PhD Student in Space Plasma and Planetology in Nice, France: exploring the magnetosphere of Mercury with BepiColombo

Annonce transmise par Pierre Henri (LPC2E et LAGRANGE)

The Laboratoire Lagrange (Observatoire Côte d'Azur, Université Côte d'Azur and CNRS, Nice, France) is hiring a PhD student to work on a Space Plasma and Planetology research project investigating the plasma environment of Mercury, in the context of joint ESA-JAXA exploratory space mission BepiColombo.

Mercury, the innermost planet of our solar system and the only airless planet to exhibit a planetary magnetic field, remains the least explored of the telluric planets. BepiColombo will arrive at Mercury in 2025 and bring groundbreaking advances in our understanding of this planet and its interaction with the Sun. Among the different scientific objectives of the BepiColombo mission, a major one is to understand the structure and dynamics of Mercury's magnetized envelope: its magnetosphere.

The PhD project will focus on the exploration of the ionised and magnetised environment of Mercury, using  both (i) brand new space-based experimental data from the BepiColombo mission, among which data  that will be acquired from the Plasma Wave Investigation (PWI), as well as (ii) state-of-the-art High Performance Computing plasma numerical simulations to model the structure and dynamics of Mercury's magnetosphere and its interaction with our Sun.

Prior knowledge and useful skills: Astrophysics, Plasma Physics, numerical simulations and/or data analysis.  

For specifics about the position, outstanding candidates are welcome to contact Dr. Pierre HENRI -  pierre.henri@oca.eu

The application (including a CV, a recent transcript and a reference letter) should be submitted online, on the CNES PhD program website: https://recrutement.cnes.fr/en/annonce/2698981-24-034-exploration-de-la-...

The closing date for applications is 14 March 2024 (Midnight Paris time).