Two fully funded PhD positions at the University of Kent

You can now apply for two fully-funded PhD studentships in Astronomy and Planetary Science at the Centre for Astrophysics and Planetary Science (CAPS), University of Kent, starting in September 2023!

The group consists of 8 academics and 20 postgraduate students with research interests covering Solar System and Space Science, the Interstellar Medium, Star Formation, Galactic Structure, Astrochemistry and Astrobiology. 

There are four projects that are being offered on a competitive application process:

More details can be found here. Potential applicants are strongly encouraged to contact prospective supervisors to discuss the research project before they apply. 

📅 The application deadline is Sunday April 23rd 2023 📅

18th Heidelberg Summer School – Call for Applications

The “International Max Planck Research School for Astronomy &
Cosmic Physics at the University of Heidelberg
” (IMPRS-HD)

announces the

>> 18th Heidelberg Summer School <<
“Unraveling Galaxy Evolution with JWST”

The school is organized for early-career scientists and will take place on September 4 – 8.

It will focus on the most relevant aspects of galaxy evolution addressed by JWST, from nearby to the most distant galaxies.
JWST revealed surprises from its first images and is already
revolutionizing many fields of astrophysics.

The school will give the participants an overview of what we have learned about galaxy evolution in the first year of JWST observations, the emerging challenges, and the opportunity to work with JWST data guided by world-renowned experts.

The topics include an overview of JWST, the physics of nearby galaxies, the role of AGN feedback, the cosmic noon, and the high-z Universe.
The lectures will be accompanied by hands-on sessions and talks highlighting recent scientific results.

Invited lecturers are:

Steve Finkelstein (Univ. Texas Austin)
Adam Leroy (Ohio State Univ.)
Nora Lützgendorf (ESA)
Alice Shapley (UCLA)
Andrey Vayner (Johns Hopkins Univ.)

Hands-on session tutors are:
James Davies (MPIA)
Oleg Egorov (ARI)


The school SOC is:
E.Banados (MPIA), L.Boogaard (MPIA), F.Davies (MPIA), A.de Graaff (MPIA),
I.Momcheva (MPIA), N.Neumayer (MPIA), D.Wylezalek (ZAH)

>> Deadline for applications is June 15, 2023 <<

New PhD opportunities

A few new exciting PhD positions have been added to our website!

From Origin of Life to Planetary Sciences, these projects are all around Europe – click here to check them out.

Registrations open for the Space Science in Context (SSiC) online conference

Join on the 26th January 2023 the Space Science in Context (SSiC): a FREE online conference that unpacks the social dimensions of outer space.

There will be three panels of invited speakers who will be live in conversation – on Space and the Environment; Space, Technology and Dual-Use; and Labour and Space – packed with wonderful speakers, and two poster sessions of contributions from around the world on how space interacts with local social contexts. 

The schedule, programme and more information about SSiC is available online at spacescienceincontext.com, and from Thursday 19th January the prerecorded talks and posters are available online to registrants

Register for the conference and gain access to their pre-recorded content and the live panels, for free, here.

They will be providing English-language CART for the three speaker panels and one poster room in each session, with auto-captioning available for the poster sessions. Further, all attendees, invited speakers, and poster presenters are required to comply with the accessibility statement and code of conduct. If you would like more information about accessibility, including how to use Zoom’s accessibility features, or safety please reach out to the organisers at spacescienceincontext(at)gmail.com.

Space Science in Context 2023 is only possible thanks to the financial support of the Royal Astronomical Society’s Meeting Grant; and the European Association of Science and Technology Studies (EASST) Fund. SSiC is and will always be free to attend. If you would like to donate to support SSiC and our mission to pay speakers and build accessible, interdisciplinary platforms, consider buying them a Ko-Fi!

Upcoming info session for the new integrated Masters-PhD course in Earth-Life Sciences in Tokyo, Japan

Recently, the Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI) launched an integrated 5-year Masters-PhD course in Earth-Life Sciences. The course aims to train the next generation of students to contribute to astrobiology and related fields, and the next round of IGP(C) applications for international students to enter the program in September 2023 will open soon

Click here to go to the course’s website and learn more about it.

So that students can understand the application process and meet the ELSI faculty they may work with in the future, they will organize two webinars and Q&A sessions on January 26th (JST).

Registrations open for RED23 – Astrobiology Introductory Course

The 2023 session of the Rencontres Exobiologiques pour Doctorants  (RED’23 / Astrobiology Introductory Course) will take place, if sanitary conditions allow, from March 12 to 18, 2022 at the Reserve Ornithologique du Teich (France).

These meetings are organized for:

  • Any student preparing a thesis in Earth and Universe Sciences, Chemical Sciences, Life Sciences, Bioinformatics or History / Philosophy of Sciences.
  • Students wishing to acquire an interdisciplinary training in astrobiology to complete their initial training and to be able to address questions related to the origins of life on Earth and beyond, its evolution and its distribution in the Universe.
  • The school is also open to any young researchers interested in astrobiology

The RED’23 / Astrobiology Introductory Course program is complementary to the RED’22 program, however it is not necessary to have attended in 2022 to participate in this new school.

Lectures will be held in English.

Registrations are open until January 31, 2023. Some grants to participate are available, more about it on the website.

Discover the program and the speakers of this session on the school website