McWilliams Postdoctoral Fellow 2025

The Department of Physics at Carnegie Mellon University invites applications for the McWilliams Postdoctoral Fellowship. McWilliams Fellows are expected to carry out their own programs of original research, independently or in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and students. We welcome applications from researchers working in any area of astrophysics and/or cosmology.

McWilliams Postdoctoral Fellows are part of CMU’s McWilliams Center for Cosmology and Astrophysics (website http://www.cmu.edu/cosmology). The McWilliams Center synergizes research carried out in CMU’s Departments of Physics, Computer Science, Machine Learning, and Statistics, and enjoys close relationships with the University of Pittsburgh’s Department of Physics and Astronomy. Carnegie Mellon’s physics faculty hold leadership roles in multiple large sky surveys and consortia, including DES, DESI, HSC, LISA, and Rubin LSST. CMU is also a co-host of LINCC Frameworks which is developing analysis software infrastructure to enable the use of Rubin LSST data. Theoretical and observational studies within the Center cover a wide range of astrophysical phenomena, including galaxy and structure formation, black holes and gravitational waves, stellar evolution, gravitational lensing, dynamical detection of dark matter (see list of center faculty here: https://www.cmu.edu/cosmology/people/index.html). The McWilliams Center benefits from the Vera computing cluster at the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, which provides high-performance computing resources on a variety of scales and works closely with our scientists.

Fellowship appointments are for 2 years, with renewal for a third year likely, contingent upon satisfactory progress. The position comes with a competitive salary, an annual research budget, health benefits, and relocation expenses.

Applicants should hold a Ph.D. in physics, astronomy, or an adjacent field by the time of appointment, which is anticipated to begin September 1, 2026.

Applications should be uploaded to the Interfolio website and must include a curriculum vitae, publication list, a statement of research interests, and a cover letter. The cover letter should identify the applicant?s scientific background and goals, explain any synergies that make CMU a good fit for the proposed work, and can include examples of the candidate?s engagement within both academic and general public communities. There are no formal page limits, but the AAS Postdoctoral Guidelines should be seen as a target for length and detail.

In addition, candidates should arrange for three letters of recommendation to be uploaded (a prompt will be sent automatically to the applicant?s references when their contact information is entered at the Interfolio site). For full consideration, all materials should be received by November 10, 2025.

For questions about the position, please contact Prof. Antonella Palmese (apalmese@andrew.cmu.edu).