Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Homepage: https://careers.pnnl.gov/jobs/10985?lang=en-us

For the full job ad and to apply please visit: https://careers.pnnl.gov/jobs/10985?lang=en-us

Job Description

Overview

At PNNL, our core capabilities are divided among major departments that we refer to as Directorates within the Lab, focused on a specific area of scientific research or other function, with its own leadership team and dedicated budget.

Our Science & Technology directorates include National Security, Earth and Biological Sciences, Physical and Computational Sciences, and Energy and Environment. In addition, we have an Environmental Molecular Sciences Laboratory, a Department of Energy, Office of Science user facility housed on the PNNL campus.

The Energy and Environment Directorate delivers science and technology solutions for the nation’s biggest energy and environmental challenges. Our more than 1,700 staff support the Department of Energy (DOE), delivering on key DOE mission areas including: modernizing our nation’s power grid to maintain a reliable, affordable, secure, and resilient electricity delivery infrastructure; research, development, validation, and effective utilization of renewable energy and efficiency technologies that improve the affordability, reliability, resiliency, and security of the American energy system; and resolving complex issues in nuclear science, energy, and environmental management.

The Coastal Sciences Division, part of the Energy and Environment Directorate, is headquartered at PNNL-Sequim, on Washington State’s Olympic Peninsula. Our unique facility is the Department of Energy’s only marine research laboratory, and the capabilities of its researchers deliver science and technology critical to the nation’s energy, environmental, and security future. 

 We focus on research related to marine and coastal resources, environmental chemistry, water resources modeling, marine engineering, environmental modeling and monitoring, and national security—the division is an emerging leader in three areas: 

• Enabling sustainable development of ocean energy 
• Understanding and mitigating long-term impacts of human activities, including climate change, on marine resources 
• Protecting coastal environments from security threats.

Responsibilities

The Fundamental & Applied Biogeochemistry Team at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is soliciting applications for a Post Doctorate Research Associate position studying forest trace gas cycling. The successful applicant will conduct field studies and laboratory experiments to establish new mechanistic understanding of how trees cycle trace gases such as methane and nitrous oxide. This data will be used to develop reduced order models for testing hypotheses based on the physics of trace gas transport through woody tissues and train machine learning-enabled models to identify the strongest and most transferable predictors of tree trace gas fluxes. Field studies will span continental scale gradients in precipitation and temperature and also leverage two large scale forest flood manipulation experiments in Ohio and Maryland.

The primary objectives of this research is to 1) determine how water-filled pore spaces influence gas transport mechanisms from soils, through tree stems, to the atmosphere based on wood anatomy and hydrological drivers; and 2) evaluate how trace gas production and consumption is affected by the redox state, moisture content, and temperature experienced by microbial communities living inside tree wood and bark.

The successful candidate will work with a collaborative team of researchers focused on biogeochemical cycling across different Earth system components including forests, wetlands, and coasts.

• Conduct lab and field-based studies as part of the projects outlined above
• Collaborate with other team members to develop physics-based and machine learning enabled models
• Operate analytical equipment (e.g., trace gas analyzers, field sensors, and other lab instrumentation)
  Test novel methods for assessing drivers of tree trace gas cycling (e.g., electrical resistivity tomography, sonic tomography)
• Analyze and visualize data field and lab studies
• Disseminate results in peer-reviewed publications
• Engage in collaborations across large project teams

The position will be based at the PNNL Sequim campus in Sequim, WA. The role will involve conducting field work in forest environments with uneven terrain. Field work may involve using ladders, canopy access cranes, and other means of accessing high up the stem of trees for trace gas measurements with appropriate fall protection training.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• Candidates must have received a PhD within the past five years (60 months) or within the next 8 months from an accredited college or university.

Preferred Qualifications:

• PhD in a Chemical, Physical, Biological, or Environmental Science from an accredited institution
• Experience with R or other programming languages for statistical analyses and/or machine learning
• Familiarity with studying environmental trace gas cycling and operating relevant instrumentation
• Forestry science experience or experience studying trace gases in other environments such as wetlands or inland waters
• Experience working in diverse and interdisciplinary teams

Please visit: https://careers.pnnl.gov/jobs/10985?lang=en-us