Postdoctoral Fellow; PREP

PREP Research Associate

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.

The project focuses on the development and application of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) techniques in structural wind engineering. This includes evaluating the effects of complex topography on wind loads on structures, quantifying uncertainties in wind loads estimated by CFD techniques, and applying AI tools to wind engineering applications. All CFD code will be developed for implementation into the OpenFOAM software.

• Developing procedures for estimating topographic speedup effects on wind over complex terrain
• Developing CFD modeling procedures for simulating wind flow around tall buildings surrounded by complex terrain and/or urban environments and implementing related codes in OpenFOAM
• Performing numerical simulations and quantifying uncertainties in the simulation results
• Analyzing simulation data and comparing them with measured data from wind tunnel tests

• Ph.D. in Engineering, Physics, Applied Mathematics, or a related field
• Prior research experience and contributions in structural engineering, wind engineering, Computational Fluid Dynamics, and scientific computing, including at least five peer-reviewed journal papers on applications of Large Eddy Simulation methods in wind engineering
• At least five years of experience with code development and maintenance using OpenFOAM CFD software
• At least five years of experience in using high-performance computing systems for massively parallel computational simulations
• Strong programming and analytical skills for pre‑/post‑processing and analysis (e.g., Pointwise, Paraview, Tecplot, MATLAB, and Python)
• U.S. citizenship preferred

The referenced salary range represents the minimum and maximum salaries for this position and is based on Johns Hopkins University's good faith belief at the time of posting. Not all candidates will be eligible for the upper end of the salary range. The actual compensation offered to the selected candidate may vary and will ultimately depend on multiple factors, which may include the successful candidate's geographic location, skills, work experience, internal equity, market conditions, education/training and other factors, as reasonably determined by the University.

Johns Hopkins offers a total rewards package that supports our employees' health, life, career and retirement. More information can be found here: (Use the "Apply for this Job" box below)..

The Johns Hopkins University is committed to equal opportunity for its faculty, staff, and students. To that end, the university does not discriminate on the basis of sex, gender, marital status, pregnancy, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status or other legally protected characteristics. The university is committed to providing qualified individuals access to all academic and employment programs, benefits and activities on the basis of demonstrated ability, performance and merit without regard to personal factors or demographic characteristics that are irrelevant to the program involved.