Postdoctoral Researcher (PREP0002911) - Military Veterans

General Description
PREP Research Associate

This position is part of the National Institute of Standards (NIST) Professional Research Experience (PREP) program. NIST recognizes that its research staff may wish to collaborate with researchers at academic institutions on specific projects of mutual interest, thus requiring that such institutions must be the recipient of a PREP award. The PREP program seeks staff from a wide range of backgrounds to work on scientific research in many areas. Employees in this position will perform technical work that underpins the scientific research of the collaboration.

The position is for a postdoctoral associate level researcher interested and experienced in applied data science to work jointly with chemists, mathematicians, and computer scientists at NIST to participate in the characterization and modeling of properties and spectra of PFAS chemicals with the goals of improving detection of PFAS compounds, replacing PFAS in plasma etching processes, or identifying solid adsorbent additives to remove PFAS. To accomplish these goals, the candidate will participate in the development of AI/ML algorithms for the prediction of chemical properties, infrared and mass spectra, and ionization cross sections, incorporating uncertainty quantification into AI/ML models and providing useful information in aid of UQ in AI/ML models to discern patterns in physical properties. The position will be highly interdisciplinary, requiring regular communication between chemists, computer scientists and mathematicians working on modelling these compounds using experimental as well as data from chemistry/physics calculations/simulations.

The work will entail:

Key responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

- Developing novel machine learning algorithms for the prediction of physical and chemical properties, infrared and mass spectra, and ionization cross sections using data derived from experiment and computation.

- Implementing algorithms to study the performance of AI/ML classification models.

- Assessing uncertainty in prediction and classification of experimental data as well as data sets derived from quantum chemistry and physics calculations and simulations.

- Computationally testing mathematical and machine learning models with respect to accuracy and uncertainty quantification.

- Developing software to implement the goals stated above (most likely in Python).

- Disseminating results through posters/seminars at international meetings and university seminars.

- Ensuring that all results, findings, data, software, etc. are correctly archived and transmitted through appropriate channels.

Qualifications
- Completed a PhD (or close to completion) in data science or related field.

- Knowledge of or a desire to acquire knowledge about chemistry.

- Minimum of 1 year of experience conducting data science research.

- Significant course work in one or more of chemistry, physics, mathematics, statistics and/or computer science.

- Familiarity with one or more AI/ML software packages. Familiarity with relevant, domain-specific software packages is preferred but not required.

- Ability to program in a modern computational language (e.g. Python).
Application Instructions
Please upload the following (preferably in a single PDF) with your application:

- CV/Resume

- 2 professional references

Please limit C.V to 2 pages only

Do not include any personal information such as photos, home address or phone numbers

Privacy Act Statement

Authority: 15 U.S.C. § 278g-1(e)(1) and (e)(3) and 15 U.S.C. § 272(b) and (c).

Purpose: The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) hosts the Professional Research Experience Program (PREP) which is designed to provide valuable laboratory experience and financial assistance to undergraduates, post-bachelor's degree holders, graduate students, master's degree holders, postdocs, and faculty.

PREP is a 5-year cooperative agreement between NIST laboratories and participating PREP Universities to establish a collaborative research relationship between NIST and U.S. institutions of higher education in the following disciplines including (but may not be limited to) biochemistry, biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, engineering, electronics, materials science, mathematics, nanoscale science, neutron science, physical science, physics, and statistics. This collection of information is needed to facilitate administrative functions of the PREP Program.

Routine Uses: NIST will use the information collected to perform the requisite reviews of the applications to determine eligibility, and to meet programmatic requirements. Disclosure of this information is also subject to all the published routine uses as identified in the Privacy Act System of Records Notices: NIST-1: NIST Associates.

Disclosure: Furnishing this information is voluntary. When you submit the form, you are indicating your voluntary consent for NIST to use of the information you submit for the purpose stated.