Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) via the University of Science and Technology (UST) is offering doctoral scholarships (direct and integrated) starting from September 2018 (for more info, see https://www.ust.ac.kr/astros_eng.do). PhD scholarships are provided with a competitive salary of about $1500 per month. KASI is located in Daejeon, a high tech, educational and research oriented city. Convenient accommodation would be provided to students for the first 3 years in the campus.

KASI is actively involved in various fields of astronomy and astrophysics, from astronomical instrumentation to observation and theory, and participates in international collaborative and stand-alone projects including GMT, ALMA, SDSS4, DESI, LSST, KMTNet, and KVN. This semester KASI is accepting applications for

the following research areas:

- Theoretical Astrophysics & Cosmology

- Extragalactic Astronomy

and also see the list of specific research topics in the end of this announcement.

We encourage qualified international students to apply. Competent students with BSc degrees can apply for an integrated PhD program. Students with MSc degrees may apply directly to the PhD program.

Questions on each research area should be sent to each assigned professor, while other questions are sent to the Chief Major Professor (Sang-Sung Lee, sslee@kasi.re.kr). For more information of application, also see the UST web page (https://ust.ac.kr/admission_eng.do). Applications are considered only if they are submitted during Feb 12 to March 16 (17:00 KST).

Best regards,

Sang-Sung Lee

Chief Major Professor

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A list of PhD projects for the fall semester in 2018 is following:

1. Prof. Bong Won Sohn  (bwsohn@kasi.re.kr)

This is a PhD project and joint research project with INAF/IRA Bologna. The student is expected to participate our joint research program. We intend to address the issue of the actual triggering of the black hole activity. Therefore, we will aim at the selection of SMBH with very young jets, i.e. jets that have just started making their way out of the SMBH through the galaxy. These sources were selected on the basis of their spectral and temporal variations, a process that is already under way from our team, both using existing data and acquiring new ones with Korean and Italian telescopes. This includes also studies of the bright young radio source 3C84 and newly found sources from recent weka Blazar surveys. The student is supposed to conduct KVN, KaVA, EVN, and EATING VLBI observations and data analysis.

2. Prof. Arman Shafieloo (shafieloo@kasi.re.kr)

In cosmology group we are looking for very strong, competent and enthusiastic PhD candidates in order to train them at a competitive level internationally and making them prepared for the near future and next generation of the cosmological surveys. A successful candidate will become officially involved with SDSS-IV (Sloan Digital Sky Survey, Stage 4) and DESI (Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument) surveys and the project will include studying and performing research on different aspects of physical cosmology such as testing early universe scenarios and reconstruction of the growth and expansion history of the universe using large scale structure data. Developing advanced statistical methods of data analysis (data mining, machine learning, regression approaches) and preparation to deal with future big data will be a major part of the research during the PhD project or integrated-PhD.

3. Prof. Thiem Hoang (thiemhoang@kasi.re.kr)

Project Title: Physical modeling of Galactic dust polarization and Applications 

How did our Universe begin? According to the standard Big Bang theory, our Universe began about 13.7 billion years ago with an early exponential expansion of space, so-called inflation. Inflation is predicted to generate primordial gravitational waves that left the imprint as pinwheel-like (B-mode) patterns in the CMB polarization map. Therefore, the detection of CMB B-modes would constitute conclusive evidence of Inflation, leading to a complete understanding of our early Universe. However, the recent joint analysis of BICEP2/Keck Array and Planck data has revealed that the first detection of CMB B-modes is only achieved when Galactic dust polarization is accurately modeled and separated from the CMB polarization data. 

The successful candidate will be part of an international team to work on developing a self-consistent physical model of Galactic dust polarization by linking grain alignment to dust properties and local physical conditions of the interstellar medium. An important goal of this project is to apply the self-consistent polarization model to constrain the physics of the early universe with the CMB polarization as well as the physics of the interstellar medium. Students will be trained to master a wide range of research skills, including analytical and theoretical ability, numerical modeling and computational simulations.