Doctoral Positions in Exoplanet Atmosphere Characterisation and the Search for Life

Doctorat / PhD Conditions : 100%, Zurich, fixed-term

We are looking for one or two Doctoral Students to work on the atmospheric characterisation of temperate terrestrial exoplanets and the search for life within the Exoplanets and Habitability Group led by Prof. Sascha P. Quanz at ETH Zurich. The positions is closely connected to the ETH-led LIFE space mission . LIFE is a space-based mid-infrared nulling interferometer to directly detect and spectroscopically characterise dozens of temperate terrestrial exoplanets around nearby stars. The successful candidates will join the LIFE Science Team and work closely with researchers and students at ETH Zurich and across the wider LIFE collaboration.

A central goal of LIFE is to characterise the atmospheres of temperate terrestrial exoplanets and ultimately assess their habitability and possible signs of life. Understanding which atmospheric properties can be robustly inferred from mid-infrared observations is also essential for translating LIFE's science goals into science requirements and corresponding instrument-performance requirements. Our group has developed the atmospheric retrieval framework pyRetLIFE and has so far investigated mainly Earth-like planets and classical atmospheric biosignature gases. An important next step is to broaden this work towards the diversity of potentially habitable and inhabited worlds: different atmospheric compositions and climates, non-Earth-like biospheres, non-standard biosignatures, and the abiotic scenarios against which potential signs of life need to be interpreted. Possible research directions for the successful Doctoral students include The modelling and characterisation of non-Earth-like atmospheres and biospheres, using physically motivated atmospheric models and retrievals to understand which properties and potential biosignatures future missions like LIFE can robustly constrain The exploration of alternative inference approaches, including machine learning and AI, for atmospheric characterisation and the interpretation of potential signs of life, this could include investigating where such methods provide additional information compared with conventional retrievals, and assessing their robustness, interpretability and sensitivity to modelling assumptions

Develop and pursue research on the characterisation of temperate terrestrial exoplanet atmospheres and the search for signs of life in the context of the LIFE mission Investigate atmospheric scenarios beyond modern Earth analogues; this may include non-Earth-like biospheres, non-standard biosignatures and/or relevant abiotic alternatives Use and further develop atmospheric retrieval and/or complementary modelling and inference approaches Explore, where relevant, ML/AI approaches for atmospheric inference and interpretation Investigate the robustness and limitations of atmospheric characterisation methods and compare complementary approaches where scientifically useful In close collaboration with the…