Media & Outreach

PAPER is a targeted experiment  for detecting the hydrogen present in the universe while the first stars and galaxies were forming. Find out more at the links below!

PAPER in the Media

Job Ad
Assistant Research Scientist

The primary responsibilities for this position are listed below:

• Under minimal supervision from the Principal Investigators and other senior research personnel, develop, test, and deploy novel signal processing instrumentation for radio telescopes associated with the Radio Astronomy Laboratory (RAL), the Collaboration for Astronomy Signal Signal Processing and Electronics Research (CASPER), and the Berkeley SETI Research Center (BSRC).

• Will lead a research group to develop architectures and tools for next generation radio astronomy instrumentation, directing postdocs and engineers, training grad students, as well as visiting students and postdocs.

Such instruments include the digitizers and correlators for the Precision Array to Probe the Epoch of Reionization and Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA), SETI instrumentation, beamformers, spectrometers, pulsar and transient processors, and other digital signal processing instrumentation for single dish and radio telescope arrays. Some of these instruments will utilize wave division multiplexing (CWDM or DWDM) to transport high bandwidth data over fiber.

• Develop open source high level tools and libraries for programming FPGA based DSP instrumentation.

• Coordinate with international CASPER collaborators in development of open source hardware, gateware, gpuware, libraries, and tools.

• The successful candidate is expected to play a significant role that will increase in responsibility as experience is gained in all aspects of radio astronomy instrumentation, in support of RAL/CASPER/BSRC’s research program on radio astronomy.

• Lead and participate in project meetings with staff and graduate student researchers. Supervise and train graduate and undergraduate student researchers, postdocs and research associates, as well as visiting scientists and students.

• Write research reports and peer-reviewed journal articles.

• Participate and/or lead in the writing of proposals to seek additional research funding.

• Present research findings at meetings and conferences.

• Present guest lectures in courses upon request.

Basic Qualifications

• Ph.D. or equivalent degree in astronomy or electrical engineering or related field is required by the start date.

Additional Qualifications

• Demonstrated proficiencies in hardware description languages (VHDL, Verilog, Simulink) applied to Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) is required

• Excellent communication skills for presentation of results to astronomy and engineering professionals.

• Experience with technical writing, including at least three peer-reviewed journal publications.

• Familiarity with data transport using high speed ethernet (10 and 40 Gbit/sec) as well as high performance Ethernet switches is required.

• Familiarity with the hardware platforms supported by the Collaboration for Astronomy Signal Processing and Electronics Research (CASPER) is desirable.

Preferred Qualifications

• Extensive experience in systems design, digital signal processing, embedded processing, high performance computing architectures, systems integration and testing, and software engineering.

• Familiarity with CWDM and DWDM (course and dense wave division multiplexing) is desired.

This is a one-year full-time (100%) position with a starting salary range of $66,800 – $86,900, depending on qualifications, plus benefits, with the possibility of renewal based on performance. Existing funding is in place for this position until 2019.

The position will remain open until filled. The anticipated start date of this position is January 2016. Please address inquiries to Dan Werthimer, danw@ssl.berkeley.edu at the University of California Berkeley.

To apply, please submit a cover letter, your most recently updated Curriculum Vitae and contact information for three references by going to the following

Letters of reference are not required at this time. We will seek your permission before contacting your references. All letters will be treated as confidential per University of California policy and California state law. Please refer potential referees, including when letters are provided via a third party (i.e., dossier service or career center), to the UC Berkeley statement of confidentiality,prior to submitting their letters.

The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, age or protected veteran status. For the complete University of California nondiscrimination and affirmative action policy see here

The Department is interested in candidates who will contribute to diversity and equal opportunity in higher education through their work.