NASA Postdoctoral Program - High-energy Cosmic ray Astrophysics

The NASA Postdoctoral Program offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA's missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology. This specific opportunity focuses on high-energy cosmic ray astrophysics at the Goddard Space Flight Center. The research involves studying energetic nuclei and electrons that make up galactic cosmic radiation to understand nucleosynthesis, particle acceleration processes, and the production of particles and antiparticles. Experimental measurements are conducted using balloons and near-Earth satellites with instrumentation including magnetic spectrometers, Cherenkov counters, time-of-flight detectors, and drift chambers. Current projects include measurements of antiprotons and heavy nuclei abundances, development of instruments for the International Space Station, and identification of complex antinuclei through their annihilation products. New research directions include detailed in-situ measurements of very-high-energy to ultra-high-energy cosmic particle interactions with Earth's atmosphere and detection of cosmic neutrinos using Earth as a neutrino converter. Opportunities exist to participate in all phases from scientific objective definition through experiment development, testing, operations, data analysis, and presentation of results.