Staff Careers

The incumbent will undertake research in the general field of low-temperature plasma (LTP) physics in the context of solar and space physics. The incumbent will be responsible for managing the Space Weather Summer Camp. This will include recruiting student participants at UAH and throughout AL, planning the program in coordination with CSPAR staff and our German and South African partners, developing the program of projects and the mentors for each project, supervising and mentoring the student participants both at UAH and at the international camp locations. Must be capable of traveling internationally.

Duties/Responsibilities:

• Manage Annual Space Weather Summer Camp, and recruit student participants from UAH and throughout Alabama.
• Plan the program in coordination with CSPAR staff, and our German and South African partners, develop the program of projects and the mentors for each project.
• Supervise, mentor and provide guidance and direction to the student participants both at UAH and at the international camp locations.
• Travel internationally and accompany the student participants on their travel, and stay at the international partner locations. Assist the PI in teaching graduate classes as needed when the PI is in travel or attending critical meetings and related commitments and assist in the mentoring of graduate students.
• Perform research and provide support and assist the PI in developing and applying transport models that describe charged particle propagation and diffusion in the presence of turbulent magnetic fields, and relating these models to spacecraft observations; developing new models describing the heating of the solar chromosphere and solar corona and integrating those with new models of the solar wind and using Parker Solar Probe observations to relate to the theory; and to lead observations and modeling of turbulent reconnection in the solar wind.
• Research assess and incorporate turbulence transport models into shock wave physics problems and investigating the nature of energetic particle scattering in turbulence in a complex plasma such as occurs in the solar wind and solar corona.
• Perform testing and evaluation on theoretical models against observations of turbulence and charged particle propagation made by Parker Solar Probe, Solar Orbiter and related experiments on board the soon-to-be launched (September 2025) Interstellar and Mapping and Acceleration Probe (IMAP).
• Collaborate with other members of the NSF EPSCoR FTPP project and the IMAP and Parjer Solar Probe (PSP) missions, including members on other campuses.

• Master's degree in Space Physics or Plasma Physics, with 6 to 9 months of verifiable, full-time work experience, or an equivalent combination of education and years of experience.
• Ability to solve relevant transport equations numerically.
• Knowledge of particle transport, scattering, and turbulence in a space physics context.
• History of publications/research activities related to solar wind, Magnetosphere, Magnetopause Reconnection.
• Must be able to travel internationally.

• Ph.D. in Space Physics, Plasma Physics or a similar field of study preferred.
• 2.5 to 3 years of verifiable, full-time work experience desired.
• Experience solving transport equations and applying turbulence models to determine relevant kinetic transport coefficients is desired.

$62,591 - $67,019