Post Bachelors RA - Electrical Separations of Critical Minerals

Overview

At PNNL,our core capabilities are dividedamongmajor departments that werefer to as Directorates within the Lab,focused on a specific area of scientific research orother function, with its own leadership teamand dedicated budget.

Our Science & Technologydirectoratesinclude National Security,Earthand 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 Physical and Computational Sciences Directorate's (PCSD’s) strengths in experimental, computational, and theoretical chemistry and materials science, together with our advanced computing, applied mathematics and data science capabilities, are central to the discovery mission we embrace  our most important resource is our people—experts across the range of scientific disciplines who team together to take on the biggest scientific challenges of our time.

The Physical Sciences Division stewards discovery science research portfolios including catalysis, materials science, separations, analytical chemistry, geosciences, and chemical physics. Our research strives to refine our molecular-level understanding of multiphase systems and phenomena including complex interfaces. We discover and apply new knowledge to address major national priorities and needs in energy sustainability through the development of new energy storage technologies and the creation of high-value fuels and materials from abundant wastes.

You will contribute to PNNL’s goals in experimental spectroscopy and chemical imaging as part of the Lab’s Physical Sciences Division. As a Research Associate in the Chemical Physics & Analysis group, you will join a talented, multi-researcher team supporting operando studies of critical materials separations using multimodal spectroscopy, interferometry, and complementary imaging techniques. You will be mentored by prominent researchers as you conduct experiments, obtain quantitative measurements of dynamic chemical and interfacial processes, and assist with developing and testing agentic systems for scientific experimentation, data analysis, and workflow coordination.

The resulting measurements and capabilities will support a wide range of practical applications in materials and chemical sciences.

• Contribute to the creation of reports and scientific publications.
• Interact, communicate, and problem solve with a diverse team of research staff across PNNL.
• Prepare and handle chemical and materials samples for operando spectroscopic and interferometric measurements.
• Conduct multimodal measurements using Raman spectroscopy, Mach-Zehnder interferometry, optical imaging, and complementary analytical techniques.
• Assist with the assembly, operation, integration, and troubleshooting of laboratory instruments and experimental systems.
• Analyze spectroscopic, interferometric, and imaging results using common data-reduction, visualization, and scientific software tools.
• Assist with developing, testing, and evaluating agentic systems for experimental planning, instrument coordination, data analysis, and scientific workflow support.
• Maintain experimental records, metadata, and documentation to support data quality, traceability, and reproducibility.
• Contribute to the creation of reports, presentations, proposals, and scientific publications.

• Candidates must have received a Bachelor’s degree within the past 24 months or within the next 8 months from an accredited college or university.

• Strong verbal and written communications skills.
• Experience with spectroscopy, interferometry, optical imaging, microscopy, or laboratory instrumentation.
• Experience conducting laboratory experiments involving materials, liquids, interfaces, or electrochemical systems.
• Familiarity with Python, MATLAB, LabVIEW, Origin, ImageJ, or comparable scientific software.
• Interest in developing or evaluating artificial intelligence, agentic systems, scientific automation, or human-in-the-loop research workflows.
• Strong attention to experimental…