ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, invites applications for a three-year postdoctoral research position to work with Dr. Joseph Callingham on the Dutch Research Council (NWO) Vidi project Radio Stars and Exoplanets: Creating Space Weather Reports for Distant Worlds. A central question in exoplanet science is whether planets around other stars experience environments capable of supporting and retaining atmospheres. Stellar magnetic fields, coronal mass ejections, and other forms of space weather can strongly influence these environments. Radio observations provide a powerful and relatively unexplored way to directly probe these phenomena. The project aims to use radio emission from nearby stars and exoplanetary systems to understand stellar space weather, magnetic activity, and star–planet interactions, ultimately helping determine the environments experienced by nearby exoplanets.

The candidate will have substantial freedom to shape their research according to their expertise. Possible research directions include:

• Detecting and characterizing stellar and exoplanetary radio emission using LOFAR, MeerKAT, and other radio facilities.
• Modelling stellar magnetospheres, coherent radio emission, coronal mass ejections, and/or magnetic star–planet interactions (SPI).
• Using Zeeman–Doppler Imaging (ZDI) or other spectropolarimetric measurements to determine stellar magnetic-field geometries and connect them to radio emission and space weather.
• Determining the presence of exoplanets via traditional exoplanet detection methods (radial velocity, transits, etc.) of radio-detected systems.

We do not expect candidates to have expertise in all of these areas. We particularly encourage applications from researchers with a strong background in radio astronomy, stellar/SPI magnetospheric modelling, exoplanet science, stellar activity, or ZDI/stellar magnetism measurements.

The postdoctoral researcher will join a growing research programme on radio stars, exoplanets, and stellar space weather spanning ASTRON and the Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy at the University of Amsterdam. The project is closely connected to the ERC-funded Epaphus programme and provides opportunities to collaborate with an international network of researchers working across radio astronomy, stellar physics, and exoplanet science.

ASTRON operates LOFAR and the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope, participates in the European VLBI Network, and is closely involved in the development and commissioning of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). Therefore, the candidate will have access to world-leading radio astronomy instruments in this position.