"Accelerator Physics Research Associate"

Organization Overview

The mission of the Collider-Accelerator Department (C-AD) is to operate, maintain, improve, and upgrade the suite of electron, proton, and heavy ion accelerators used to carry out a program of accelerator-based experiments at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). To support this program, the C-AD must design, fabricate, assemble, test, install, and operate unique research equipment to generate, transport, transfer, accelerate, focus, track, collide, and absorb high intensity particle beams up to energies of 250 GeV. This includes a combination of custom designed and built parts and vendor produced components developed by a collaboration of the C-AD scientific, engineering, and technical staff. The C-AD supports an international user community of over 1,500 scientists. The C-AD performs all these functions in an environmentally-responsible and safe manner, under a rigorous conduct of operations approach.

Position Description

The C-AD Accelerator Division has an opening for a Postdoctoral Research Associate who will use precision simulations and machine learning to improve the beam quality and accelerator performance for polarized protons and polarized helions in EIC hadron accelerator chain, and for unpolarized ions. And they will contribute to the implementation of Digital Twins for the involved accelerators. This position will be part of a team that already uses machine learning to improve online accelerator models and that develops correction algorithms for accelerator operations. This position is for a 2-year research project. This position has a high level of interaction with an international and multicultural scientific community.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Duties require strong command of accelerator physics principles for beamlines, synchrotrons, and storage rings, including the theory of polarized beams.
• Duties will involve developing physics models of accelerators and beams using standard simulation tools, including polarization and resonant extraction.
• Duties involve the adaptation of modern Machine Learning techniques to accelerator modeling and operation.
• Duties will include preparing, performing, and reporting on beam experiments.
• Duties will include the use of accelerator modeling, Machine Learning, and beam experiments to establish digital twins of the hadron-injector chain, including NSRL and the AGS.
• Duties involve understanding polarized hadron beams and their acceleration in RHIC's accelerator chain, both theoretically and experimentally.
• Duties involve working with the control systems at C-AD and analysis of accelerator data.
• Duties include learning how to measure and correct the beam quality for different systems and using machine learning to develop virtual diagnostics.
• Responsibilities include taking a leadership role in the modeling, verification, and improved performance of the accelerator subsystems at C-AD.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Ph.D. in Accelerator Physics, Physics, or related area.
• Experience with software development in a research environment
• Experience with accelerator and beam simulation and modeling tools such as MADX and Bmad
• Knowledge & Experience with machine learning methods and tools
• Knowledge & Experience in statistical data analysis
• Demonstrated interpersonal communication skills
• A record of working successfully with other scientists and engineers
• Research experience demonstrated through publications and/or presentations

Preferred Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Knowledge of polarized beams, theory and practice
• Knowledge & Experience with digital twins of particle accelerators
• Experience working in a physics/particle accelerator research environment
• Experience performing beam experiments at a particle accelerator
• Experience simulating synchrotrons using standard modeling tools (e.g., MADX, Bmad)
• Knowledge of accelerator instrumentation
• Experience working in UNIX/Linux environments
• Knowledge of magnet design and methods of measuring magnetic fields

Other Information

Work arrangement: On-Site. Some travel required, to attend conferences, workshops, and collaboration meetings. BNL policy requires that after obtaining a Ph.D., eligible candidates for research associate appointments may not exceed a combined total of 5 years of relevant work experience as a post-doc and/or in an R&D position, excluding time associated with family planning, military service, illness or other life-changing events. Candidates must have received a Ph.D. by the commencement of employment. The initial appointment is for two years, with annual renewal contingent on performance and funding. Salary offers will be commensurate with the final candidate's qualification, education and experience and considered with the internal peer group. Candidates should submit a CV and a cover letter that includes a brief description of their research interests. Brookhaven National Laboratory is committed to providing fair, equitable and competitive compensation. This is a multi-level role and the full salary range for this position is $71,900 - $78,000 / year. You will be placed at the level and salary commensurate with your experience.

Brookhaven National Laboratory (www.bnl.gov) delivers discovery science and transformative technology to power and secure the nation's future. Brookhaven Lab is a multidisciplinary laboratory with seven Nobel Prize-winning discoveries, 37 R&D 100 Awards, and more than 70 years of pioneering research. The Lab is primarily supported by the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Office of Science. Brookhaven Science Associates (BSA) operates and manages the Laboratory for DOE. BSA is a partnership between Battelle and The Research Foundation for the State University of New York on behalf of Stony Brook University.