Full Professor Position

The Instituto de Alta Investigación (IAI) at the Universidad de Tarapacá (UTA) invites applications for at least one Full Professor position. Applicants must possess a Ph.D. in astronomy, astrophysics, or a related field and demonstrate a strong record of independent research, a minimum of 12 years of experience in academic functions, (co)authorship of at least 25 peer-reviewed WOS Q1 publications, and at least 5 successful funding applications, of which two or more should be as principal investigator. Ideal candidates will also have a solid track record in one or more of the following aspects: (i) leading international research projects, (ii) teaching at the undergraduate or graduate level for at least 10 semesters, (iii) advising research projects of undergraduate and graduate students, and (iv) designing and/or leading substantial outreach or academic management projects.

The selected candidate(s) will join the IAI, a multi-disciplinary excellence research center, which currently includes six astronomers, all based in the University offices in Santiago, Chile. UTA is a public university committed to achieving international standards of excellence in research and teaching. The search is open to all areas of astronomy and astrophysics, and may consider collaborations and synergies with current Institute members and/or the development of new research areas.

As an IAI researcher at the Full professor level, minimum expectations are: (i) publish at least six articles annually in quartile Q1 journals indexed in the WOS database, (ii) apply annually or maintain one or more active externally-funded research projects as Principal Investigator, (iii) establish collaborations with national and international centers of excellence, (iv) sponsor postdoctoral fellows (e.g., FONDECYT, ALMA, COMITE MIXTO). In addition, the selected candidate(s) are expected to contribute to the establishment of a new world-class level PhD program in astrophysics in the next two years.

Benefits associated with this position include: (i) highly competitive salary, depending on qualifications, (ii) bonuses for performance exceeding the minimum commitments, (iii) an annual research operational allocation, (iv) funding for hiring of research and support personnel, (v) access to the reserved telescope time in all international observatories installed in Chile, including VLT, La Silla, Gemini, Magellan, CTIO, SOAR, Rubin, APEX, ALMA, and future observatories such as CTA, ELT, and GMT, (vi) privileged access to the UTA HPC cluster, consisting of 96 Nvidia H200 GPU cards.

Applicants should submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae, a complete list of awarded projects and WOS publications, a statement of research interests to carry out in the next five years, and contact information for at least three professional references. The application must be submitted using the form available here. Review of the received applications will begin on Friday, October 2, 2026, and will continue as long as required.