The Department of Physics at Durham University is one of the best UK Physics departments with an outstanding reputation for excellence in teaching, research and employability of our students. Ranked in the top 10 in REF2014 in terms of grade point average, 96% of Durham Physics research was considered to be of internationally excellent quality or world-leading.

The Institute for Computational Cosmology (ICC) within the Department of Physics performs world-leading research with a high international reputation and is one of the largest groups in Europe dedicated to theoretical cosmology. The ICC operates and maintains the DiRAC Memory Intensive service (COSMA) on behalf of the DiRAC High-Performance Computing (HPC) Facility. This service constitutes the largest academic system in the North of England and is designed to support scientific workflows which require large RAM volumes for their delivery. A prime example of such workflows is cosmological simulation of the Universe from the Big Bang to the present day. The Memory Intensive service is a heterogeneous integrated HPC system with a combined total of about 70000 cores, 15PB of storage and more than 580TB RAM.

This role will be engaged with the development of a UK-wide cosmological database facility, to host cosmology simulation outputs from researchers across the UK, making these datasets easily accessible to both COSMA users and the UK research community. A web-based front-end will be developed to provide access to this data in multiple formats, and with custom, searches made possible. The role will involve working closely with research staff to identify the needs and requirements for this database facility. Routine maintenance procedures will also be implemented to ensure that the database remains secure.

The applicant will be a member of the ICC Staff, and their primary role is to support the scientific research of the users of the UK cosmology community. There will be opportunities for training to support the career development of the successful applicant, both within Durham and in collaboration with other research institutions and/or industry partners.