USDA FS Postdoctoral Fellow

USDA FS Postdoctoral Fellow

Join to apply for the USDA FS Postdoctoral Fellow role at Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education.

To submit your application, scroll to the bottom of this opportunity and click APPLY.

• An application
• Transcript(s) – For this opportunity, an unofficial transcript or copy of the student academic records printed by the applicant or by academic advisors from internal institution systems may be submitted.  for detailed information about acceptable transcripts.
• A current resume/CV, including academic history, employment history, relevant experiences, and publication list
• Two educational or professional recommendations. At least one recommendation must be submitted in order for the mentor to view your application.

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)

USDA-FS-FPL-

1/9/2026 3:00:00 PM Eastern Time Zone

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis.

A fellowship opportunity is available with the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Forest Service (FS) within the Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) located in Madison, Wisconsin, or may be remote.

At the heart of the USDA Forest Service's mission is their purpose. Everything they do is intended to help sustain forests and grasslands for present and future generations. Why? Because their stewardship work supports nature in sustaining life. This is the purpose that drives the agency’s mission and motivates their work across the agency. It’s been there from the agency’s very beginning, and it still drives them.

To advance the mission and serve their purpose, the USDA Forest Service balances the short and long‑term needs of people and nature by: working in collaboration with communities and our partners; providing access to resources and experiences that promote economic, ecological, and social vitality; connecting people to the land and one another; and delivering world‑class science, technology and land management.

The mission of the US Forest Service Forest Products Laboratory (FPL) is to “to identify and conduct innovative wood and fiber utilization research that contributes to conservation and productivity of the forest resource, thereby sustaining forests, the economy, and quality of life.” The aims of the Statistics, Life Cycle Analysis and Economics Research Work Unit at FPL are to:
1) provide integrated economic information, analysis, and projections indicating how and why the markets and technologies for wood products change over time, implications for natural resources management, and selected broad environmental and social impacts;
2) enhance the integrity and efficiency of the FPL’s research efforts through the development, evaluation, and application of modern statistical methods; and
3) provide life cycle analysis of the environmental impacts of wood‑based products and uses.

The ORISE fellow will participate within a research project titled, “Structural modification and update of the U.S. national harvested wood products carbon model (WOODCARB II)”. US Forest Service has been using the WOODCARB II model to estimate and reporting of the U.S. annual harvested wood products (HPW) carbon stocks and fluxes. The goal of the current research project is to provide a timely update and modifications of the WOODCARB II model, as new science and methods have evolved since its development.

The selected fellow in this project will have the opportunity to contribute and advance their knowledge and skills in wood products carbon related research that will involve maintaining databases of U.S. national and regional wood products production, and consumption, and trade data, wood uses in construction and other end uses, losses of wood from their uses, tracking of carbon contained in wood products throughout their lives and after their end of lives, and statistically fitting the historical wood products carbon data while in use and in landfills after their discards.

The fellow will have the opportunity to enhance their communications skills…