The Department is part of the Inter-University Institute for High Energies IIHE (ULB-VUB), which combines the experimental particle and astroparticle research groups from both Brussels universities, ULB and VUB, and presently numbers about 90 physicists, engineers and support staff originating from about 15 different countries. It is involved in large international collaborations in particle physics – CMS (at the proton-proton collider LHC at CERN), JUNO (in China) and Solid (in Belgium), and in astroparticle physics – IceCube (at the South Pole), Auger (in Argentina) and LOFAR (in Netherlands). It has R&D activities in detector development and readout systems. It hosts a CMS Grid Tier-2 computing centre.

The CMS IIHE team consist of 35 physicists conducted by 7 faculty members. The group has leading contributions in several research domains including Brout-Englert-Higgs boson, top quark physics, Standard Model precision measurements and searches for physics beyond the Standard Model. The group takes part in the “Excellence of Science (EoS)” program in Belgium, the be.h project “The H Boson Gateway to Physics Beyond Standard Model” gathering the effort of experimentalists and theorists of 5 Belgian Universities. The group is contributing to CMS trigger developments and central tracker operation and data quality monitoring. The IIHE is actively participating to the CMS detector upgrades – upgrade of the muon detectors in the forward region, and participation to the construction and test of one outer tracker endcap for the HL-LHC.

We are looking for two outstanding postdoctoral researchers who will join our activities data analysis on:

1) Standard Model precision physics: measurement of the Drell-Yan process and study of QCD initial state effects (Prof. Laurent Favart).

2) Contribution to the searches for new physics performed by the group (Prof. Barbara Clerbaux).

The selected candidates are expected to take a leading role in these analyses, in collaboration with the promoters and PhD students. The postdoctoral position implies frequent visits to CERN.

 Candidates should have, or be about to gain, a PhD in experimental particle physics with a strong background in data analysis. The position is open to candidates of any nationality in international mobility (1). Appointments are for three years. The salary is competitive and includes all social security benefits (information is available on request). 

The position will remain open until a suitable candidate is found. Interested candidates are encouraged to apply before March 7th, 2020, when a first screening of the applications will take place. Applications should be sent by email to the secretariat: Audrey Terrier audrey.terrier@ulb.ac.be. They should include a detailed CV, a letter of motivation and the names of 3 referees.

Contact: Prof. Barbara Clerbaux bclerbau@ulb.ac.be

              Prof. Laurent Favart lfavart@ulb.ac.be

(1) The researcher should not have resided or carried out her/his main activity in Belgium for more than 24 months during the 3 years directly preceding the beginning of the present postdoctoral fellowship.