Oil Spill Hydrodynamic Modeler

Job Summary

The Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research (CIGLR) is seeking a hydrodynamic modeler to work with the physical modeling team at CIGLR and the NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) to conduct research on Great Lakes oil spill transport and fate. The research will utilize a state‑of‑art oil spill transport model, which will be forced by high‑resolution hydrodynamic‑ice model outputs.

The research will evaluate the applicability of the existing oil spill transport models to the Great Lakes freshwater environment.

Your appointment will be for 7 months from the start date, with the possibility of renewal dependent on the availability of funding and performance.

This position is open only to US Citizens or permanent residents due to federal security clearance required for access to NOAA GLERL facilities and resources.

• Verify lake surface current simulations from NOAA’s Great Lakes Operational Forecast System by comparing model outputs with available observation datasets (e.g., drifter buoys).
• Conduct oil spill transport model simulations for select scenarios based on the General NOAA Operational Modeling Environment (GNOME).
• Evaluate GNOME for application to the freshwater environment in the Great Lakes and identify gaps for predicting oil spill trajectories in different freshwater conditions (e.g., open water or ice‑covered).
• Attend regular project meetings and present research progress. Contribute to reporting materials.
• Present research findings at scientific conferences, and contribute to manuscripts for submission to peer‑reviewed journals.

• A bachelor’s degree in physical oceanography, coastal engineering, or a similar field.
• Familiarity with data analysis and visualization in a scripting environment using R, Python, or similar software.
• Experience with one or more common geophysical data formats, such as CSV, NetCDF, and Grib
  2.
• At least one year of experience with Linux or Unix‑based computing environments.