Postdoctoral researcher: Development of kinetic plasma simulations on GPUs

Job description:
The Centre for mathematical Plasma Astrophysics (https://wis.kuleuven.be/CmPA) of KU Leuven (Belgium) offers a ~2-year (until the end of 2026) postdoctoral position in computational plasma physics, starting in autumn 2024. The CmPA is a dynamic, diverse, and international welcoming environment pursuing a broad variety of research topics. In the context of the EuroHPC-SPACE European research project (https://eurohpc-ju.europa.eu/research-innovation/our-projects/space-scalable-parallel-astrophysical-codes-exascale_en), we seek a junior researcher (<3 years postdoc experience) to carry out work on the GPU porting (based on CUDA) of the astrophysical simulation code iPic3D, developed in-house at KU Leuven. The ported code will allow for next-generation simulations currently not possible with CPU-based calculations. Applications are accepted until October 15 2024, but selection will continue until a suitable candidate is found.

Responsibilities
The general goal is porting an established CPU code for kinetic astroplasma simulations to GPU (in CUDA). The specific goals to be pursued within the 2-year time period (until the end of 2026) are rather well-defined by the milestones of the SPACE project, but the candidate is also free to propose a personal research path to be followed in parallel if it aligns with the general topics of interest of the division: solar and heliospheric plasmas in the Newtonian regime, and/or relativistic plasmas in high-energy astrophysical environments. The KU Leuven provides access to Tier-2 computing facilities, and Tier-1 Belgian machines are easily accessible via dedicated computing proposals. The SPACE consortium provides access to a wide variety of supercomputing facilities across Europe.

The ideal candidate is a junior researcher with maximum 3 years of postdoctoral experience. They have a strong interest in HPC and scientific computing, as well as in the physics of space plasmas, with a preference for candidates who matured experience in GPU code development. Knowledge of numerical methods is an appreciated bonus. Applications are welcome also from candidates with experience on directly related topics.

We encourage the publication of research results in high-impact peer-reviewed journals in the domains of computer science, astrophysics, space physics, space weather, computational physics, and related topics.

Profile
Required:

• Knowledge of parallel computing and GPU (especially CUDA) code development
• Experience in using parallel computing facilities

Desirable:

• Experience with astroplasma simulations
• Knowledge of computational methods applied to physics, e.g. Particle-in-Cell.

Education: PhD degree in computer science, physics, engineering, mathematics, or equivalent field, obtained within the last 3 years (at the time of applying);  preferentially, experience in computer modeling of plasmas and a clear motivation to work with astrophysical applications.

Contact: Fabio Bacchini (fabio.bacchini@kuleuven.be); Pranab J Deka (pranab.deka@kuleuven.be)

Letters of Reference should be sent to: fabio.bacchini@kuleuven.be