"PhD Position: Experimental Particle Physics on the ATLAS Experiment"

Are you fascinated by the mysteries of the so-called ghost particle neutrino? What is its nature, a conventional Dirac fermion or a Majorana particle? Do you enjoy collaborating and would you like to analyse data measured by a 7,000-tonne detector in the ATLAS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider? We look forward to your application!

As a PhD candidate, you will conduct fundamental research in experimental particle physics, perform data analysis and develop object reconstruction algorithms in the ATLAS experiment. You will become a member of the ATLAS collaboration and will be based in Nijmegen. Furthermore, you will be given the opportunity to spend 10-12 months at CERN in Geneva. Your project will be supervised by Dr Mengqing Wu (Radboud University).

This position is part of a research project called 'Are neutrinos Majorana?', which is funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The main goal of this project is to search for Majorana neutrinos in the uncovered tau channel at the highest possible masses in the ATLAS experiment at the LHC. The project will be conducted in close collaboration with our Nikhef colleagues in Amsterdam.

Your appointment will be for a fixed period of four years, starting in January 2026 or soon thereafter. It includes funding for a short secondment to CERN and travelling to international conferences. Your duties as a teaching assistant cover about 10 percent of your work time, spread over the course of the appointment.

Requirements: You hold a Master's degree in physics with experience in experimental subatomic physics. (This can be demonstrated, for example, by Master’s thesis topics or by successfully having completed relevant courses.) Or you expect to obtain your Master’s degree around the starting date of the appointment. You are curious, communicative, critical, enthusiastic, proactive and excited to learn about new developments in experimental physics. You have a strong interest in and affinity for programming and preferably experience with C++ and/or Python. You are able to work in a team as well as independently. You have excellent writing and verbal communication skills in English.

Conditions of employment: We will give you a temporary employment contract (1.0 FTE) of 1.5 years, after which your performance will be evaluated. If the evaluation is positive, your contract will be extended by 2.5 years (4-year contract). You will receive a starting salary of €3,059 gross per month based on a 38-hour working week, which will increase to €3,881 in the fourth year (salary scale P). You will receive an 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus. We offer Dual Career Coaching. The Dual Career Coaching assists your partner via support, tools, and resources to improve their chances of independently finding employment in the Netherlands. You will receive extra days off. With full-time employment, you can choose between 30 or 41 days of annual leave instead of the statutory 20.