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). This position focuses on

• 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.

Other key responsibilities include:

• 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.
• Validation and application.
• 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.

Position Requirements

Required skills, knowledge and qualifications:

• 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.

Preferred qualifications:

• 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-$117,925.00.

Please note that the pay range information is a general guideline only. The pay offered to a selected candidate will be determined based on factors such as, but not limited to, the scope and responsibilities of the position, the qualifications of the selected candidate, business considerations, internal equity, and external market pay for comparable jobs. Additionally, comprehensive benefits are part of the total rewards package.

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