PREP Research Associate
This position is part of the National Institute of Standards (NIST) Professional Research Experience (PREP) program. NIST recognizes that its research staff may wish to collaborate with researchers at academic institutions on specific projects of mutual interest, thus requires that such institutions must be the recipient of a PREP award. The PREP program requires staff from a wide range of backgrounds to work on scientific research in many areas. Employees in this position will perform technical work that underpins the scientific research of the collaboration.
Goals and Approach:
The PREP researcher will focus time on efforts that support the project: "Cost-Effective Resource Allocation Strategies for Community Resilience." (Applied Economics Office, Dr. