Description
Carnegie Mellon University invites applications for a senior faculty position and the role of Director of the McWilliams Center for Cosmology & Astrophysics. The appointment will be at the rank of Full or Associate Professor, with tenure, with a primary appointment in the Department of Physics and a joint appointment in either the Machine Learning Department or the Department of Statistics & Data Science, according to the successful applicant's expertise and research program.
We seek an internationally recognized researcher with an ambitious scientific vision for the future of astrophysics and particular strength at the interface of astronomy with artificial intelligence, machine learning, statistics, or data science. We are interested in researchers whose work both advances astrophysical science and makes substantive contributions to machine learning, statistics, or data science, rather than only applying existing methods to astrophysical problems. A particular strength of Carnegie Mellon is its breadth across both modern AI and machine learning and more traditional statistical and data-science approaches. We value research that develops and applies the methods best suited to the scientific problem, drawing on this full range of expertise.
Founded in 2007, the McWilliams Center is the interdisciplinary hub for astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology at Carnegie Mellon. The Center currently includes 27 affiliated faculty from Physics, Statistics & Data Science, and Machine Learning who advise graduate students working within the Center. Its activities include the McWilliams Postdoctoral Fellowship, whose alumni have a strong record of placement in faculty positions, as well as seminars, conferences, visitor programs, and seed funding. A new Ph.D. program in Astronomy and Astrophysics began in Fall 2025 and provides students with opportunities to combine astrophysics with advanced training in statistics and machine learning.
The next Director will lead a significant new stage in the Center's development. The Center is expanding to become a distinct interdisciplinary entity across three colleges of the University, the Mellon College of Science, the School of Computer Science, and the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences, with strengthened participation by faculty from across Carnegie Mellon. A central charge of the next Director will be to lead this transition and shape the Center's governance, research priorities, faculty participation, graduate and postdoctoral programs, and broader institutional strategy.
The Center has recently attracted substantial collaborative support at the astronomy, AI, and statistics interface. Recent successes include a Simons Foundation Targeted Grant to Institutions supporting the Keystone Astronomy & AI Visiting Fellows Program and two separately funded astronomy and AI projects involving Center faculty through the U.S. Department of Energy's Genesis Mission. The Center also hosts the CMU team for the Schmidt Sciences-supported LINCC Frameworks project, for which Carnegie Mellon is a lead institution. Center faculty play leading roles in major current and future astronomical surveys and experiments, including the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, DESI, the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, LISA, and other international collaborations.
The Center has a longstanding relationship with the Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, which hosts its dedicated Vera computing cluster and supports collaborations with PSC staff. In parallel, major new computing facilities are becoming available through Carnegie Mellon's university-wide research computing initiative, including large-scale GPU resources for AI-enabled science. The next Director will have the opportunity to help shape how these expanding resources are made available to the McWilliams community and to ensure that the Center has the computational capabilities needed for its future scientific program.
As Director, the successful applicant will be expected to set an ambitious scientific direction for the Center, strengthen connections among astrophysics, statistics, and machine learning across Carnegie Mellon, build major collaborative research efforts, and expand partnerships with industry and other external organizations. The Director will also mentor researchers at multiple career stages and provide intellectual and strategic leadership for the Center.
The next Director will arrive at a moment of major new investment and opportunity at Carnegie Mellon. Ken Griffin's recent gift of more than $3 billion comprises a $500 million investment in the Kenneth C. Griffin School of Computer Science, $500 million to support other initiatives on the Pittsburgh campus, and $2 billion to establish CMU Miami, a new campus designed around interdisciplinary research and major scientific and societal challenges. We seek a Director who will actively identify and develop opportunities in interdisciplinary research in astrophysics and AI arising from this new investment, positioning us for leadership given the group's expanding ambitions in this area.
Qualifications
Applicants should have a distinguished record of research, a strong record of leadership and external funding, demonstrated excellence in teaching and mentoring, and a research program with strong connections to both Physics and the proposed joint department.
Application Instructions
For the initial application, applicants should submit:
1. a cover letter describing their interest in the position and in leading the McWilliams Center;
2. a curriculum vitae; and
3. a research and leadership statement describing major accomplishments, future scientific plans, how their research has previously and will in future advance the fields of astrophysics and the proposed joint field, and their vision for the McWilliams Center (maximum length: 5 pages including any figures).
Letters of recommendation are not required at the initial stage.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis beginning 8 November 2026. Long-listed candidates will subsequently be invited to submit additional materials and references.
