Project Assistant Professor

The National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) has the JASMINE Project aiming to develop an infrared space astrometry mission, Small-JASMINE. The Small-JASMINE is planned to have the ability to image the stellar kinematics in the central region of the Milky Way Galaxy at a distance of 8 kpc by the infrared astrometricobservations, enabling one to study the formations of its bulge, bar, disk and central black hole and to identify the region of the birth and the trajectory of the solar system through the performance of Galactic Center Archeology and Galactoseismology. Also, Small-JASMINE will carry out the exploration of the potentially habitable exoplanets by the time-domain astronomical observations. Now Small-JASMINE was selected by ISAS/JAXA (Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, a branch of JAXA: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) as the unique candidate of the 3rd Medium-Class science satellite mission. The target launch date is mid-2020s at this moment.

We invite applications for a project assistant professor position at the JASMINE project of NAOJ. A successful candidate for this position is expected to lead the planning and investigations of science cases to be provided by Small-JASMINE. In particular, the successful candidate is expected to probe the scientific objectives such as Galactic Center Archeology and Galactoseismology to be performed by Small-JASMINE while carrying out the scientific research of the Galactic dynamical structures and their evolutions with the full use of numerical simulations, based on astrometric information such as annual parallaxes and proper motions (and complementary data such as radial velocities, ages, and elemental composition). Also, the successful candidate is expected to support the investigations of the method for the science validation to certificate the quality of the JASMINE observing data to be provided in future, in terms of the availability to carry out the target science cases. The responsibilities of this position require continuously demonstrating leadership and outstanding performance in research activities, and also fostering collaborations among NAOJ scientists and PhD students.
The successful candidate will assign 75% of his/her working time for the above duties. The remaining 25% shall be used for his/her own scientific research.