive an email showing the URLs for (a) uploading your application documents, and (b) for your reference letter.
  4. Please ask your reference to upload the letter via the URL (2)(b).
  5. Please upload the application documents (from 10. (1) through 10. (4) above) via the URL (2)(a). These files must be in PDF format (max 50MB each, 100MB in total, at most 10 files).

13. Contacts:
If you have any question related to the job description, please contact;
    Patricio Sanhueza, ALMA Project, NAOJ
    E-mail: patricio.sanhueza_AT_nao.ac.jp (replace _AT_ with @)
Additional information on the science project can be found at:
http://www2.nao.ac.jp/~patricio/index.html
If you have any question related to the other items, please contact;
    E-mail: apply- project-researcher_AT_nao.ac.jp (replace _AT_ with @)

14. Remarks

- Information submitted in your application documents will not be used for any purpose other than the selection process and for contacting you with necessary notices in connection with the selection. Once the selection process is complete, we will securely dispose of all application documents and personal information, except for those submitted by the successful candidate.
- Project researchers are eligible to apply for the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI).
- Policy for Equal Employment Opportunity: Abiding by the Equal Employment Opportunity Act for Men and Women, NAOJ is committed to the realization of a society with gender equality. If two candidates are deemed equal in their performance evaluation, NAOJ will take positive action to employ women. If you have taken a leave(s) such as for maternity, childcare, and/or family care, please indicate it in your curriculum vitae. We will consider it when assessing your performance. For details, see https://www2.nao.ac.jp/~open-info/gender-equality/en/.

15. Name of recruiter
Inter-University Research Institute Corporation, National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS), National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ)



Additional Information about the possible research for the postdoc position

The successful candidate is expected to work on band 7 ALMA polarization observations as part of the ALPPS (ALMA Perseus Polarization Survey) and BOPS (B-field Orion Protostellar Survey) projects. In total, around ~100 targets have been or will be observed in dust and line polarization. The connection to the most distant high-mass regime can also be explored by contributing to the study of magnetic fields in high-mass binaries.

The main scientific topic is the role of the magnetic field in determining stellar multiplicity; however, exploration of additional topics that leverage the vast amount of data is welcome: for example, CO and CS line polarization, emission from hot core lines (i.e., astrochemistry), and kinematics of various structures including molecular outflows, large-scale inflows, and disk-like structures.




__________________________________________________________________________________________________
Closed Job Vacancy(2018)
__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Project Research Fellow (Postdoctoral Position) at NAOJ on High-Mass Star Formation (ALMA-IMF)


Applications are invited for a Project Research Fellow (postdoctoral position) at the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) to work with Patricio Sanhueza (funded by KAKENHI; Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research). For the details of the KAKENHI, see the link below:
https://kaken.nii.ac.jp/en/search/?kw=%E3%82%B5%E3%83%8C%E3%82%A8%E3%82%B6
The Project Research Fellow will be based in ALMA Japan (division of NAOJ Chile Observatory at Mitaka, Tokyo, Japan).*

The successful candidate will be 100% dedicated to science and will mostly work on the first ALMA large program focused on high-mass star formation (ALMA-IMF). Candidates with experience/interest in any of the following topics will have priority:

1.- Dust continuum emission and algorithms to define/extract information from cores.
2.- Molecular outflows.
3.- Filaments and large-scale inflows.
4.- Hot cores, complex molecules (chemistry), and recombination lines.
5.- Interferometry (ideally experience with ALMA data and CASA).
6.- Magnetic fields.

The Project Research Fellow is a full-time position (38h45min working hours/week) employed under
 the scheme of the annual salary system of NINS. The fellow will receive a monthly salary of 350,000 JPY plus compensation for commuting expenses. This appointment at NAOJ is for a one (1) year, non-renewable fixed term period, regardless of any availability of funds under any external funding sources. If the applicant had been a project research fellow at NAOJ before, then the term will be set so that the total period of employment at NAOJ does not exceed five years. The starting date is negotiable, but as soon as possible from October 1st, 2018.

