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:
GWU SURA PREP Research Associate for Community Resilience Program and Indicator Science
The work will entail:
The EL (Engineering Laboratory) Community Resilience Program will work in partnership with the GWU SURA PREP Research Associate to develop and refine components of the NIST community resilience assessment methodology (see below). This relationship will support the goal of delivering the best available science and tools to support the needs of community resilience practitioners.
The Engineering Laboratory Project, Development of a First-Generation Community Resilience Assessment Methodology, will develop the science as well as the tools and metrics for measurement of resilience at the community-scale. The assessment methodology needs to employ a complex systems perspective in order to make linkages between social and physical systems. Additionally, the methodology needs to address resilience over time on order to provide useful information to inform an understanding of the factors influencing recovery following a disruptive hazard event. The goal of this research is to develop a simplified, science-based guidance for the measurement of community resilience that can be applied for the purpose of assessing baseline resilience and changes in resilience over time. The methodology will ultimately be coupled with a systems model in order to provide a means of evaluating decisions for their contribution to resilience, among other factors. Because community resilience is a complex, multi-dimensional problem, it relies on engineering, social sciences, earth sciences, and other disciplines in order to improve the way communities prepare for, resist, respond to, and recover from disruptive events, whether due to natural or human-caused hazards.
Key responsibilities will include but are not limited to:
- Advancing the development of a methodology for measuring community resilience
- Developing guidance on validation methods for broad uptake
- Data analysis
- Development of presentations and publications
Qualifications
- A Ph.D. in engineering and complex systems, environmental engineering, or a related field
- At least 4 years of relevant expertise in research related to indicators, quantitative and qualitative methodologies, and complex systems or socio-technical systems
- Experience on interdisciplinary research teams
- Strong oral and written communication skills
- Ability to develop scientific presentations and publications
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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