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MONTEREY, California
Posted: 31-Aug-23
Location: Gaithersburg, Maryland
Type: Full-time
Salary: Open
Internal Number: A-130942-26
General Description
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.
Goals and Approach:
The PREP Postdoctoral researcher will focus time on efforts that support the project: "Cost-Effective Resource Allocation Strategies for Community Resilience." (Applied Economics Office, Dr. Jennifer Helgeson and Dr. Christina Gore)
It is expected that the PREP Researcher will engage in all steps of the research process, including but not limited to: survey (re)design and dissemination, data analysis, preparation of reports and archival journal articles, as well as reporting and communication with stakeholders.
The objective of this role is to support community resilience planning through the development of methods and tools that evaluate the economic impacts of disruptive events and persistent stressors, while accounting for stakeholder perceptions and associated decisions related to future event uncertainty and co-benefit (co-cost) valuation. There will be special focus on criteria and methods to improve the resilient performance of structural systems in the built environment while maintaining cost-effectiveness and supporting community-defined objectives in addition to resilience.
Key responsibilities will include but are not limited to:
- Collaborate on data and methods to improve the methodology for measuring economic impact of community resilience planning, which is organized around the performance metric of 'cost plus loss' minimization - i.e., the economically optimal level of investment in prevention and mitigation activities to reduce future disturbance and disaster-related losses, as well as related expenditures that minimize the combined investment cost plus the value of expected losses.
- Conduct statistical and spatial analyses of complex event resilience, specific to small business interruption, coping capacity, and recovery.
- Spatial analyses of extreme weather, especially extreme temperatures, over time using machine learning techniques.
- Conduct literature search and review of co-benefits and co-costs relevant to community resilience planning for acute hazards, considering other community objectives (e.g., to minimize loss of life, to maximize social equity, long-term sustainability goals).
- Collaborate on criteria and methods to improve the resilient performance of structural systems in the built environment with activities that address design criteria, codes, standards, and/or regulations for infrastructure design criteria and performance.
Qualifications
§ A PhD in Computer Science, Engineering, Economics, or a related field.
§ At least one year of relevant post-doctoral experience.
§ Background in econometrics and statistics and at least two of the following areas:
o Applied microeconomics
o Climate change
o Decision-science or behavioral-science
o Environmental economics
o Non-market valuation
o Regional economics
o Risk and uncertainty
o Input-output analysis
o Supply-chain analysis
o Survey design and methods
§ Familiarity with multiple scripting languages.
§ 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.