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 requires that such institutions must be the recipient of a PREP award. The PREP program requires 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.
Research Title: PREP Research Scientist – Wind Engineer
The work will entail:
The Wind Engineer will support several research efforts that align with NIST projects. The engineer will: (1) support the ongoing investigation of Hurricane Maria’s effects on Puerto Rico, (2) lead studies to advance the scientific interpretation of tropical cyclone wind field model outputs and physical measurements during hurricane landfalls, and (3) develop instrumentation strategies, methods, and systems for collecting building response, environmental, and hydrodynamic data during coastal storm events to inform ASCE 7 standards development for coastal flood loading.
Key responsibilities will include but are not limited to:
- Topic: Hurricane Maria NCST Investigation
- Analyze wind tunnel datasets, including those from topographic models and pressure-tapped building models
- Compare wind tunnel results with ASCE 7 provisions
- Contribute to writing reports and other publications to document findings and recommendations
- Contribute to preparation and curation of wind tunnel testing datasets for public dissemination
- Contribute to planning and conducting implementation activities for the recommendations from the Hurricane Maria final report.
- Topic: State of the Art Report on Hurricane Winds
- Conduct investigations into surface wind field intensities of tropical cyclones
- Reconcile longstanding discrepancies in peak wind field intensities between field observations and numerical modeling
- Supervise postdoctoral researcher
- Topic: Planning for Field Measurements of Flood Loads and Building Response
- Develop field campaigns and strategies that capture perishable data on building responses, environmental conditions, and hydrodynamic loading during coastal storms
- General
- Present results at internal meetings, and occasional meetings with external stakeholders
- Ensure that results, protocols, software, and documentation have been archived or otherwise transmitted to the larger organization
Qualifications
- A Ph.D. degree in civil engineering or related field
- At least 10 years of relevant experience in wind and structural engineering
- At least 10 years of relevant experience in developing and deploying instrumentation for structural and coastal monitoring applications
- At least 5 years of experience in wind tunnel testing and related data processing and analysis
- Ability to work across disciplines of civil engineering and coastal engineering
- Data analysis, interpretation, and visualization skills, including expertise with MATLAB software
- Strong oral and written communication skills
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.
SURA is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We believe that no one should be discriminated against because of their differences, such as age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity and expression, religion, or sexual orientation. All employment decisions shall be made without regard to age, race, creed, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, disability status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information, marital status, citizenship status, or any other basis as protected by federal, state, or local law.
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