NIST PREP Postdoc Associate in Transparent Performance Characterization of Measurement Systems in Forensics and Biology

This position is part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Professional Research Experience Program (PREP). NIST recognizes that its research staff may want to collaborate with researchers at academic institutions on specific projects of mutual interest and, therefore, requires those institutions to be recipients of a PREP award. The PREP program involves staff from a wide range of backgrounds conducting scientific research across various fields. Individuals in this position will perform technical work supporting the collaboration’s scientific research.

Research Title: Transparent Performance Characterization of Measurement Systems in Forensics and Biology

The work will entail:  Developing and applying statistical methods to characterize the performance of forensic comparison methods in ways that are transparent and usable by non-statisticians. A central motivation is supporting the responsible adoption of algorithmic methods for comparing forensic evidence, such as cartridge case comparison.  The goal is to provide information to help recipients assess what weight to give a particular comparison result, such as how method performance depending on conditions. Because forensic results ultimately inform the decisions of examiners, attorneys, judges, and jurors, the work emphasizes making the data and reasoning behind a performance claim visible and manipulable, so that recipients can form their own judgments rather than rely on an opaque summary or someone else’s sentiment.

Across these projects you will quantify uncertainty in measures of discrimination and strength of evidence, design studies to assess potential sources of performance variability, evaluate metrics intended to capture evidence quality, and develop analyses, visualizations, and software tools that let non-specialists interrogate what drives method performance.

A secondary thrust applies related ideas to measurement quality in other domains, such as the statistical analysis of live-cell monitoring data and creating analyses and tools supporting standards development for assessing the quality of cell-viability measurement systems. The balance between thrusts will depend on project needs and the candidate’s strengths.

U.S. Citizen Preferred

Key responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

• Developing statistical methods for quantifying uncertainty in the performance of measurement and comparison methods, accounting for potentially correlated data.
• Developing exploratory analyses, visualizations, and software tools that enable non-statisticians to interrogate the factors that drive method and measurement-system performance.
• Designing studies and conducting analyses that characterize and apportion sources of variability in measured or reported performance
• Developing and evaluating metrics and standards for assessing quality, such as the quality of forensic comparisons or of cell-viability measurement systems
• Presenting results at internal meetings, and occasional meetings with external stakeholders.
• Ensuring that results, protocols, software, and documentation have been archived or otherwise transmitted to the larger organization.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in Statistics or related field
• Expertise in distribution-free / nonparametric statistical methods and simulation-based uncertainty quantification; statistical decision theory (Bayesian loss analysis, cost modeling); time series analysis, multivariate statistics, and hierarchical mixed-effects modeling; statistical discrimination and classification assessment (ROC/AUC and related metrics).
• Expertise in exploratory data analysis and statistical graphics.
• Expertise in statistical experimental design and analysis of variance.
• Proficiency in Python and/or R. The team operates in a Python environment; development in R is acceptable provided the resulting tools can be executed within or called from Python workflows.
• Familiarity with the probabilistic programming language Stan for MCMC and reproducible research and version-control practices (e.g., Git).
• Hands-on experience with interactive application or dashboard development (preferred).

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.

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