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Job Opportunities within IGC

Theoretical research at the Institute spans a broad spectrum of areas including geometry, analysis, computational science, particle astrophysics, general relativity, cosmology, quantum gravity and string theory. On the observational side, members of the Institute play a central role in major international initiatives including the Pierre Auger Cosmic Ray Observatory, the IceCube Neutrino Observatory, LIGO (Laser Interferometric Gravitational Wave Observatory) and the SWIFT Gamma Ray Burst Explorer Satellite. There are ample research opportunities for undergraduate and graduate students as well as post-doctoral scholars in all these areas.

At Penn State, through its inter-disciplinary research the Institute fosters scientific interactions between several departments and Centers in the Eberly College of Science. Similarly, the Center for Gravitational Wave Physics and the Center for Particle Astrophysics routinely deal with phenomenally large data sets which can provide challenging problems at the forefront of computational science. These offer opportunities for collaboration with experts on data mining and/or image analysis at the College of Information Science and Technology, particularly on the problem of giant pattern recognition. In recent years a large number of honors students in the Schreyer College have carried out research under the guidance of our faculty. In addition, several distinguished visiting scientists, including Roger Penrose, have given talks and held discussion sessions at this College.

About our wordmark
Monica The IGC wordmark was created by Monica Rincon Ramirez, while she was a graduate student at the Institute for Gravitation and the Cosmos (IGC). Monica enjoys drawing new connections between fundamental theory and observations. Her graduate work includes specialized topics in general relativity, loop quantum gravity, and quantum fields in cosmological backgrounds. In particular, her thesis work focused on finding effective quantum corrections to gravitational phenomena from spinfoams, and applications to cosmology. She received her PhD in 2024.

The wordmark symbolizes the scope and variety of research at the IGC. The base of the image represents quantum gravity, evoking the quantum geometrical picture from spinfoams and loop quantum gravity. These are among the approaches to fundamental questions studied at the Center for Fundamental Theory. The middle of the image represents the Center for Theoretical and Observational Cosmology by galaxies embedded in a smooth surface, characteristic of spacetime in general relativity and the much larger physical scales studied in cosmology. Finally, at the top, the surface curves to an extreme, representing a supermassive black hole accompanied by an energetic jet. These elements depict an active galactic nucleus, inspired by Centaurus A. Just to the right, a pair of black holes approaches merger. This top portion of the wordmark represents the Center for Multimessenger Astrophysics, which specializes in the study of high-energy phenomena in the universe.