PhD, Master’s & Postdoc Opportunities in Astronomy in France

This PhD project focuses on ultrafast electronic rearrangement and relaxation in biomolecules after photoabsorption. The student will investigate how several competing pathways, including very fast femtosecond charge-transfer and local electronic relaxation processes, unfold in complex molecular systems. The research uses a novel strategy based on Auger electrons emitted from a metallic site embedded in a porphyrin derivative. This local probe is used to follow the photoinduced electronic reorga...

This doctoral project is part of the ANR PALWOOD programme (2026–2030), which investigates the evolution of wood during the Paleozoic, from the first appearance of wood in the early Devonian to the end-Permian crisis. The project brings together researchers from multiple French research units, including AMAP (Montpellier), CR2P (Paris) and EEP (Lille), with international collaborators. The thesis focuses on the anatomical disparity of homoxylous woods , i.e. woods without vessels. The doctoral r...

The Institut des Sciences de la Terre in Grenoble is recruiting a postdoctoral researcher for the ANR NaturaLDH project, focused on the composition of natural layered double hydroxides and their role in the alteration of mantle rocks. The postdoctoral work centers on developing an analytical protocol for natural layered double hydroxides using anion exchange and ion chromatography, then applying that protocol to natural samples to determine their composition and the conditions under which they f...

This postdoctoral position at CNRS is part of the ANR ROCKMAPS project within the Trajectoires laboratory (UMR 8215). The research focuses on the rock art panels of Bedolina in Capo di Ponte, Lombardy, and their role as engraved cartographic representations carved into stone. The selected researcher will investigate the relationship between the engraved motifs on panels R1, R4, R7, and R9 and their surrounding anthropic and natural environment. The project combines archaeological interpretation ...

This postdoctoral position at Université Côte d'Azur is part of a project on how microbial ecosystems can alter rocks under conditions reminiscent of the early Earth. The work is centered on geomicrobiology, with a strong interface between microbial ecology, geochemistry, and astrobiology. The project builds on an existing experimental platform developed at the CEREEP ECOTRON Île-de-France , where rock-weathering reactors reproduce Archean-like conditions. These experiments compare sterile react...

This postdoctoral position is based at the LPMMC , a joint research unit in physics under the supervision of Université Grenoble Alpes and CNRS (UMR 5493), located on the CNRS site in Grenoble. The project focuses on the theoretical study of cold-atom quantum systems in low dimensions with long-range interactions , aimed at modelling experiments on cold-atom qubits . The research is carried out within the QubitAF project and centers on developing a theoretical description for interacting open qu...

This postdoctoral project is hosted by ISTerre and carried out within the ERC Advanced Grant project Crack the Rock . The work focuses on understanding how environmental forcing affects the cracking and damage evolution of rocks, combining observations from natural rocky outcrops and controlled experimental analysis. The successful researcher will develop acoustic experiments in the field to study how environmental solicitations influence rocks and contribute to subcritical cracking under cyclic...

This postdoctoral position at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) is part of the SnowPI project, which addresses the role of polar snow in the cryosphere under climate change. The project is motivated by the rapid warming of the Arctic and Antarctic and the need to better understand how snow processes shape the response of glaciers, ice sheets, permafrost, and seasonal snow cover to changing atmospheric and ocean conditions. The research is centered on the fact that snow stro...

This postdoctoral project focuses on the aggregation of cloud convection in the tropical atmosphere. The researcher will develop a hierarchy of models that progressively increases realism, moving from simple formulations toward more complex representations that include multiple spatial dimensions, Earth’s rotation, and a hydrological-cycle description of the atmosphere. The scientific goal is to improve understanding of how tropical convection organizes itself and to compare simulated convection...