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BBD PREP Opportunities
About the Program
Created by NIST Boulder in 1991, the Professional Research Experience Program (PREP) 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. The program is intended to assure continued growth and progress of a highly skilled science, technology, engineering, math (STEM) workforce in the United States.
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.
Position Posting: https://softmatter.georgetown.edu/job-opportunities/
Position Description: PREP0002533 Postdoctoral Chemist for IR Imaging Analysis of Micro/Nanoplastics and Polymer Films
Weathered plastic surfaces shed various shapes and sizes of micro/nanoplastics (MNP). Understanding the MNP-producing mechanisms will help the industry develop strategies to reduce plastic pollution and facilitate sustainable plastic manufacturing. However, both polymer surfaces and MNP often exhibit chemical and physical heterogeneity, which makes the systematic study extremely challenging. Protocols are needed to image polymer films and resulting MNP in terms of chemical identification and structural characterization. Recently, our team independently demonstrated the world’s first 3D orientation imaging of polymer chains using infrared (IR) and coherent Raman microscopy. Also, we purchased a wide-field quantum cascade laser-infrared (QCL-IR) microscope equipped with polarization control, which will allow for 3D orientational imaging of both polymer films and MNP at high speed. We propose to develop a chemical imaging technique for polymer films and MNP with 3D orientation information. The wide-field QCL-IR microscope will be used to image the samples with high throughput. Employees in this position are expected to work on developing infrared spectroscopic imaging techniques for MNP and polymer films. The project will focus on identifying the challenges to IR spectral imaging of MNP for high-throughput quantitative characterization.
Apply for the position at the Georgetown-NIST PREP site. (PREP0002533: https://softmatter.georgetown.edu/job-opportunities/).
Contact: Young Jong Lee
Position Description: Engineering Biology Automation Scientist/Engineer
The Biosystems and Biomaterials Division at NIST is seeking to hire a laboratory automation scientist or engineer. The person hired for this position will help to lead the development of automation-based methods to create a measurement infrastructure for engineering biology. They will work with a multidisciplinary team to develop and program new automation methods and to facilitate rapid and flexible adoption of automation systems for a variety of biological measurements.
Contact: David RossPosition Description: Synthetic Biology Technician
The Biosystems and Biomaterials Division at NIST is seeking to hire a biology wet lab technician with expertise in synthetic biology. The person hired for this position will work with a multidisciplinary team to support the development and execution of a variety of biological measurements.
Contact: Elizabeth Strychalski