PREP0004169 Thermoreflectance Thermal Measurements Researcher

PREP Research Associate

Opportunity No.: PREP0004169

This position is part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Professional Research Experience (PREP) program. NIST recognizes that its research staff may wish to collaborate with researchers at academic institutions on specific projects of mutual interest, and thus requires that such institutions must be the recipient of a PREP award. The PREP program requires staff from a wide range of backgrounds to work on scientific research in many areas. Employees in this position will perform technical work that underpins the scientific research of the collaboration.

APPLY ONLINE HERE

Thermoreflectance Thermal Measurements Researcher

Project Description:

The Materials Measurement Laboratory of the National Institute of Standards and Technology is seeking qualified persons to validate and improve thermoreflectance optical pump-probe thermal-property measurement methods, develop and refine instrumentation, optimize protocols, and provide thermal property data for thin-film and multilayer materials that can improve the performance, reliability, and thermal management in microelectronics packages and wide bandgap power electronics. The researcher will work closely with NIST experts in optics, thermal metrology, scientific instrument design, and uncertainty analysis.

Key Responsibilities: 

• Design, build, operate, and/or refine pump-probe instrumentation
• Operate and develop physics-based analysis software
• Measure thermal property data for internal and external collaborators and stakeholders
• Deposit and characterize thin films in the NIST NanoFab
• Present results at internal and/or external meetings as required
• Write and publish results

Desired Qualifications: 

• U.S. Citizen preferred
• Ph.D. in physics, optics, materials science/engineering, or other related field
• Experience in designing, building, and operating thermoreflectance-based measurement instrumentation 
• Experience in thermal metrology, thermal analysis, and optics 
• Experience in thin film deposition and thin film characterization 
• Experience with data modeling and programming (MATLAB required)

Other Details:

• Full-time: the participant is expected to work 40 hours a week
• Location: the participant will work at the NIST Gaithersburg Campus.
• Duration: this is expected to be a one-year position. Extensions are sometimes granted depending on the availability of funds.
• For questions related to the research project or the nature of the work in this position, please contact Dr. Joshua B. Martin (joshua.martin@nist.gov). For questions related to the online application or NIST PREP more generally, please contact  msu-nistprep@morgan.edu.

Privacy Act Statement

Authority: 15 U.S.C. § 278g-1(e)(1) and (e)(3) and 15 U.S.C. § 272(b) and (c)

Purpose: The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) hosts the Professional Research Experience Program (PREP) which is designed to provide valuable laboratory experience and financial assistance to undergraduates, post-bachelor’s degree holders, graduate students, master’s degree holders, postdocs, and faculty.

PREP is a 5-year cooperative agreement between NIST laboratories and participating PREP Universities to establish a collaborative research relationship between NIST and U.S. institutions of higher education in the following disciplines including (but may not be limited to) biochemistry, biological sciences, chemistry, computer science, engineering, electronics, materials science, mathematics, nanoscale science, neutron science, physical science, physics, and statistics. This collection of information is needed to facilitate the administrative functions of the PREP Program.

Routine Uses: NIST will use the information collected to perform the requisite reviews of the applications to determine eligibility, and to meet programmatic requirements. Disclosure of this information is also subject to all the published routine uses as identified in the Privacy Act System of Records Notices: NIST-1: NIST Associates.

Disclosure: Furnishing this information is voluntary. When you submit the form, you are indicating your voluntary consent for NIST to use the information you submit for the purpose stated.