The organization
Nikhef is the national institute for subatomic physics in the Netherlands. At Nikhef, approximately 220 physicists and 75 technical staff work together in an open and international scientific environment. Together they perform theoretical and experimental research in the fields of particle and astroparticle physics. Nikhef is a partnership between six major Dutch universities and NWO-I Foundation, the Institutes Organization of the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
Among the research collaborations Nikhef participates in are the ALICE, ATLAS and LHCb experiments at CERN, the KM3NeT neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean, the Virgo gravitational waves interferometer in Pisa, the Xenon-nT dark matter experiment in Gran Sasso, the Pierre Auger cosmic ray observatory in Argentina, and the eEDM research programme in Groningen. There are also scientific groups on Theory, Physics Data Processing and Detector R&D. Nikhef avails over excellently equipped technical departments in mechanics, electronics and computing.
The position
The KM3NeT Collaboration is constructing a neutrino telescope in the Mediterranean Sea. Arrays of light-sensitive elements record the Cherenkov light produced by fast travelling charged particles in the sea water that could originate from interactions of neutrinos. The energy and direction of the original neutrinos can be reconstructed from the amount of Cherenkov photons and their time-of-arrival in the detectors. The densely-instrumented KM3NeT/ORCA building block will be used for the measurement of neutrino oscillations, whereas the sparsely-instrumented KM3NeT/ARCA block will measure cosmic neutrinos and be used for the search for their sources.
The KM3NeT group at Nikhef has an opening for a PhD student. The successful candidate will work on the search for cosmic neutrino sources, refining existing reconstruction and selection procedures and connect with available multi-messenger information. The candidate is also expected to contribute to the detector calibration and help in the construction of further detector elements at Nikhef.
Offer
You will be employed at the NWO-I-foundation. The appointment will be on a temporary basis for a period of 4 years (initial appointment will be for a period of 18 months and after satisfactory evaluation it can be extended for a total duration of 4 years) and should lead to a dissertation (PhD thesis). We will draft an educational plan that includes attendance of courses and (international) meetings. You are also expected to assist in university teaching as a teaching assistant.
Based on a full-time appointment the gross monthly salary will range from €2.884 in the first year to €3.694 in the last year. Further details on the conditions of employment of the NWO-I-foundation can be found on www.nwo-i.nl.
Further information and application
Qualified applicants are encouraged to apply by clicking the 'apply now' button below. Please be prepared to upload a curriculum vitae and a motivation letter. The deadline for applications is Friday April 18th, 2025. For further information, feel free to contact Dorothea Samtleben (dosamt@nikhef.nl)
All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply