Postdoctoral Appointee - Coastal-urban Flooding

Argonne National Laboratory seeks a postdoctoral researcher to help build a high-resolution coastal-urban flooding modeling capability within the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM).

• The investigation of coupled land‑river‑ocean processes in coastal flooding applications by developing a coupled E3SM configuration that incorporates a subgrid‑scale version of the MPAS‑Ocean model coupled with E3SM’s land and river components.
• Including wave setup processes into E3SM by coupling the E3SM wave and ocean components.
• Application of this coupled model to better understand extreme regional compound flooding within a global Earth system model. The aim is to enable realistic coastal flooding simulations within seasonal‑to‑decadal simulations and to advance DOE’s capability to assess evolving risks in coastal‑urban regions.

• Mesh design and high‑resolution data utilization.
• Develop and refine high‑resolution barotropic ocean meshes along U.S. coastlines, including incorporation of levees, jetties, and wetlands.
• Ingest and process coastal datasets (bathymetry, topography, land use/cover) to support accurate wetting and drying and bottom friction/vegetation drag parameterizations.
• E3SM integration and coupling: integrate two‑way land‑river‑ocean couplings with a subgrid‑scale ocean model to support upstream river boundary conditions and coastal inundation processes.
• Incorporate wave setup effects by coupling WAVEWATCH III radiation stresses to E3SM configurations for coastal extreme water levels.
• Design and run event‑scale and historical simulations to validate coastal water levels, tides, and storm surge against observations for representative extreme and sequential events.
• Analyze model performance and sensitivity (e.g., drag schemes, mesh resolution, feature representation); document improvements and limitations.
• Collaboration, mentoring, and dissemination.
• Collaborate with DOE E3SM, ICoM, and InteRFACE projects as well as university partners on coastal methods and validation strategies.
• Mentor summer students on data analysis and visualization workflows.
• Publish in peer‑reviewed journals, present at scientific conferences, and contribute to open‑source code repositories and documentation.

• PhD in physical oceanography, coastal engineering, computational science, Earth system science, applied mathematics, or a related field.
• Experience with one or more coastal/ocean modeling systems (e.g., MPAS‑Ocean, ADCIRC, ROMS, NEMO, WAVEWATCH III) and familiarity with barotropic/baroclinic ocean processes, tides, storm surge, and coastal inundation.
• Proficiency in scientific programming (Fortran/C/C++), Python‑based analysis, version control (Git), and working in Linux/HPC environments (MPI, batch schedulers).
• Hands‑on experience with geospatial data processing (NetCDF/HDF5, GDAL, xarray) and coastal datasets (e.g., GEBCO/ETOPO, USGS/NOAA/NCEI), including mesh generation and quality control.
• Strong communication skills and a record of peer‑reviewed publications.
• Ability to model Argonne’s core values of impact, respect, safety, integrity, and teamwork.

• Direct experience with MPAS‑Ocean and/or E3SM, variable‑ or unstructured‑resolution mesh tools (e.g., JIGSAW, MOAB), and wetting‑drying schemes for coastal inundation.
• Experience in model coupling frameworks (e.g., CIME/ESMF/NUOPC), wave‑surge interactions, and coastal nutrient/salinity flux transport.
• Familiarity with leadership‑class computing environments (ALCF/NERSC/OLCF).
• Evidence of collaborative, team‑based research and mentoring of students.

Job Family:
Postdoctoral

Job Profile:
Postdoctoral Appointee

Worker Type:
Long‑Term (Fixed Term)

Time Type:
Full time

The expected hiring range for this position is $70,758.00-$.

Additionally, comprehensive benefits are part of the total rewards package.