Postdoctoral researcher
The candidate will perform research that contributes towards securing the supply of critical materials in
the US.
The demand for critical material reliant technologies in recent years has been driven by the growing
requirement to store and process large quantities of data generated by AI, cloud computing and e-
commerce. However, the uncertainties associated with acquiring critical materials could potentially be
an impediment to scaling up the physical infrastructure required to meet future data storage needs. The
Data Infrastructure for Critical Materials Recovery project within NIST Engineering Lab’s Systems
Integration Division, explores factors that will enable a ‘pull’ for secondary critical materials embedded
in in-use products. Via a product Life Cycle Engineering (LCE) perspective, methods rooted in Industrial
Ecology (IE), Operations Research (OR), Complex Systems Science and Machine Learning (ML) will be
applied to develop metrics and predictive stochastic models that capture risks and uncertainties
associated with the domestic critical materials markets.
Specifically, this project requires the candidate to explore the development of industrial symbiotic
networks to enable the availability of secondary critical materials. The candidate will develop metrics,
methods, and/or tools that contribute towards gaining insights on the short, medium and long-term
market dynamics associated with critical materials to help American firms develop sound business
strategies for the future and also advance technical standards (with the ISO TC 323 on Circular Economy)
around secondary critical materials flows (e.g., quality and quality).
Data Infrastructure for Critical Materials Recovery
- A PhD degree in Engineering (Mechanical, Industrial or other) or a related field.
- 0-2 years of post-doctoral experience.
- A strong understanding of supply chains and product life cycles
- Ability to code in Python
- Strong oral and written communication skills
Key responsibilities will include but are not limited to:
- Carrying out fundamental research in the areas of IE, Operations Research, Complex
Systems and/or ML in the context of securing US critical material supply chains - Dissemination of results via high impact publications and conference participation
- Stakeholder engagement (with industry and other government agencies)
- Support the Project Leader in identifying technical standards development opportunities at
the ISO TC 323 on Circular Economy - Mentor visit summer undergraduate research fellows (SURF) via NIST’s SURF program