Postdoctoral Research Associate Position in Experimental Particle Physics 2024

The Department of Physics at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) invites applications for a postdoctoral Research Associate position in experimental particle physics.

The position involves work on the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN.

The current CMS group at CMU consists of Professors John Alison, Matteo Cremonesi, Valentina Dutta, and Manfred Paulini, with emeriti faculty Thomas Ferguson, James Russ, and Helmut Vogel.

Our group carries out a diverse physics program and is heavily involved in the CMS Phase-2 upgrade for the High-Luminosity LHC.

CMU is a module assembly center for the CMS High-Granularity Calorimeter (HGCal).

We are also involved in the upgrade of the CMS Level-1 trigger system and in the operation of the CMS electromagnetic calorimeter.

The group has expertise in the measurement of the Higgs boson properties, as well as in using the Higgs boson as a tool to search for new physics beyond the standard model.

We also have experience with searches for supersymmetry and dark matter.

We expect the successful candidate to work on the development of machine learning (ML) algorithms for the reconstruction of particles in the HGCal.

The successful applicant is also expected to study the usability of similar ML approaches to perform HGCal reconstruction in real-time, contributing to the upgrade of the CMS Level-1 trigger.

Finally, the candidate will lead physics analyses that fit with CMU’s physics program.

For this project, the candidate is highly encouraged to leverage collaborations with CMU's Machine Learning Department, Department of Statistics & Data Science, and Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, which all rank among the best in the world in their respective fields.

CMU’s Department of Physics is committed to increasing the diversity of its community on a range of intellectual and cultural dimensions and is part of a College and University that is proactive to include more members of previously under-represented groups.

We seek candidates who, through their research and/or service will contribute to the diversity and excellence of our academic community.

A Ph.D. in experimental high energy physics at the time of appointment is required.

The appointment is initially for one year and renewable annually, subject to mutual satisfaction.