Postdoctoral Research Associate - AI/ML for Land Cover Forecasting and Risk Evaluation

Requisition Id 12443 

Overview: 

As a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Science national laboratory, ORNL has an extraordinary 80-year history of solving the nation’s biggest problems. We have a dedicated and creative staff of over 6,000 people! Our vision for diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) is to cultivate an environment and practices that foster diversity in ideas and in the people across the organization, as well as to ensure ORNL is recognized as a workplace of choice. These elements are critical for enabling the execution of ORNL’s broader mission to accelerate scientific discoveries and their translation into energy, environment, and security solutions for the nation.

 

The National Security Sciences Directorate at Oak Ridge National Laboratory leads scientific and technological breakthroughs to confront some of the nation’s most difficult security challenges. We develop interdisciplinary applications needed for the security of our nation today and target our vision on how these challenges may manifest themselves in a decade or more. Our research and development focus on cybersecurity and cyber physical resiliency, data analytics, geospatial science and technology, nuclear nonproliferation, and high-performance computing for sensitive national security missions. We also enhance ORNL contributions to national security challenges by working closely with leading researchers at the lab in areas such as nuclear and chemical sciences and engineering, applied materials, advanced manufacturing, biosecurity, transportation, and computing.

 

We are seeking a Postdoctoral Research Associate who will support the GeoAI Research Group within the Geospatial Science and Human Security Division at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) to leverage modern concepts of Generative AI and physics-based machine learning for land cover forecasting. Intended use of these capabilities include urban planning, hydrological modeling, and wildfire risk mitigation strategies. In addition to model development, research activities include the design of uncertainty estimation mechanisms and evaluation protocols that capture domain knowledge and application requirements.

 

Within the GeoAI group, you will have the opportunity to develop and publish on novel solutions to national and global problems using cutting edge physics-based machine learning, generative artificial intelligence, spatial and spatiotemporal methods. You will be able define and grow your scientific brand at ORNL through your success in projects, laboratory presentations and networks, and through the cross-directorate interdisciplinary teaming. You will also have an opportunity to grow your career with high external visibility by attending, presenting, and networking at peer reviewed conferences.

 

Major Duties/Responsibilities: 

• Contribute to the conceptualization and design of new data-driven algorithms for forecasting future scenarios of land-use from historical data and auxiliary geospatial data sources.
• Provide coding support to implement diffusion-based generative deep learning models conditioned on heterogenous geospatial data modalities including historical land-cover data, population density maps, terrain maps, as well as local climate zones and critical infrastructure data.
• Support the design of physics-based machine learning and uncertainty estimation mechanisms and evaluation protocols that ensure forecasts are constrained by urban theories and usable for downstream applications such as urban planning, hydrological modeling, and risk mitigation strategies.
• Participate in the development of proposals for research projects.
• Publish research results in journal articles, conference papers, and technical manuals.
• Lead by example to ensure all work is carried out safely, securely, and in compliance with ORNL policies, standards, and procedures.
• Exemplify a commitment to excellence in research, operations, and community engagement, and work cooperatively to leverage scientific capabilities across ORNL.
• Work in a highly collaborative environment with data scientists, machine learning scientists, remote sensing scientists, HPC engineers, earth and planetary scientists, and geographers to deliver research and development prototypes. 
• Deliver ORNL’s mission by aligning behaviors, priorities, and interactions with our core values of Impact, Integrity, Teamwork, Safety, and Service. Promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility by fostering a respectful workplace – in how we treat one another, work together, and measure success.

 

This position reports to a Group Leader and works closely with R&D Section Heads to implement the group’s scientific vision; develop group members to enable their career advancement; establish capabilities that enable pr