Post Doctoral Research Associate, Nuclear Data

JOB DESCRIPTION

Brookhaven National Laboratory's Department of Nuclear Science and Security advances cutting-edge research, development, and technical innovation to ensure the safe and secure use of nuclear technologies.

The Department serves as a resource in these and related areas to support the missions of the Department of Energy (DOE), the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and other national and international organizations. With a world-class staff of professionals with expertise in a broad range of areas related to the design and analyses of commercial, research and advanced nuclear systems, Brookhaven's capabilities and facilities are also available to support and execute experiments in support of these missions. The National Nuclear Data Center (NNDC), a part of BNL's Nuclear Science and Security Department, is the lead unit of the US Nuclear Data Program (USNDP), whose mission is to provide current, accurate, authoritative data for workers in pure and applied areas of nuclear science and engineering. This is accomplished primarily through the compilation, evaluation, dissemination, and archiving extensive nuclear datasets. USNDP also addresses gaps in the data, through targeted experimental studies and the use of theoretical models.

The NNDC is responsible for the Nuclear Science Reference (NSR), eXperimental Unevaluated Nuclear Data List (XUNDL), Evaluated Nuclear Structure Data File (ENSDF) and Evaluated Nuclear Data File (ENDF) libraries, as well as the Nuclear Data Sheets journal. The NNDC is also the main contributor to the EXFOR library. Web dissemination of these libraries is also one of the main activities at the NNDC.

In addition to the libraries and web efforts, the NNDC staff are involved in research relating to nuclear structure, nuclear reactions, nuclear astrophysics and nuclear reactor antineutrinos.

Nuclear Data activities started at BNL in 1952 under the Brookhaven Neutron Cross Section Compilation Group, changed to the Sigma Center in 1961, which became the National Neutron Cross Section Center in 1967 and finally NNDC in 1977, providing a nearly 70 years of nuclear data expertise to nuclear science and technology professionals

Position Description

The National Nuclear Data Center has an opening for a post-doctoral position in nuclear reaction evaluations and research. In this role, you will collaborate in developing a reaction data evaluation workflow for the Evaluated Nuclear Data File (ENDF), the world-wide resource for nuclear reaction and decay data. ENDF evaluations rely on the experimental data compiled in the EXFOR library. The EXFOR project contains all experimental low energy reaction data worldwide and BNL is responsible for data compilation in North America. In order to make full use of the data in EXFOR, experience in data science, machine learning (ML) and applications of artificial intelligence (AI) are helpful. This position has a high level of interaction with an international and multicultural scientific community.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Perform a critical review of experimental data in EXFOR and provide recommended values to be included in the ENDF evaluations.
• Using modern nuclear reaction tools, create ENDF evaluations relevant for applications in nuclear applications for energy, national security and basic science.
• Research, evaluate and implement ML and AI techniques for various problems relating to scientific discovery, workflow acceleration, and national security.
• Work in interdisciplinary collaborations with subject matter experts from a variety of domain sciences and security areas.
• Communicate research progress, challenges, and achievements, and engage within and beyond the department on new potential collaborations.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• PhD in nuclear engineering, experimental or theoretical low-energy nuclear physics or applied mathematics.
• Demonstrated experience in either of the following areas (a) data science, (b) theoretical nuclear reaction models and/or (c) deep learning-based machine learning and applications of artificial intelligence.
• Excellent programming and computer science skills in C/C++, Python or other modern language and ML codes such as PyTorch or Keras.
• Clear and concise oral and written communication skills.Applicant will be expected to prepare and deliver oral presentations, as well as write articles in scientific journals.
• Strong research experience (e.g. evidenced by publication record).
• Attention to detail.

Preferred Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Familiarity with the ENDF and EXFOR databases.
• Practical experience developing novel ML and AI techniques and models and applying such models to problems in nuclear science.

Environmental, Health & Safety Requirements:

• Must be willing to handle small quantities of radioactive materials.

Other Information:

• Initial 2-year term appointment subject to renewal contingent on performance and funding
• BNL policy requires that after obtaining a PhD, eligible candidates for research associate appointments may not exceed a combined total of 5 years of relevant work experience as a post-doc and/or in an R&D position, excluding time associated with family planning, military service, illness, or other life-changing events
• PHD must be completed prior to commencing employment
• This is a fully onsite position located at BNL in Upton, NY
• Brookhaven National Laboratory is committed to providing fair, equitable and competitive compensation. The full salary range for this position is $71900 - $85000 / year. Salary offers will be commensurate with the final candidate's qualification, education and experience and considered with the internal peer group.