Postdoctoral Researcher - Engineering
The Environmental Laboratory (EL) provides relevant, value-added technology supporting the environmental mission of the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Army, the Department of Defense (DoD), and the Nation. Headquartered in Vicksburg, Mississippi, the EL’s interdisciplinary staff of over 220 engineers, scientists, technicians, and support personnel plans and executes all phases of the technology development process, from basic research to field implementation to commercialization. The EL staff consists of problem solvers who use research, development, experimentation, special studies, and technical support to address the needs of national and international business development partners. Partnering with Federal and State agencies, academia, and the private sector, the EL uses its distinctive technical capabilities to resolve complex, multi-disciplinary environmental sustainability problems.
The candidate will participate in stochastic weather generator research. Some specific research projects are described below.
- The candidate will, under the guidance of their mentor, enhance the methods and algorithms implemented in an existing hierarchical, multi-site weather generator capable of producing ensembles of stochastic multi-variant meteorological data for integrated water resource management and climate vulnerability studies. Tasks related to this item will include the exploration of: (a) classification algorithms for synoptic scale atmospheric states known as weather regimes; (b) various Markov methods to simulate transitions between weather regimes; (c) methods for simulating low frequency variability in precipitation records.
- The candidate will document and improve the existing weather generator's usability by producing, for example, a series of Jupyter notebooks containing: (a) a descriptions of its methods; (b) code executing the weather generator modules; (c) stepwise instructions for parameterizing and running the model; (d) links to external resources for further research; and (e) visualization aids (such as plots, tables, graphs, etc.) to help users understand the model inputs, errors and intermediate or final outputs.
- The candidate will carry out extensive tests of: (a) the weather generator, (b) specific enhancements described in above, and (c) Jupyter notebooks or similar usability tools (also described above) for a number of watersheds with varying hydro-climatological conditions.
It is expected that this research will lead to one or more published journal articles that will be co-authored by the candidate and mentor.
Length of Appointment
This appointment is a full-time 12-month research appointment, with the possibility to be renewed for additional research periods. Appointments may be extended depending on funding availability, project assignment, program rules, and availability of the participant.
Participant Benefits
Participants will receive a stipend to be determined by USACE. Stipends are typically based on the participant’s academic standing, discipline, experience, and research facility location. Other benefits may include the following:
- Health Insurance Supplement. Participants are eligible to purchase health insurance through ORISE.
- Relocation Allowance
- Training and Travel Allowance
Nature of Appointment
The participant will not enter into an employee/employer relationship with ORISE, ORAU, DOD, or any other office or agency. Instead, the participant will be affiliated with ORISE for the administration of the appointment through the ORISE appointment letter and Terms of Appointment.
Qualifications
Candidate should have complete his/her PhD in Engineering, Hydrology or a related field of study.
Useful skills, knowledge and experiences that a candidate could bring to this opportunity include: statistical analysis of climatological, meteorological and hydrological datasets, including spatial analyses; familiarity with stochastic weather generators; proficiency in working with large datasets; experience programming in the R and Python computer languages; strong technical writing skills.
Eligibility Requirements
- Degree: Doctoral Degree received within the last 60 months.