ESA’s Gaia astrometry satellite will shortly release its third astrometric catalogue, providing distances and motions for a billion stars. The Gaia-ESO survey is a massive spectroscopic programme carried out at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) aiming to support Gaia and provide line-of-sight velocities and chemical abundances for some 100,000 stars. Professor Jeffries leads a group looking at ways of combining these datasets in stellar clusters to revolutionise our understanding of the timescales for star formation, early stellar evolution and stellar ages. A PhD student would use the Gaia and Gaia-ESO datasets to select clean samples of stars in stellar clusters and use these to test and calibrate stellar evolution models and benchmark age estimation techniques, with a focus on using the orthogonal constraints offered by photospheric chemical composition (particularly the abundance of lithium) as a means of examining the physics of stellar interiors. The project will involve working with large, world-class datasets using advanced statistical techniques, and collaborating with a network of European and US researchers.
Studentship available from September 2021 (flexible)
To apply please go to: https://www.keele.ac.uk/study/postgraduateresearch/studentships/
For informal enquiries on this project, please contact Prof Rob Jeffries by email: [Email Address Removed]
or contact the Project Co-ordinator: Dr Nick Wright: [Email Address Removed]
Keele University values diversity, and is committed to ensuring equality of opportunity. In support of these commitments, Keele University particularly welcomes applications from women and from individuals of black and ethnic minority backgrounds for this post. The School of Chemical and Physical Sciences and Keele University have both been awarded Athena Swan awards and Keele University is a member of the Disability Confident scheme. More information is available on these web pages:
https://www.keele.ac.uk/equalitydiversity/
https://www.keele.ac.uk/athenaswan/
https://www.keele.ac.uk/raceequalitycharter/raceequalitycharter/
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