Durham University
 
Durham University is one of the world's top universities with strengths across the Arts and Humanities, Sciences and Social Sciences. We are home to some of the most talented scholars and researchers from around the world who are tackling global issues and making a difference in people's lives.

The University sits in a beautiful historic city where it shares ownership of a UNESCO World Heritage Site with Durham Cathedral, the greatest Romanesque building in Western Europe. A collegiate University, Durham recruits outstanding students from across the world and offers an unmatched wider student experience.

Less than 3 hours north of London, and an hour and a half south of Edinburgh, County Durham is a region steeped in history and natural beauty. The Durham Dales, including the North Pennines Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, are home to breathtaking scenery and attractions. Durham offers an excellent choice of city, suburban and rural residential locations. The University provides a range of benefits including pension and childcare benefits and the University’s Relocation Manager can assist with potential schooling requirements.

Durham University seeks to promote and maintain an inclusive and supportive environment for work and study that assists all members of our University community to reach their full potential. Diversity brings strength and we welcome applications from across the international, national and regional communities that we work with and serve.

The Department and role purpose

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.