Far Horizons Data Science Fellow

The Adler Planetarium is seeking candidates for a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the field of Data Science, with an emphasis on Remote Sensing and Geospatial Analysis. The Postdoctoral Fellow will carry out independent research analyzing light pollution image data collected by the Adler’s Far Horizons research program.

The Far Horizons program is currently doing field work using two main instrument sets designed and built at the Adler: the GONet camera system, which collects all-sky nighttime environment data in the field, and the NITELite system, which is a high altitude balloon-borne camera system that collects regional scale night-time images from the stratosphere.

These instruments are used to characterize and quantify the effect of nighttime light on the environment. Recent results have included a large-scale transect experiment across 140 km to map the extended skyglow of Chicago. Data collected from NITELite missions over Indianapolis are being used to characterize light emission by land use as well as exploring the effects of light at night on urban ecological systems. Recent examples of research partnerships include the National Park Service, UCLA, Butler University and the European Space Agency funded NEOMI project.

In collaboration with Far Horizons staff and volunteers, the Postdoctoral Fellow will:

• Pursue an independent light pollution research program. 
• Develop and maintain data pipelines to process raw images from the NITELite and GONet systems into a calibrated, georeferenced, dataset.
• Create tools to generate data products of interest from the NITELite and GONet datasets, such as
  • calibrated image mosaics for geospatial analysis
  • time-dependent features of light emission from image data
• Apply advanced data analysis techniques (e.g., machine learning, image processing,, etc.) where relevant to research goals
• Collaborate with and learn from Far Horizons DevOps volunteers to ensure the toolset meets industry standards (inc. containerization, AWS deployments, etc.)
• Mentor undergraduate interns and high-school students in research*
• Assist Teen Program experts in the development of Far Horizons student-facing programs*

Although preferred, prior experience in the field of light pollution research is not required. 

The Postdoctoral Fellow responsibilities will be divided approximately 70% to research and 30% to outreach (starred items). Through the Adler’s Far Horizons program, we engage teens, undergraduate students, and adults in high-altitude balloon experiments, engineering, design, research, and complex image processing and data analysis. Our teens recently helped establish the world’s largest Urban Night Sky Place through a partnership with the Forest Preserves of Cook County. 

Candidates should have a doctorate in a technical field such as data science, astronomy, physics, programming, GIS, remote sensing etc. with special  focus on prior experience in independent research and image analysis.

The Postdoctoral Fellowship is for three years starting September 2024, though open to an earlier start.