About the position
Position as Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Accelerator Physics is available at the Department of Physics.
Starting date as soon as possible, ideally before July 15, 2026.
The fellowship period is three years. A fourth year may be considered with a workload of 25 % which is devoted to career promoting work, usually in the form of teaching, supervision duties, and/or research assistance. This is dependent upon the qualification of the applicant and the current needs of the department.
No one can be appointed for more than one Postdoctoral Research Fellowship at the University of Oslo.
Postdoctoral fellows who are appointed for a period of four years are expected to acquire basic pedagogical competency during their fellowship period within the duty component of 25 %.
Project description and work tasks
Particle accelerators are engines of discovery in basic physics, photon science, medical research and more. Plasma acceleration promises to make these machines much more compact (and cheaper), which may help realize the next particle collider and make particle beams more accessible for uses such as medical imaging. However, reaching very high particle energies in plasma accelerators is challenging. We are offering a postdoctoral position to join our team in studying this key issue in plasma acceleration.
The research topics involve the coupling of multiple plasma-accelerator stages, as well as how to stabilize these machines with newly discovered self-correction mechanisms. The project ultimately aims to provide blueprints for a plasma-accelerator demonstrator facility for groundbreaking experiments in strong-field QED. In particular, the work includes experimental work at international accelerator laboratories (CERN, SLAC, DESY and Daresbury) as well as high-performance computing work on supercomputers (LUMI).
For this position, we are looking for a postdoc with experimental experience in the field of plasma-accelerator and/or plasma-lens research. The specific work involves the development and experimental demonstration of novel staging optics for achromatic transport between plasma accelerators.
The position is associated with the SPARTA project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) through a Starting Grant. The candidate will work in close collaboration with the principal investigator Dr. Carl A. Lindstrøm and the SPARTA team, but also Prof. Erik Adli, Dr. Kyrre Sjøbæk and other members of the accelerator group at the High-Energy Physics section at the Department of Physics, University of Oslo. The work involves close collaboration with international accelerators labs including mainly Daresbury Laboratory (the CLARA facility) and CERN (the CLEAR user facility), as well as SLAC (the FACET-II facility) and DESY (the FLASHForward facility).
The main purpose of a postdoctoral fellowship is to provide the candidates with enhanced skills to pursue a scientific top position within or beyond academia. To promote a strategic career path, all postdoctoral research fellows are required to submit a professional development plan no later than one month after commencement of the postdoctoral period.
What skills are important in this role?
The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences has a strategic ambition to be among Europe’s leading communities for research, education and innovation. Candidates for these fellowships will be selected in accordance with this, and expected to be in the upper segment of their class with respect to academic credentials.
Required qualifications:
- Applicants must hold a degree equivalent to a Norwegian doctoral degree in a field relevant for the project, including Accelerator Physics, Plasma Physics, or similar. If the degree is not yet formally received, the doctoral dissertation must be submitted for evaluation by the application date. Only applicants with an approved doctoral thesis and public defence are eligible for appointment.
- Solid background knowledge of accelerator physics and/or plasma-accelerator physics.
- Experience from experiments in plasma acceleration, plasma lensing or RF acceleration.
- Strong data analysis skills.
- Fluent oral and written communication skills in English.
Desired qualifications:
- Work experience from particle-accelerator laboratories.
- Experience with plasma-source, plasma-lens and/or dipole-magnet design and hardware.
- Experience with numerical simulation of plasma accelerators (particle-in-cell simulations) and/or particle tracking.
- Programming skills in Python, MATLAB and/or C++ at a developer level.
- A strong publication record.
All candidates and projects will have to undergo a check versus national export, sanctions and security regulations. Candidates may be excluded based on these checks. Primary checkpoints are the Export Control regulation, the Sanctions regulation, and the national security regulation.
What are we looking for in you?
Personal skills:
- We seek a candidate who is flexible, good at taking initiative and has excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
- We seek a candidate who enjoys working in a team.
- Ability to write in a scientific, structured, clear and concise manner.
- Enthusiasm, personal drive, and ability to take initiative.
