Call for Nominations
Position of Director (f/m/d) at the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy
The Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) expects to have an opening for a scientific director position. The Institute invites nominations, including self-nominations, for consideration.
The Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR) expects to have an opening for a scientific director position. The Institute invites nominations, including self-nominations, for consideration.
Research at MPIfR covers a wide breadth of topics which benefit from the use of (sub)mm/radio-wavelength observations. Current active areas of research include star formation, the physics and chemistry of the interstellar medium, galaxy evolution, pulsars (including timing arrays), fast radio bursts, cosmic magnetic fields, fundamental physics from radio observations including gravitational physics, cosmic reionisation, supermassive black holes and VLBI studies of active galactic nuclei and their jets. MPIfR operates the 100-m radio telescope in Effelsberg, the APEX submm telescope, the LOFAR DE601 station and a state-of-the-art VLBI correlator. The institute also has active (sub)mm/radio instrumentation technology development facilities and plays a leading role in international (sub)mm/radio facilities such as IRAM, MeerKAT and SKA , and global instruments such as the EHT, GMVA and EPTA.
The future director’s innovative and cutting-edge research program should be in an area that complements and extends in a new direction the research currently ongoing at the institute, while making use of (and expanding on) the facilities and technologies with MPIfR leadership.
Max Planck Directors are international leaders in their respective field, pursue an ambitious research agenda within their groups, and lead the institute jointly with their director colleagues. Directors enjoy academic freedom and benefit from a diverse, international, excellent research environment, and long-term scientific funding.
The Institute is located in Bonn, Germany, and has close collaborative links with the universities of Bonn and Cologne. The Institute is part of the Max Planck Society, an independent non-governmental association dedicated to fundamental research in the natural sciences, life sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The Max Planck Society seeks to achieve gender equality and diversity and is particularly interested in appointing excellent woman scientists.
Please send nominations of suitable candidates, including rising stars, to the institute’s Managing Director at nominations@mpifr.de. Self-nominations are welcome. A nomination should include: 1) name and current affiliation of the potential candidate and 2) a brief motivational statement justifying the nomination (300 words max). All nominations will be treated confidentially. This call is not part of the formal appointment procedure – its purpose is to inform the institute leadership about potential candidates. To receive full consideration, the nominations should be submitted before 30 April 2025.