PhD position. Characterisation of young stars in the Gaia-ESO survey
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (Spain)
Deadline: Review of applications begins on 11 march 2012, and continue until the position is filled

The Gaia-ESO survey is the most ambitious ground-based spectroscopic program complementing the forthcoming ESA Gaia mission. It will observe 100.000 stars, with great sensitivity, wavelength coverage and spectral resolution. In particular, the stellar population of 40 young open clusters (< 100 Myr) will be observed with the ESO UVES and GIRAFFE spectrographs.

The student will develop tools to characterise the pre-main sequence stellar population in the survey. In particular, physical parameters (effective temperature, surface gravity, metallicity and rotation velocity) will be determined for intermediate mass stars. Accretion rates will be determined for all pre-main sequence stars. The ultimate goal is to analyse the whole survey, which will last three years.

Additional information on the Gaia-ESO survey is available at:
http://great.ast.cam.ac.uk/GESwiki/GESHome

Profile: MSc finished or near completion in astronomy or astrophysics.
Background preferred: stellar physics, spectroscopy, object oriented programming.
Duration: 2 years + 2 extension (subject to evaluation and project renewal)
Starting date: 1 April 2012 (preferred). Later dates can be considererd.
Application: CV + two reference letters should be sent to alcione.mora@esa.int

Supervisors: Alcione Mora, Ralf Kohley (ESA-ESAC) & Carlos Eiroa (UAM)
Additional information: alcione.mora@esa.int, carlos.eiroa@uam.es