Employment in the position is based on a comprehensive assessment of all qualification requirements applicable to the position, including personal skills.
We can offer you
- Exciting and meaningful tasks in an organization with an important societal mission, contributing to knowledge development, education, and enlightenment that promote sustainable, fair, and knowledge-based societal development
- Committed colleagues in a good working environment
- Good welfare schemes.
- Opportunity of up to 1.5 hours a week of exercise during working hours.
- A workplace with good development and career opportunities
- Postdoctoral development programmes.
- Membership in the Statens Pensjonskasse, which is one of Norway's best pension schemes with beneficial mortgages and good insurance schemes
- Salary in position as Postdoctoral Fellow, position code 1352 in salary range NOK 595 000 - 690 000, depending on competence and experience. From the salary, 2 percent is deducted in statutory contributions to the State Pension Fund
We need different perspectives in our work
UiO is an open and internationally oriented comprehensive university that strives to be an inclusive and diverse workplace and academic environment. You can read more about UiO’s work on equality, inclusion, and diversity at uio.no.
We fulfill our mission most effectively when we draw upon our variety of experiences, backgrounds, and perspectives. We are looking for great colleagues, could you be the next one?
We will do our best to accommodate your needs. Relevant adjustments may include modifications to working hours, task adaptations, digital, technical, or physical adjustments, or other practical measures.
We especially encourage women to apply.
If you have an immigrant background, a disability, or CV gaps (Norwegian), we encourage you to indicate this in the job application portal. We always invite at least one qualified candidate from each group for an interview. In this context, disability is defined as an applicant who identifies as having a disability that requires workplace or employment-related accommodations. For more details about the requirements, please refer to the Employer portal (Norwegian).
The selections made in the job application portal are used for anonymized statistics that all state employers include in their annual reports. More information about gender equality initiatives at UiO can be found here.
We hope you will apply for the position with us.
How to apply
The application must include:
- Cover letter (statement of motivation, summarizing scientific work and research interest)
- CV (summarizing education, positions, pedagogical experience, administrative experience and other qualifying activity)
- Copies of educational certificates, academic transcript of records
- A complete list of publications and up to 5 academic works that the applicant wishes to be considered by the evaluation committee
- Names and contact details of 2-3 references (name, relation to candidate, e-mail and telephone number)
Application with attachments must be submitted via our recruitment system Jobbnorge, click "Apply for this job".
When applying for the position, we ask you to retrieve your education results from Vitnemålsportalen.no. If your education results are not available through Vitnemålsportalen, we ask you to upload copies of your transcripts or grades. Please note that all documentation must be in English or a Scandinavian language.
General information
The best qualified candidates will be invited for interviews.
Please see the guidelines and regulations for appointments to Postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Oslo.
If an applicant has applied for and been granted funding for a fulltime research stay abroad while being employed as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow, the employment will be prolonged with the equivalent time as the research stay, but for no longer than of twelve months ( thus extending the employment to a maximum of four years)
Applicant lists can be published in accordance with Norwegian Freedom of Information Act § 25. When you apply for a position with us, your name will appear on the public applicant list. It is possible to request to be excluded from this list. You must justify why you want an exemption from publication and we will then decide whether we can grant your request. If we can't, you will hear from us.
The University of Oslo has an agreement for all employees, aiming to secure rights to research results a.o.
Om arbeidsgiveren:
The University of Oslo is Norway’s oldest and highest rated institution of research and education with 26 500 students and 7 200 employees. Its broad range of academic disciplines and internationally esteemed research communities make UiO an important contributor to society.
The research at the Department of Physics covers a broad range of subfields within physics and technology: From space research to medical physics. A good proportion of the research is interdisciplinary, and conducted in close cooperation with collaborators in Norway and abroad. Education and teaching are other essential activities. We offer a broad range of courses, and the Department is involved in several study programmes at bachelor’s and master’s level. Some of the best lecturers in Norway are amongst our employees, and we are proud of our prizewinning teaching and learning environment. The Department has 200 employees, of which 50 are permanent scientific positions. On a yearly basis 20 students complete their Ph.D. and 50 finish their M.Sc. degree.
