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The EPA National Student Services Contract has an immediate opening for a full-time contractor position; Computational Fluid Dynamics Analyst with the Office of Research and Development at the EPA facility in Research Triangle Park, NC.

Salary: $30.76 per hour.

Travel: Occasional overnight travel may be required.

Required Skills:

  • Demonstrated education and/or experience in fluid dynamics and chemical kinetics;
  • Demonstrated ability to interpret data and develop models to pose and test hypotheses; and
  • Strong written, oral, and electronic communication skills.

Desired Skills:

  • Experience with Paraview.
  • Prior experience with any computation fluid dynamics post processing software (for example: Paraview, Ansys Fluent, Tecplot)
  • Prior experience with Chemkin and/or Cantera for kinetic modeling; and
  • Experience in R and/or Python programming languages.

Qualifications

  • Be at least 18 years of age and
  • Have earned at least a Master degree in the fields of mechanical engineering, chemical engineering, environmental engineering, chemistry, applied mathematics, polymer engineering, biochemistry, computational chemistry/biology, polymer chemistry, environmental chemistry, chemo-informatics or a related field from an accredited university or college within the last 24 months and
  • Be a citizen of the United States of America or a Legal Permanent Resident.

EPA ORD employees, their spouses, and children are not eligible to participate in this program.

What the EPA project is about

The Center for Environmental Measurement and Modeling (CEMM) conducts research to advance the Agency’s ability to measure and model contaminants in the environment, including research to provide fundamental methods and models needed to implement environmental statutes. Within CEMM, the Air Methods and Characterization Division (AMCD) develops, evaluates and applies advanced laboratory and field methods to measure, characterize, and analyze concentrations of pollutants in the air and at various emission sources.

As part of their mission, AMCD supports EPA’s mission to protect human health and the environment by developing and applying methods to measure new chemicals and minimize their environmental impact. One group of chemicals, Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), are a group of man-made chemicals that includes PFOA, PFOS, GenX, and many other chemicals. PFAS have been manufactured and used in a variety of industries around the globe, including in the United States since the 1940s. PFOA and PFOS have been the most extensively produced and studied of these chemicals. Both chemicals are very persistent in the environment and in the human body – meaning they don’t break down and they can accumulate over time. There is evidence that exposure to PFAS can lead to adverse human health effects.

This is an excellent opportunity for a recent Master’s graduate to collaborate with EPA’s research team. Research experience includes:

  • Executing and interpreting output of EPA’s CFS model, a combined computational fluid dynamics and kinetic modeling package;
  • Participating as a member of a PFAS research team;
  • Ensuring activities are in compliance with EPA ORD quality assurance (QA) requirements;
  • Networking and exploring many career paths at EPA.

Interested in this research opportunity? If so, follow the link below to apply. Questions? Email EPANSSC@ORAU.org