The applicant may be eligible for further employment at a new institution for the remainder of the KAKENHI grant period (up to March 31st, 2021). However, this employment shall be contingent upon the employment status of the PI, and NAOJ does not make any promises or guarantee of any kind, whether express or implied, as to any matter pertaining to the applicant’s employment after the one (1) year employment term at NAOJ.

Travel expenses for a new assignment at NAOJ will be covered based on the travel regulations of NINS. Travel expenses can be available for conferences and/or visits to other ALMA-IMF members. During the appointment at NAOJ, the fellow has the option to apply for government housing, which may be cheaper than normal renting.** Publication charges can be provided by NAOJ under its rules.

The candidate must have a PhD degree in Astronomy (or equivalent in a relevant field) or expected to obtain the PhD by the time of the appointment. Interested candidates should submit:

(1) Cover letter (1 page). Indicate here a possible starting date and the name of the recommenders
(2) Curriculum Vitae
(3) Publication list. List the names of all authors
(4) A summary of research activities in the past
(5) Statement of research interests (mostly focused on ALMA-IMF)
    (4) and (5) combined should not be longer than 4 pages
(6) Two recommendation letters (must be sent directly by the person recommending to
patricio.sanhueza@nao.ac.jp before the deadline).
 * Make PDF files with appropriate resolution so that they would not be too large (file size: up to 10MB)

Except for the letters of recommendation, please make a single pdf file with all documents and send it to patricio.sanhueza@nao.ac.jp
A confirmation email should be received within 3 days.

The application deadline is 23:00 JST, June 29th, 2018.
For further information and inquires please contact Patricio Sanhueza and visit the website below.
http://alma-intweb.mtk.nao.ac.jp/~patricio/Job_opening.html

Application documents will be used only for the purpose of the selection of this position, and those
 documents of the applicants other than the successful candidate will be discarded.

NAOJ is promoting equal opportunities for women in the workplace.
http://open-info.nao.ac.jp/danjokyodo/

*This is a “Contingent on Funding” appointment, where the continuation of employment is based on the availability of external funding sources.

**NAOJ does not offer any housing guarantees, and shall not be held responsible for accommodation,
 including but not limited to availability of government housing, or any particular rental rates.



Additional Information about ALMA-IMF
[Abstract]
Studying massive protoclusters is an absolute requirement for investigating the origin of the IMF in the typical, yet extreme environments where massive stars are born.

Recent ALMA imaging of a young massive protocluster revealed the first definitive case of a core mass function (CMF) whose shape is different from the IMF. In contrast, the CMF shape in more evolved but still embedded massive clusters more closely resembles the IMF. This raises the intriguing possibility of CMF evolution with time. We aim to determine when and by which physical processes the CMF of massive protoclusters is reconciled with the canonical IMF.

We propose to investigate the CMF evolution of massive protoclusters with the 15 most massive pc^2 clouds at d < 6 kpc. We will focus on 1) investigating the distribution of 0.5-200 Msun cores at 1~mm and 3~mm at the 2000~AU core size; 2) characterizing the core mass evolution through gas inflows toward individual cores and gas outflows driven by protostars; and 3) compare massive protocluster CMFs to the IMF and determine which variables (such as inflows, outflows, or forming filaments) might be correlated with CMF evolution toward the IMF shape.

[Observational Setup]
15 massive prostoclusters located between 2 and 5.5 kpc will be mosaiced at angular resolutions between 0.4" to 1", depending on the distance. In addition to having high angular resolution images, high quality images from the emission at large scales will be possible by combining two 12 m array configurations with ACA (7 m array and total power, TP).

[Spectral Setup]
The spectral setup includes:
- Continuum emission at 1 and 3 mm.
- Outflows tracers such as CO and SiO
- Large scale structure tracers such as C18O and N2H+
- Deuterated molecules: N2D+, DCO+, adn DCN.
- The H41alpha recombination line
- hot core tracers: CH3OH, CH3CN, and CH3CCH (among other lines)

[ALMA-IMF Team at NAOJ]
Fumitaka Nakamura
Ken'ichi Tatematsu
Xing Lu
Andres Guzman

[ALMA-IMF Management Team]
Frederique Motte(EU), Adam Ginsburg (NA), Patricio Sanhueza (EA), Fabien Louvet