The Department of Physics & Astronomy
in the College of Arts & Sciences at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY seeks to fill a tenure-eligible faculty position at the Assistant Professor level in Astronomy. This is a 9-month position in the regular title series with an anticipated start date of August 1, 2025. We seek candidates working in any subfield of observational or theoretical astrophysics. We encourage applications from observers who plan to use upcoming open-access observatories. Likewise, we encourage applications from theorists whose research may benefit from these facilities. Examples include the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, the Next-Generation VLA, and the U.S. Extremely Large Telescope. Existing observational and theoretical research programs in the department address many topics, especially in extragalactic astrophysics. These include galaxy formation and evolution with a focus on high-redshift and cluster galaxies, galactic dynamics, active galactic nuclei, and dark matter. Other research involves stellar pulsations and variability, neutron stars, and nuclear astrophysics. Current faculty use JWST, HST, Chandra, XMM-Newton, ALMA, VLA, IRAM, Keck, and VLT. Our department is home to the Cloudy project, an open-source spectral synthesis code used worldwide to interpret astrophysical data across the EM spectrum (https://gitlab.nublado.org/cloudy/cloudy/-/wikis/home). Faculty have open access to high performance computing facilities at the campus Center for Computational Sciences (
https://www.ccs.uky.edu/). Tenure-eligible faculty are expected to build a strong research program with the potential to attract external funding. Successful candidates are expected to demonstrate a strong commitment to undergraduate and graduate education and to teach a broad range of undergraduate and graduate astrophysics courses.
All candidates are required to have a Ph.D. in physics, astrophysics, or a related field. As a department, we are strongly committed to creating an inclusive and effective teaching, learning, and working environment.
Lexington is an exceptionally livable city in the heart of the scenic Bluegrass region of Kentucky. The area features excellent public and private schools, many outdoor recreational opportunities, and numerous cultural and artistic activities.
In order to be considered a candidate, applicants will need to complete the following two steps:
· Cover letter
· Curriculum vitae (including publication list)
· Research statement with emphasis on future research goals, involvement of graduate students and postdocs, and potential funding opportunities. The statement may also address potential synergies with current faculty research.
· Teaching and mentoring statement with emphasis on teaching interests and goals as well as plans for undergraduate student research engagement.
· Three letters of recommendation
2. Complete an application within the University of Kentucky employment system.
Questions about this search should be addressed to Dr. Thomas Troland, Professor, Department of Physics & Astronomy, (
thomas.troland2@uky.edu).
Review of applications will begin on November 22nd, 2024 and will continue until the position is filled.
