ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR: IDIA Development & Outreach

The ADDO position will be appointed as an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Science for a 3-year limited term and will be expected to maintain a research program in the broad area of astro-informatics or a related area of data intensive research.

The ADDO is an ex-officio member of the IDIA management and will report directly to the IDIA Director.  The focus of effort of the ADDO will be set in consultation with the IDIA Director. Specific areas of responsibility of the ADDO will include:

Public Relations and Marketing:

• Develop and manage the public relations program for IDIA, including the development of materials that publicize IDIA to the stakeholder community, and management of programs and events for public relations.
• Represent IDIA to the stakeholder community as requested by the Director, including advancing the reputation and interests of IDIA to the academic community, provincial and federal governments, and private sector.

Funding:

• Identification of funding opportunities and aid in the preparation of proposal

Negotiations and Agreements:

• Management and development of relationships with outside entities
• Development of agreements and communications with such outside entities

Development of Business Opportunities:

• Maintain relationships with the private sector
• Identify and developing research and development opportunities that add value to IDIA
• Identify and develop business and commercialization opportunities

Reporting:

• Prepare and present reports to the IDIA management team and Oversight Committees
• Prepare an annual report on development and outreach activity as part of the IDIA annual reports.

Minimum Requirements

• PhD in astronomy, computer science or another discipline related to astro-informatics or astro-statistics
• Experience with scientific writing for the public and with public relations and outreach activities

Experience with any of the following would be advantageous:

• Partnership building and project leadership
• Marketing and Business development
• Big data applications
• Working in a team environment 

In your application, you are encouraged to highlight your strengths and also include anything else that you feel may be pertinent to the selection panel. Please attach your covering letter, a detailed curriculum vitae and highest qualification to your online profile. To be considered for this vacancy, you must click on the Apply for this Job link below or apply directly via UWC Careers at https://uwc.hua.hrsmart.com/hr/ats/JobSearch/viewAll. For any queries, please contact the Human Resources Department at +27 21 959 4063/9763/9708/3551/3756 or email: e-recruitment@uwc.ac.za

EQUITY DISCLAIMER: In line with the University’s commitment to diversifying its workforce, preference will be given to suitably qualified applicants in line with Employment Targets of the University. The University reserves the right to not make an appointment, make an appointment at a different level, seek additional candidates and may conduct competency assessments.

IDIA Postdoctoral Fellowship Position

The MeerKAT telescope is the precursor of the Square Kilometre Array mid-frequency dish array to be deployed later this decade on the African continent. MIGHTEE is one of the MeerKAT large survey projects, designed to pathfind SKA key science in cosmology and galaxy evolution. Through deep full-Stokes radio continuum imaging over several fields totaling 20 square degrees to microJy sensitivities and an ultra-deep image of a single 1 sq. deg. MIGHTEE explores dark matter and large scale structure, the evolution of galaxies, including AGN activity and star formation as a function of cosmic time and environment, the emergence and evolution of magnetic fields in galaxies.  A joint program with the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) in India, extends sensitive imaging of the MIGHTEE fields to below 1 GHz.   

We are seeking a postdoctoral fellow to join the Inter-University Institute for Data Intensive Astronomy as part of a vibrant research team in extragalactic continuum and polarisation science at the University of Cape Town.  The fellow will work on full-Stokes processing of MeerKAT MIGHTEE and related observations and participate in and lead MIGHTEE and Open time science projects.  Applicants should have experience with observations and data processing with interferometric radio antenna arrays for full-Stokes continuum science, and expertise in analysis of multiwavelength data.  The fellow will have access to MeerKAT MIGHTEE and ancillary data and associated GMRT data, and to the ilifu data intensive cloud facility (ilifu.ac.za) for processing and analytics.  For further information about the position please contact Russ Taylor (russ@idia.ac.za), Lucia Marchetti (lucia.marchetti@uct.ac.za) or Jacinta Delhaize (jacinta@ast.uct.ac.za).Applicants should email applications to admin@idia.ac.za, including (as a single pdf) a CV, publication list, a brief (~2 pages) overview of their research and interests and provide the contact details of 3 referees who are willing to send letters of recommendation.