The incumbent will join an interdisciplinary materials research and development team comprised of CRREL, ERDC, industry, universities, and other organizations conducting a wide span of basic and applied research for Department of Defense (DoD) and Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) applications. The initial focus of the research will include ice chemistry and optical properties; and materials for cold regions infrastructure applications.
Qualified candidates must have a familiarity with both hands-on, laboratory-based research, and computational modeling of those experiments. The interested scientist/engineer must have a strong background in chemistry and the operation of materials characterization and chemical analysis instruments. In particular, the candidate should have experience with LC-MS and/or FTIR and surface characterization instruments such as AFM or contact angle goniometry. Computational chemistry approaches such as DFT or MD will be appropriate compliments to the experimental topics at hand. The incumbent’s role in this research will include planning and executing lab-based and computational experiments, using a wide range of materials characterization and analytical chemistry equipment, writing technical reports and components of journal articles (with a senior PI), and other activities within both basic and applied materials research topics. The incumbent will be expected to regularly present research findings to team members and contribute to broader agency presentations. Mentorship is a key component of the team structure and will help to integrate the incumbent into the research team and interdisciplinary research environment.
The incumbent must be self-motivated and comfortable working independently within the team, while at the same time ready to ask questions and learn new topics. Highly qualified candidates will have strong communication skills in both writing and speaking, as well as documented examples of their ability to apply the scientific method to plan and conduct research (e.g., thesis and/or publication in peer-reviewed journal(s)).