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: Hurricane wind speed damage impacts researcher
The work will entail:
Current US building codes utilize a 3 second gust wind speed over land for wind load design against extreme events. This project will involve research to improve understanding of differences in the ways that meteorological and engineering disciplines measure or estimate wind speeds in landfalling hurricanes, particularly to study the effectiveness of using the 3 second wind gust as it relates to the design and performance of community and building power infrastructure, given the long duration of hurricanes compared to other extreme wind events. Documenting the effectiveness or not of meteorological variables to assess and predict community and building power infrastructure resilience from wind, storm surge and wind driven rainfall in hurricanes.
This research will focus on landfalling US hurricanes of significance.
Key responsibilities will include but are not limited to:
- collecting, organizing, and summarizing data on landfalling hurricanes based on categorizations of the motion and life cycle of landfalling hurricanes, such as straight movers and recurving systems, systems undergoing a extratropical transition and more.
- 3 second wind gusts overland during the event
- Other Meteorological variables of significance to the built infrastructure of the communities during the event
- Combinations of meteorological variables to best capture the impacts to the infrastructure
Qualifications
- Master’s or PhD student with a major in Meteorology, and/or Civil Engineering, or a related field.
- Strong knowledge of tropical meteorology and driving forces for wind speeds within hurricanes
- Ability to collect, organize, and synthesize information and data from government reports, academic publications, and credible news sources.
- Proficiency with Excel, GIS, data analytics, or data visualization tools.
- Strong attention to detail and ability to manage, clean, and validate data from multiple sources.
- Strong written communication skills, including the ability to summarize technical findings clearly and concisely.
Deliverables:
- Organized data tables and GIS maps (where applicable)
- Comparative data and graphics to indicate which variables best captures the damage to the community power infrastructure to justify any necessary changes to codes and standards.
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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