Job description:

CMS Split group at the University of Split calls for expressions of interest from early career researchers to apply for an EU funded Marie Skłodowska Curie Action Postdoctoral Fellowships (MSCA-PF-2024). We will then work with selected applicants to write their full proposal for the 11 September 2024 deadline.

About Toni Sculac:

In 2018, Toni Sculac was awarded a joint PhD title between University of Zagreb in Croatia and Ecole Polytechnique in France for his work on the measurements of Higgs boson properties in the golden decay channel with CMS experiment at the LHC. Since 2019, he is working as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Science in Split with scientific interests in Higgs boson physics, electron reconstruction and hardware development for the HGCAL upgrade project of the CMS experiment. He has made significant contributions to the electron reconstruction and identification measurements and has been a Higgs trigger contact from 2019 to 2020, as well as HZZ convener in the 2 year period following after. He has already successfully co-supervised one PhD thesis in collaboration with University of Bologna and is currently a PhD supervisor of 2 PhD students one in collaboration with Ecole Polytechnique and the other one with Riga Technical University. He is currently also coordinating efforts of the CMS Split group on the High-Granularity Calorimeter (HGCAL) upgrade project where the main focus of the group is the development of front-end and back-end electronics for the Trigger Primitive Generator and Data Acquisition data streams.

Job Description:

Our group is looking for a candidate with a PhD in experimental high energy physics where experience in hardware and firmware development is a strong benefit. The joint project proposal is expected to include analysis with Run 3 LHC data from the CMS experiment as well as developments of the back-end hardware for the Trigger Primitive Generator (TPG) of the High-Granularity Calorimeter (HGCAL). For the analysis part of the project, our group is one of the leading experts of the electron reconstruction and identification as well as Higgs boson properties measurements in the golden decay channel. This is possible thanks to our close collaboration with Laboratoire Leprince-Ringuet (LLR) in Paris, Johns Hopkins University, University of Torino, Riga Technical University, and several other CMS groups. While we do offer strong experience in the Higgs boson physics, potential candidate is also encouraged to propose any analysis topic of interest that doesn't have to be tightly connected with the previous expertise of our group. A strong support will be provided with potential new PhD students dedicating their time to this newly developed analysis. The second important part of the project should be the work on the design and testing of the TPG hardware and firmware. This work is done in close collaboration with engineers from Faculty of Electrical Engineering (FESB) in Split, LLR, and Imperial College. The potential candidate is expected to take a leading role in the design and testing of the back-end hardware and firmware, understanding both the needs from the side of physics performance as well as restrictions from the engineering side. The fellow is expected to be based in Split, but with several short-term stays at CERN as well as some of the mentioned parters, based on the needs.

Research infrastructure and facilities:

The candidate will benefit from the research infrastructure of the CMS experiment at CERN. Office space will be provided together with all the administrative support of the Faculty of Science in Split. We can also help with the housing process and help in the beginning with all the documentation procedures in Croatia.

Eligibility

MSCA PF is open to excellent researchers of any nationality.
Researchers must be in possession of a doctoral degree at the time of joint application.
At the call deadline, researchers must have a maximum of 8 years full-time equivalent experience in research, measured from the date that the researcher was in a possession of a doctoral degree.
Mobility rule: the researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies, etc.) in Croatia for more than 12 months in the 36 months immediately before the call deadline 11 September 2024.

How to apply?

Prospective candidates should send a Motivation Letter and CV to the corresponding supervisor (tsculac@pmfst.hr), with Projects office (projekti@unist.hr) in copy, and subject line 'MSCA-PF-2024 candidate name'.

Curriculum Vitae (CV): include complete contact details, a list of publications with significant contributions, leading roles in experiments, projects, and other relevant academic endeavors. It should highlight your academic achievements and research expertise, with a particular focus on areas relevant to the project.
Motivation Letter: detail your research and career interests and objectives, outline your project idea, demonstrating alignment with our research themes, and explain how your expertise will contribute to the project. Describe your motivation for applying to this call and your interest in joining our team.

In the first step of the process, we will choose the candidates for developing competitive MSCA postdoctoral grant applications. Applicants will be shortlisted by an internal panel and informed if they have been selected for the next stage by 30 June 2024.

The selected applicants will develop their MSCA PF proposal in cooperation with their future supervisor. More information on the MSCA fellow grants can be found here.

For any additional questions, please contact Toni Sculac, tsculac@pmfst.hr.

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