Job Summary

The researchers will work as part of a team to contribute to selected aspects of the research work being conducted in the Galactic Archaeology Group (led by Professor Evan Kirby) at Caltech, as a participant in the Summer Research Connection program for high school students and teachers. Duties may include assisting in remote collection and analysis of data from telescopes, and other research assistant duties as assigned. The Galactic Archaeology Group uses stellar spectroscopy to measure the elemental compositions of stars, and they use those measurements to infer which types of stars existed long ago and how quickly those stars were forming and dying. For this work, the group use a variety of spectrographs on the Keck and Palomar telescopes (remotely from Caltech).

Job Duties

Use existing computer software and write new computer code to analyze data already obtained from telescopes around the world. Optionally, participate in up to four nights of observing with the Keck telescope. Observing will happen from the Cahill building on the Caltech campus. There is no laboratory work associated with this position.

Basic Qualifications

Basic statistics and cursory knowledge of computer programming

Preferred Qualifications

Proficiency in Unix
Experience with the IDL and/or Python programming languages

Required Documents

Resume