项目介绍

2026年4月9日

There is a vacancy for a PhD Research Fellow in Space Physics at the Department of Physics and Technology. The position is for a fixed-term period of 3 years with the possibility of a 4th year with career-promoting work (e.g. teaching in the Department). The position is subject to financing by the project ENLIGHTEN – ExploriNg Lightning Initiation and Gamma-ray High-energy emission in Thuderstorm Environments, Advanced Grant funded by the European Research Council (ERC) in the frame of the Horizon Europe programme. 

About the project/work tasks:

Thunderclouds are the most energetic natural particle accelerators on Earth, capable of accelerating particles to relativistic energies and producing gamma-rays on different time scales, from sub millisecond to tens of seconds and more. In 2023 our group led the ALOFT aircraft campaign, resulting in breakthrough discoveries that pushed forward the state of the art. ALOFT showed that tropical thunderclouds literally glow in gamma-rays for hours and over thousands of square kilometres, with temporal dynamics that challenge our understanding. Moreover, new ‘flickering’ gamma-ray transients have been discovered, as well as a large population of weak gamma-ray flashes. The ENLIGHTEN project stems from this strong heritage, to explore the connection between energetic radiation and lightning initiation, which is still one of the most unsolved problems in atmospheric electricity. ENLIGHTEN will address this scientific work through a new aircraft campaign deploying an innovative set of instrumentation. The aircraft campaign will make use of a high-altitude research aircraft from NASA flying on top of thunderclouds in the Gulf of Mexico and is currently scheduled for summer 2028. Through this project, our group is building an innovative airborne gamma-ray imager, capable of localizing and imaging gamma-ray sources from thunderclouds to identify their location, spatial extent and evolution in time, which are still unknown. The discovery potential is huge.

The successful candidate will contribute to the realization, calibration and test of the gamma-ray imager, and the realization of the imaging software. A significant contribution to the operations of the detector during the aircraft campaign and the subsequent data exploitation is expected. We expect the findings to appear in top-tier peer-reviewed journals and to be presented at prestigious international conferences. 

The successful candidate will join the Space Physics group at the Department of Physics and Technology and will carry out the activity under the supervision of Professor and project leader Martino Marisaldi. The team has a strong international reputation and a wide network of collaborators across Europe and in the USA.

Qualifications and personal qualities:

• Applicants must hold a master’s degree or equivalent education in physics. Master students can apply provided they complete their final master exam before 01.08.2026. It is a condition of employment that the master’s degree has been awarded.
• Documented experience from or competence in radiation detectors (design, construction, operations or data analysis) is a requirement. 
• Documented general knowledge of the near-earth space environment or atmospheric or lightning physics is a requirement. 
• A general knowledge of programming languages aimed at scientific data analysis and visualization is a requirement.
• Documented activity aimed at the calibration of gamma-ray detectors is an advantage.
• Applicants must be able to work independently and in a structured manner and demonstrate good collaborative skills.
• Applicants must have good written and oral English skills. 

Personal and relational qualities will be emphasized. Research experience, ambitions and potential will also count when evaluating the candidates.

Special requirements for the position 

The University of Bergen is subjected to the regulation for export control system. The regulation will be applied in the processing of the applications. 

About the PhD position (applies to university PhD positions):

About the PhD Research Fellow position

The fellowship will be for a period of 3 years, with the possibility for a 4th year contingent on the qualifications of the candidate and the teaching needs of the department and will be decided by the Head of department upon appointment. If a 4th year is granted, one year of career-promoting work associated with teaching, dissemination or research infrastructure/services, will be distributed over the full employment period and thus corresponding to 25 per cent of the time each year.

The employment period may be reduced if you have previously been employed in a qualifying post (e.g. research fellow, research assistant).

About the research training

As a PhD Research Fellow, you must participate in an approved educational programme for a PhD degree within a period of 3 years. The deadline for applying for admission to the PhD programme at The Faculty of Science and Technology is 2 months after you start your position or after the start of the research project that will lead to the PhD degree. It is a condition that you satisfy the enrolment requirements for the PhD programme at the University of Bergen.

We can offer:

• A good and professionally stimulating working environment. 
• Salary as PhD research fellow (code 1017) in the state salary scale. This constitutes a gross annual salary of NOK 568 700. Further increases in salary are made according to length of service in the position.
• Enrolment in the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund
• Good welfare benefits

Your application must include:

• A brief account of the applicant’s research interests and motivation for applying for the position.
• A detailed justification of your qualifications in relation to the listed requirements, explaining how you meet each criterion. Additionally, you should address the “advantages” mentioned above, as these will be taken into account when ranking the candidates.   
• The names and contact information for two referees. One of these should be the main advisor for the master’s thesis or equivalent thesis 
• CV
• Transcripts and diplomas showing completion of the bachelor’s and master’s degrees. If you have not yet completed your master’s degree, please submit a statement from your institution confirming the expected date of award of your master’s degree. Your master’s degree must be documented with transcripts and/or diploma before starting in the position.
• Relevant certificates/references
• Approved documentation of proficiency in English (if required, cf. English language requirements for PhD admission)
• A list of any works of a scientific nature (publication list with links).

The application and appendices with certified translations into English or a Scandinavian language must be uploaded at Jobbnorge.