Location: Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC) Barcelona

Length of contract: 3+1 years

Contact: Matteo Zennaro (mzennaro@ice.csic.es) and Martin Crocce (crocce@ice.csic.es)

Deadline: May 8th

The “Observational Cosmology and Extragalactic Astrophysics” group at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE, CSIC; www.ice.csic.es/) invites applications for one PhD position to start as early as September 2026, to work under the supervision of Dr. Martin Crocce and Dr. Matteo Zennaro.

The selected candidate is expected to research aspects of galaxy clustering and weak gravitational lensing, including their modeling through analytic theory or simulations as well as the cosmological inference. The student is expected to contribute to the scientific exploitation of the ESA Euclid mission (www.euclid-ec.org), and other leading galaxy surveys in which our group is involved (DESI, Rubin/LSST, DES).

The host cosmology group covers a broad range of aspects in Observational Cosmology and the study of Large-Scale Structure spanning theory modeling, production of simulations and mock catalogues, development of tools based on machine-learning and neural networks, and real data analysis. Our group is currently composed of 6 senior members (E. Gaztañaga, F. Castander, P. Fosalba, M. Crocce, L. Galbany and  I. Tutusaus), 4 research fellows (Alex Alarcón, Marco Gatti, Matteo Zennaro, Giulia Giannini) and several postdocs and PhD students. Our group has wide access to computing facilities: the Marenostrum supercomputer (www.bsc.es/marenostrum/, a Tier-0 system of the European PRACE network), the ICE computing cluster (with 800 hyper-threaded cores and 6TB RAM), the Port d’Informacio Cientifica (www.pic.es), and its HPC facility for big data sharing/distribution CosmoHUB (cosmohub.pic.es).

Applicants are expected to have the academic credentials to enroll in the PhD program at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB, www.uab.cat) during the 2026/2027 academic year. In most cases, this translates into having completed, or being close to completing, an MSc (Master) degree or equivalent (see [1]). The position is for three years in the first instance, with the possibility of one additional year extension, with salary and benefits in line with other PhD positions in Spanish institutions. Applications are particularly encouraged from traditionally under-represented groups in science, physics and astronomy. 

Interested candidates should submit a short CV, a copy of the relevant academic transcripts, and arrange for one or two reference letters, to Martin Crocce (crocce@ice.csic.es) and  Matteo Zennaro (mzennaro@ice.csic.es), with email subject COSMOPHD followed by the surname(s) of the applicant. We encourage candidates to submit their materials before May 8th, 2026, but the position will remain open until filled. Questions regarding the position can be addressed to the emails above. 

[1] UAB PhD in Physics program access requirements: https://www.uab.cat/web/postgraduate/phds/all-phd-programmes/admission/access-requirements/physics-1345660700204.html?param2=1345658736441