General Description

Salary: $83,000-$108,000 a year

PREP Research Associate Job Description - Community Planning and Emergency Communications

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.

Despite significant progress in science, technology, guidance, and tools related to disaster reduction, hazard events in the United States still result in significant direct and indirect costs in terms of lives lost, disruption of commerce and financial networks, properties destroyed, and the cost of mobilizing emergency response personnel and equipment. Community resilience, the ability to withstand the impacts of hazards and recover community functions quickly, is a local and national issue. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Community Resilience Program is (1) developing science-based tools and metrics to support and measure resilience at the community-scale (2) engaging community resilience stakeholders, and (3) conducting disaster and failure studies to develop expertise and metrology that support development and validation of community resilience tools.  

In addition to working with researchers in the NIST Community Resilience Group, the PREP participant will collaborate with NIST Hurricane Maria Program researchers on a study conducted under the authority of the National Construction Safety Team (NCST) Authority. The participant will contribute to the NCST study on Emergency Communications and help liaise across that focus area and the other Hurricane Maria Program projects. The PREP researcher will study emergency communications as well as power, water, transportation, and wireless communications infrastructure impacts, recovery, and decision-making, to make recommendations for increasing resilience through changes to codes, standards, and practice.

Key responsibilities will include, but are not limited to:

• Carrying out mixed methods research,
• Compiling and cleaning large datasets,
• Analyzing qualitative and quantitative data,
• Developing innovative methods and research directions that support field research and enhanced metrology,
• Presenting results at internal meetings, and occasional meetings with external stakeholders,

§  Ensuring that results, protocols, datasets, and documentation have been archived or otherwise transmitted to the larger organization.

Qualifications

§  A Masters Degree in a Social Science discipline,

§  5 years of relevant experience,

§  Expertise in qualitative and quantitative analyses as well as mixed methods research,

§  Knowledge of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies,

§  Familiarity with website development and management,

§  Ability to work with complex data,

§  Website development and visualization of data a plus,

§  Experience with Emergency Communications research a plus,

§  Strong oral and written communication skills.

Application Instructions

Please upload the following with your application:

-         CV/Resume

*Please limit C.V to 3 pages only and ONLY include a valid email address for your contact info. Please DO NOT include telephone numbers, home address or photos on your resume. 

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.

About Johns Hopkins University

Johns Hopkins University remains committed to its founding principle, that education for all students should be grounded in exploration and discovery. Hopkins students are challenged not just to learn but also to advance learning itself. Critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, and entrepreneurship are all encouraged and nourished in this unique educational environment. After more than 130 years, Johns Hopkins remains a world leader in both teaching and research. Faculty members and their research colleagues at the university's Applied Physics Laboratory have each year since 1979 won Johns Hopkins more federal research and development funding than any other university. The university has nine academic divisions and campuses throughout the Baltimore-Washington area. The Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, the Whiting School of Engineering, the School of Education and the Carey Business School are based at the Homewood campus in northern Baltimore. The schools of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing share a campus in east Baltimore with The Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Peabody Institute, a leading professional school of music, is located on Mount Vernon Place in downtown Bal...timore. The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies is located in Washington's Dupont Circle area.

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