Postdoctoral Research Fellow

The George Mason University, Center for Spatial Information Science and Systems (CSISS), in collaboration with the Earth System Studies (SESS) Program and NOAA’s National Weather Service National Centers for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) Environmental Modeling Center (EMC), invites applications for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow position. George Mason has a strong institutional commitment to the achievement of excellence and diversity among its faculty and staff, and strongly encourages candidates to apply who will enrich Mason’s academic and culturally inclusive environment.

The incumbent will work at the Cooperative Institute of Satellite Earth System Studies (CISESS) with the Data Assimilation and Quality Control group at EMC in the NOAA Center for Weather & Climate Prediction (NCWCP) in College Park, MD. The successful candidate will perform research related to weather and air quality analysis and forecasting and possess a broad range of knowledge and skills including data assimilation, observation quality control, atmospheric chemistry modeling, high performance computing, and superior communication abilities.

Responsibilities:

• Work closely with scientists at EMC, NOAA’s Air Resources Lab (ARL), and other partner labs to enhance chemical data assimilation capabilities for the Joint Effort for Data assimilation Integration (JEDI) framework;
• Develop the capability of the use of additional air quality relevant observation types in the JEDI Unified Forward Operator (UFO) including working with observation processing and quality control procedures;
• Perform cycled experiments with atmospheric composition models and evaluate results toward the improvement of air quality forecasts;
• Publish results in high-quality, peer-reviewed journals;
• Present results at conferences and seminars.

Required Qualifications:

• PhD in atmospheric sciences or related field;
• Excellent written and oral communication skills;
• Experience in data assimilation and/or atmospheric chemistry modeling;
• Experience working in high performance computing environments;
• Candidates must be a U.S. Citizen or Green Card Holder to qualify (US Citizen must live in US for 3-5 years prior to application).

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience with data assimilation algorithms and computational systems;
• Experience with chemical transport models (e.g. the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model, or the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with chemistry (WRF-Chem));
• Familiarity with satellite-based and in situ air quality relevant observation datasets (e.g. aerosol optical depth (AOD));
• Proficiency in object-oriented Fortran and C++.

George Mason University is located in the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, and is the largest public university in the commonwealth of Virginia, with a diverse student body. CSISS is a university research center in geoinformatics. CSISS conducts research funded by U.S. federal agencies and international organizations. For more information about the center, please visit http://csiss.gmu.edu/.

Special Instructions to Applicants      

For full consideration, applicants must apply for position number F560AZ at https://jobs.gmu.edu/; complete and submit the online application; and upload a cover letter, CV, and a list of three professional references with contact information.

George Mason University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, committed to promoting inclusion and equity in its community. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, disability or veteran status, or any characteristic protected by law.