Postdoctoral Research Fellow - Midwest Regional Energy Symbiosis

Company Description

The University of Notre Dame is more than a workplace! We are a vibrant, mission-driven community where every employee is valued and supported. Rooted in a tradition of excellence and inspired by our Catholic character, Notre Dame is committed to fostering an environment of care that nurtures the whole person—mind, body, and spirit. Here, you will find a deep sense of belonging, a culture that prioritizes well-being, and the opportunity to grow your career while being a force for good in the world. Whether contributing to world-class research, shaping the student experience, or supporting the University’s mission in other ways, you will be part of a dedicated team working to make a meaningful impact on campus and beyond. At Notre Dame, your work matters, and so do you!

Job Description

This Postdoctoral Fellow position is being managed through a separate application system. We are sharing here to increase visibility and accessibility. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis starting on September 1, 2026, and will continue until the position is filled. Apply here if you are interested.

The University of Notre Dame invites applications for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to join a collaborative, interdisciplinary team of researchers from Notre Dame, Indiana University, Purdue University, and the University of Wisconsin to develop and pilot an AI-enabled material flow and industrial symbiosis framework that connects energy, water, and resource loops. This innovative research engages the Midwest's strong presence in manufacturing, agricultural landscapes, construction activity, and freshwater resources as a living regional laboratory to develop transferable methods for mapping, modeling, and evaluating industrial symbiosis opportunities across interconnected energy, water, material, agricultural, industrial, and construction systems. The postdoctoral fellow will serve as the central analytical and coordination lead for the project, working under the technical guidance of the PI and co-investigators.

The postdoctoral fellow will contribute to key project outcomes, including, but not limited to:

• Developing an innovative industrial symbiosis framework that outlines short-term feasible and long-term transformative cross-sector exchanges.
• Creating a transparent AI-enabled and replicable methodology that can be adapted to other Midwestern and U.S. regions to support energy-water-resource engineering and circular economy research. 
• Coordinating meetings and work with faculty teams and other research assistants. 
• Lead the co-authorship of interdisciplinary, peer-reviewed publications in high impact journals and develop the foundation for future grant proposals.

The postdoctoral fellow will assume the following key responsibilities:

• Compiling, managing, and integrating geospatial and infrastructure datasets related to industrial facilities, manufacturing processes, water and wastewater systems, solid waste streams, agricultural production, energy systems, construction-related material demand, and secondary resource flows.
• Developing regional material flow inventories that identify major sources, sinks, transformation points, and potential exchange pathways. 
• Conducting industrial symbiosis screening to identify feasible cross-sector resource exchanges. 
• Supporting the development of transparent AI-enabled assessment methods.
• Conducting simplified material flow analysis, life-cycle assessment, and techno-economic screening to evaluate selected symbiosis pathways.
• Preparing technical briefs, maps, diagrams, scenario portfolios, and visualizations to support team coordination and communication with public and private sector partners.
• Producing first drafts of scholarly manuscripts and contributing technical content, preliminary results, figures, and supporting analyses for follow-on grant proposals.

This search is conducted with leadership from Notre Dame’s Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative, a University-wide effort to build a sustainable future where people and nature flourish together. The Initiative supports an interdisciplinary cohort of postdoctoral scholars dedicated to advancing sustainability research grounded in the principles of integral ecology and integral human development.

This is a full-time position available with an initial appointment of one-year, renewable for an additional year on the basis of satisfactory performance and availability of funding.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. (in hand by the starting date) in industrial ecology, environmental engineering, civil and envi