Positions Available

None at this time.

Additional Information

WP is the leading planetary sciences institute in Switzerland (htto://space.unibe.ch) and participates in a large number of European Space Agency and NASA missions. Involvements have recently expanded to include participation in JAXA, ISRO, and Roskosmos-led programmes. Two experimental groups are led by Nicolas Thomas (remote sensing experiments) and Peter Wurz (in situ neutral and ion mass spectrometers). These groups focus on the development of novel experiments for flight on the spacecraft missions of several agencies such as ESA (the European Space Agency) and NASA. The remote sensing experiments provide access to information about the surfaces and interiors of planets, planetary satellites and small bodies. The mass spectrometers are used to determine the composition of planetary atmospheres, planetary and satellite exospheres, cometary outgassing and interstellar gas. These two fields provide input to the theoretical team, led by Willy Benz, which models aspects of the observations and places them in the context of their implications for the formation, evolution and habitability of our and other solar systems.

The Division is currently engaged in developing and completing hardware for ESA’s BepiColombo mission to Mercury, analyzing results from the HiRISE (MRO), ASPERA-4 (VEx), ROSINA (Rosetta), and OSIRIS (Rosetta) experiments and preparing for future missions such as the Europa Jupiter System Mission and PLATO.

The Division has recently been selected to design and build the telescope for the High-Resolution Stereo Color Imager (HiSCI) experiment. This experiment will fly to Mars on the Exo-Mars Trace Gas Orbiter (EMTGO) which is scheduled to launch in 2016. (See http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM6XEZNZBG_index_0.html ).

Further information can be obtained from Prof. N. Thomas (nicolas.thomas@space.unibe.ch) or at

http://space.unibe.ch/staff/thomas/positions.htm

Applications should be made in writing to

Ms. K. Weyeneth

Space Research and Planetology Division

Physikalisches Institut

University of Bern

Sidlerstrasse 5

CH-3012 Bern

Switzerland.

No closing date has been set at this time.