Postdoctoral Fellow

PREP Research Associate

This position is part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Professional Research Experience Program (PREP). NIST recognizes that its research staff may want to collaborate with researchers at academic institutions on specific projects of mutual interest and, therefore, requires those institutions to be recipients of a PREP award. The PREP program involves staff from a wide range of backgrounds conducting scientific research across various fields. Individuals in this position will perform technical work supporting the collaboration's scientific research.

Research Title:

Research Engineer

The work will entail:

We are looking for someone with expertise within the following technical areas: Computational wave and surge modeling with applications to coastal engineering; wave-structure interaction modeling with the OpenFoam-olaFlow system; hurricane risk modeling for buildings or infrastructure; experience with lab and field experiments.

If selected, you will work with a larger NIST team to conduct computational experiments to study the effects of coastal hazards, waves, and flooding, on the coastal built-environment to support the National Windstorm Impact Reduction Program's Hurricane Ian Study.

The person selected will work with the Engineering Lab's Materials and Structural Systems Division (MSSD) Structures Group with a focus on coastal engineering.

U.S. Citizen Preferred

Key responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

• Participation in the compilation of field data and other information on Hurricane Ian, and its associated hazards and effects on the built environment.
• Providing expertise and support in hydrodynamic simulations, computational fluid dynamics with applications to coastal engineering for (1) characterization of the risks posed by hurricanes and other extreme wind events on the coastal built-environment and (2) quantification of their effects on the performance of buildings, and coastal communities.
• Supporting the development and dissemination of Hurricane Ian's research results through presentation at conferences and publication of authoritative journal papers and reports.
• Supporting the development and/or revision of standards and codes for improved resilience of the built-environment against wave- and surge-induced hazards.

Qualifications

• This position requires a minimum of a PhD degree in Civil or Coastal Engineering or a related field.
• At least one year of specialized experience. Specialized experience is described as experience in applying computational techniques for simulation and characterization of loading due to hurricane hazards - including all of the following: wind, storm surge, currents, and waves - and their effects on coastal buildings, infrastructure, and communities.
• Experienced with running simulations of coastal engineering models on super-computers using Slurm, Python, Fortran, Linux, and AI.
• Experience conducting field and laboratory experiments in Coastal Engineering.
• Strong oral and written communication skills as evidenced by a record of publications in refereed journals using CFD and Coastal topics are expected.