GSRAs and Post-doc Opportunities at RPI ZZ

发信人: BK2008 (BK2008), 信区: Adv_Info
标 题: Post-Doc position at RPI
发信站: 水木社区 (Sat Oct 15 01:56:51 2011), 站内

GSRAs and Post-doc Opportunities at RPI

A graduate student research assistant (GSRA) opening is available for a student to pursue Ph.D. degree at Prof. Jie Lian’ group at Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Nuclear Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute starting from spring or Fall 2012 semester. A post-doc research fellow opportunity is also available immediately. The potential Ph.D. student and post-doc research fellow will work under a multidiscipline team consisted of the scientists from RPI, University of Michigan and DOE Pacific Northwest National Laboratory on the topic of “Radionuclide Incorporation and Long Term Performance of Apatite Waste Forms”. The major goal of this research project is to develop advanced waste form based on the apatite-structure type than can accommodate extreme complex waste stream, the key issue enabling next generation nuclear fuel cycles and waste management technologies. This project is based on a synergized effort of experimental synthesis, characterization and atomic-scale computation in gaining theoretical insights for designing and optimizing various apatite compositions.
RPI’s efforts will mainly focus on (1) materials synthesis of various apatite composites, and structural characterization; (2) effects of surrogate elements for simulating fission products and actinides on the crystal chemistry and phase stability; (3) performance evaluation of designed apatites including micro-chemical and structural evolution under relevant thermal and radiation environments simulated by ion beam techniques. The experimental efforts will be key to design and optimization of apatite based waste forms with enhanced performance, and crucial for the experimental validation of the atomistic scale computation based on DFT and MD. The student and post-doc research fellow will be exposed to a dynamic research environment with multi-disciplinary expertise of advanced materials for nuclear application, ion beam techniques for evaluating radiation performance and leachability testing for evaluating materials chemical durability, and atomic scale computer simulations.
Education backgrounds and research experiences in Materials Science & Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Condensed Matter Physics or Nuclear Engineering are required. Hands-on experiences on the microstructural characterization using TEM, materials synthesis and analysis (e.g., sol-gel, hydrothermal, sparking plasma sintering, solvent extraction) are desirable. It will be a plus if the applicants have previous experiences in studying apatite structure-types and their applications. The duties of the post-doc research fellows include: (1) performing independent research under the scope of advanced materials for energy applications; (2) preparing proposals for funding; (3) training graduate students and (4) disseminating the knowledge through scientific publications or reports.
Letters of application can be submitted electronically to Dr. Jie Lian at lianj@rpi.edu, and the application should include a statement discussing research interests, a curriculum vitae, and the names and contact information of three professional references
--