The RIT’s Center for Computational Relativity and Gravitation (CCRG) is currently seeking to fill two postdoctoral research positions, including a senior postdoctoral fellowship in gravitational wave astronomy, as part of several NASA and NSF collaborative projects, including a new large NASA Theoretical and Computational Astrophysics Network grant.

We are looking for highly qualified individuals interested in pursuing research in the fields of numerical relativity, theoretical and computational astrophysics, with an emphasis on general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations of compact object mergers, such as accreting binary, massive, black holes and binary neutron stars.

Accreting supermassive binary black holes are promising multi-messenger sources because they strongly emit both gravitational wave and electromagnetic radiation. It is the goal of our group to combine astrophysical knowledge about the environments of these sources with detailed physical simulations of gas flows in the immediate neighborhoods of these binaries as they proceed from large orbital separations through the merger proper and postmerger, and to predict the signals observers would see to identify them.

Similarly, we are interested on pushing the frontiers in developing new high-performance algorithms that will allow us to perform long-term simulations neutron star coalescences from prior to merger through to the formation of disks and/or collapse of the merged remnant, the production of jets, and launching of outflows.

The group is actively developing new numerical codes and tools (e.g. AsterX, SpacetimeX SphericalNR, Harm3D, PWMHD) as part of The Einstein Toolkit Consortium. The CCRG hosts a number of research scientists and students involved in gravitational wave data analysis from the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the LISA consortium, and collaborate closely with the larger astrophysics group of observational astronomers gathering data from the Vera Rubin Observatory, Nanograv and JWST.

Our researchers have access to some of the largest supercomputers in the world available at national computing centers such as the TACC’s Frontera Supercomputer and OLCF’ Frontiers exascale GPU-system. Additionally, the CCRG and RIT research computing provide our group exclusive access to several computer clusters with thousands of CPU cores and petabytes of storage.

Applications should consist of a cover letter, a brief statement of research interests, a curriculum vitae including publication list, and at least three letters of recommendation. All materials should be sent electronically as soon as possible to: mxcsma[AT]rit.edu with a copy to ccrg-postdoc[AT]ccrg.rit.edu. More information about the CCRG is available at http://ccrg.rit.edu/. And about Rochester at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochester,_New_York

We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Manuela Campanelli, PhD

Distinguished Professor — Astrophysical Sciences & Technology, Mathematics & Statistics, Director — RIT’s Center for Computational Relativity & Gravitation; Rochester Institute of Technology; 170 Lomb Memorial Dr. Rochester NY, 14623

585 475 7752 (Office) 956 345 1580 (Cell) mxcsma@rit.edu campanellimanuela@gmail.com rit.zoom.us/my/mxcsma ORCID: 0000-0002-8659-6591

Senior Staff Specialist: Wenli Chen; wxcvpr@rit.edu; 585-475-5298 ccrg.rit.edu

"The time will come when men such as I will look upon the murder of animals as they now look on the murder of men." -- Leonardo Da Vinci