Research Group
See below for information on joining the research group, our group’s culture and expectations, and information on why we work at the University of Alberta.
Open Opportunities
Below is the current status of open positions but I am always interested in supporting motivated students and postdocs who are able to pursue independent funding.
Ideal candidates will have experience in data science (e.g. machine learning, statistics, Bayesian methods) and/or plasma science (e.g. fusion, astrophysics, space physics).
The research group is interdiscplinary and I support students who wish to join the group with various experiences (outside of those listed above), and those who have taken a break in their professional journey.
Undergraduate Students
I am not recruiting undergraduate students for summer opportunities (e.g. USRA/SUPRE).
Graduate Students
I am recruiting for Master’s and PhD students for Fall 2025 in
Physics(deadline passed) and ECE (still open). Potential projects include: predicting space weather at Mars, probability distributions of the solar wind, and planetary aurorae.If you are interested in joining the group please email me with: 1) a brief description of your research interests and how you see them fitting into the research group, 2) a brief description of your background (e.g. a CV or Resumé, unofficial transcript), and 3) what program(s) you are interested in.
Post Doctoral and Visitor Funding Opportunities
The following are several (always availiable) avenues to work with the research group. I encourage potential post docs and visitors to review these before contacting me.
- Banting Fellowship (open to all citizenships), banting.fellowships-bourses.gc.ca
- NSERC Post Doctoral Fellowshiip (Canadian citizens and permanent residents + additional statuses), nserc-crsng.gc.ca/students-etudiants/pd-np/pdf-bp_eng.asp
- NSF Postdoctoral Fellowships (US citizens and permanent residents only), certain opportunities can be held at University of Alberta new.nsf.gov/funding/postdocs#postdoctoral-research-fellowships-599
- More information is availiable at ualberta.ca/en/graduate-studies/postdocs-visitors/funding.html
Research Group Culture and Expectations
The Azari Research Group (ARG) aims to embrace and support a community of researchers to enable the following standards.
Seek Truth
- We create and share work that accurately represents our knowledge and our process.
- We create and share work that consists of our best efforts.
- We recognize the contributions of others in the pursuit of knowledge.
- We work to increase our, and humanity’s, understanding of the natural environment including space.
Embrace Curiosity
- We bring intellectual curiosity to our interactions.
- We ask questions to increase our understanding as lifelong learners.
- We are excited to collaborate and share knowledge across domains.
Support Community
- We value the perspectives and knowledge of individuals who have life experiences and identities different from our own.
- We seek to increase our awareness of historic, and present day, exclusion of communities and their contributions from knowledge sharing.
- We strive to ameliorate the impact of historic exclusion of communities, and their knowledge contributions, from our work.
Value Humanity and the Natural World
- We appreciate the intangible benefits of human to human, and human to natural world(s) interaction when pursuing automated methods and artificial intelligence.
- We recognize the importance of planned rest when seeking and advancing knowledge.
- We iterate on these goals regularly and support each other in enabling this vision as an evolving community of knowledge seekers.
This vision was last updated in 2025 by A. R. Azari with external feedback from S. Soler, C. Culha, and C. B. G. James.
University of Alberta
The U of A is routinely ranked within the top five Canadian research-intensive universities. This creates a vibrant ecosystem for pursuing data-intensive space physics and planetary work at the U of A.
Space Science @ UA
The U of A has one of the largest space physics programs in Canada with research in planetary magnetospheres, space weather, magnetohydrodynamics, and fundamental plasma physics. It is the lead institution of the CARISMA ground magnetometer network, one of the foremost ground-based magnetometer arrays for space science in the world, and of the RADICALS space mission.
The U of A’s Institute for Space Science, Exploration and Technology helps connect researchers across the University including student groups like AlbertaSat and research facilities like the University of Alberta’s Meteorite Curation Lab.
Artificial Intelligence @ UA
Edmonton is also home to the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii). Amii is one of three AI-research institutes named in the federal Pan-Canadian AI Strategy and consists of more than 35 artificial intelligence and machine learning researchers at the U of A. amii’s primary goal is AI for good and for all.