| Location | College Park, Maryland |
| Hours | Temporary Full-Time |
| Applications deadline | 07/08/2026 |
Description
At PNNL, our core capabilities are divided among major departments that we refer to as Directorates within the Lab, focused on a specific area of scientific research or other function, with its own leadership team and dedicated budget.
Our Science & Technology directorates include National Security, Earth and 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 Earth and Biological Sciences Directorate (EBSD) leads critical research in four areas: Atmospheric, Climate & Earth Sciences, Biological Sciences, Environmental Molecular Sciences, and Global Change. Our vision is to develop a predictive understanding of biological and Earth systems in transition. We aim to understand energy and material flows within the integrated Earth system; to understand, predict, and control the response of biosystems to environmental and/or genomic changes; and to Model the Earth system from the subsurface to the atmosphere.
The Global Change Division is home to the Joint Global Change Research Institute (JGCRI). JGCRI is a global leader in the interdisciplinary field of integrated assessment multi-sector analysis. Research at the institute is conducted to advance fundamental understanding of human and Earth systems and provide information related to global change, energy, and environment that is unbiased and decision-relevant but not policy prescriptive. The institute is a partnership between PNNL and the University of Maryland, supporting research, modeling, and integrated analysis at the interface of human, energy, and Earth systems.
Responsibilities
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is soliciting applications for postdoctoral scientist positions advancing research, modeling and uncertainty characterization in the human-Earth system, as part of the Global Change Intersectoral Modeling System (GCIMS) Science Focus Area led by PNNL and sponsored by DOE BER. The successful applicant will lead analysis using the Global Change Analysis Model (GCAM; https://jgcri.github.io/gcam-doc/index.html) and related GCIMS modeling capabilities (e.g., Hector, Xanthos). Specifically, this scientist will focus on model, data, and scenario development to generate and analyze large ensembles of GCAM simulations that quantify the effect of changes in human and Earth system drivers on energy, water, land systems, and other important resource and technology systems, such as critical minerals and materials. The scientist is expected to be able to apply advancing artificial intelligence and machine learning tools to facilitate analysis where applicable. The scientist is also expected to lead multiple peer-reviewed publications on this work. There will be many opportunities to work with the multi-disciplinary GCIMS team as well as collaborators in other national labs and universities.
The GCIMS scientific focus area seeks to improve the understanding of the complex interactions among energy, water, land, Earth systems, socioeconomics, and other important human and natural systems at regional to global and near term to decadal scales. GCIMS is also aligned with supporting and contributing to the DOE’s Genesis Mission to advance a U.S. national initiative to build an AI-driven, integrated scientific platform to accelerate discovery in energy, national security, and technology. The GCIMS project develops and uses the GCAM model along with a suite of open-source, systems models that include Demeter (global land-use downscaling), Hector (reduced form Earth system model), Xanthos (global hydrology), and Tethys (global water demand downscaling). The postdoctoral scientist will have opportunities to contribute to developing these and build new tools for assisting the research and will be encouraged to develop AI solutions for model development consistent with DOE’s Genesis Mission.
Qualifications
Minimum Qualifications:
- Candidates must have received a PhD within the past five years (60 months) or within the next 8 months from an accredited college or university.
Preferred Qualifications:
- A background in engineering, physical sciences, applied mathematics, computational science, economics, hydrology, or related field.
- Strong verbal and written communication skills.
- A willingness to work both independently and within a collaborative team environment, and a proven capability to publish in peer-reviewed journals.
- Substantial programming experience.
- Experience with Python, R, and/or C++ is particularly useful. The applicant should have experience in and an eagerness to apply evolving AI methodologies to all aspects of the research and modeling.