Postdoctoral Fellow-Walker Department of Mechancial Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering

Postdoctoral Fellow - Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering, Cockrell School of Engineering

This postdoctoral appointment is responsible for the development and maintenance of a digital twin of the University of Texas at Austin Nuclear Engineering Teaching Lab (NETL) TRIGA reactor. It supports research through technical contributions to digital twin development and collaboration with Dr. Kevin Clarno and other faculty in the Nuclear and Radiation Engineering Program to advance research in nuclear reactor multiphysics, digital twin methods, and uncertainty quantification for high‑performance computing platforms using VERA, MOOSE, and/or Shift.

Additional duties include supervising students, preparing journal publications, and assisting with research proposals. The position is renewable annually based on performance, progress, and funding.

Advance the development of a digital twin framework for the NETL TRIGA reactor and support the broader goals of the Texas Nuclear Digital Twin Program.

• Conduct independent research.
• Mentor students in the research group.
• Publish results in peer‑reviewed journals.
• Support faculty in writing research grant proposals.

• PhD in nuclear engineering, computational science, artificial intelligence, data science, or a related field completed within the last three years.
• Strong publication history demonstrating innovation in computational science and engineering.
• Ability to contribute to interdisciplinary research in computational engineering, applied mathematics, and/or uncertainty quantification.
• Ability to obtain source code access to export controlled nuclear software, including VERA.

• Experience in methods and software development related to reactor physics, computational methods, machine learning, and data science.
• Proficiency in modern software development practices, GIT‑based version control, high‑performance computing platforms, and object‑oriented programming.
• Public code repositories demonstrating major contributions.

Base salary of $80,000 plus depending on qualifications.

The University of Texas at Austin is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer and complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination and affirmative action. The university is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, religion or veteran status.