Functional Title: Nuclear Materials Modeling Post Doc
Department: Basic Fuel Properties & Modeling (C640)
Location: Idaho Falls (EROB) - Town Facility
Access Authorization: BOA
Human Resource Contact: Wendy Kotter (208-526-8876)
Human Resource Recruiter: Thomas Steele (208-526-4378)

***This Position is a Project Hire Postdoctoral Research Position***
***Project Hire - Assignment Length up to 18 months***
***Multiple Positions Available***

Position Role:

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) is currently staffing a postdoctoral positions in support of the general area of Multi-scale Simulation of Materials Microstructure under Irradiation. This is a major new INL thrust in the Nuclear Fuels and Materials Division and also includes the new Energy Frontier Research Center (EFRC) for Materials Science of Nuclear Fuel. Successful applicants will join a rapidly growing team of materials physicists, applied mathematicians and computer scientists to conceive and perform theoretical and computational studies across a spectrum of length- and time-scale regimes to elucidate how materials microstructure affects the thermo-mechanical behavior of model materials, such as uranium dioxide and simple alloys. Examples of these studies include:

- Molecular dynamics simulation of irradiated and unirradiated nanocrystalline materials to identify fundamental microstructure mechanisms and their effects on thermo-mechanical behavior; the goal of these studies is the development of atomistic models for input to mesoscale models.

- Mesoscopic (i.e., microstructure-based) materials models and simulation to predict dynamic microstructure evolution processes, including the concurrent effects of irradiation on void and fission-gas behavior, grain growth, solid-state diffusion, crack nucleation and deformation.

- Scale-bridging approaches of mesoscale simulations up to the continuum level and down to the atomic and/or electronic levels

Additional Responsibilities will include:

**Develop Codes.

**Collect and analyze results.

**Write and review reports, papers , journal articles. Publish research papers.

**Present results, papers and analysis, at approved at national and international conferences, technical sessions, staff meetings and working group meetings.
Qualifications
Requirements include a Ph.D. in a theoretical discipline in condensed-matter physics, materials science, statistical mechanics or a related engineering field. Excellent written and oral communication in English is required, as is demonstrated expertise in technical writing and oral presentations. Also required is hands-on experience in code development and execution in one or more of the following areas:

- Molecular dynamics simulation of complex systems on parallel computer architectures with visualization and data analysis;
- Related computational methods such as Density Functional Theory (DFT) and kinetic Monte Carlo (kMC);
- Mesoscale computer-code development and modeling, involving computational approaches such as phase-field modeling, front-tracking and finite-element modeling;
- Awareness and a reasonable degree of familiarity with current state-of-the-art scale-bridging approaches.

Please Apply Before:
November 29, 2009 (midnight)

Equal Employment Opportunity
INL is an Equal Opportunity Employer M/F/D/V

To apply: Submit an application for consideration via our online system at http://www.inl.gov/careers and reference job number 4977.

Idaho National Laboratory is a science and engineering national laboratory dedicated to meeting the nation's environmental, energy, nuclear technology, and national security needs. INL is home to one of the largest concentrations of technical professionals in the northern Rocky Mountain region and has some of the most advanced research programs in the world.

The lab is located in southeastern Idaho on the Snake River Plain. Surrounded by some of the most beautiful country in the world including Yellowstone National Park to the north, the Teton mountain range to the east, and Sun Valley ski resort to the west, the region is a nature lover's paradise.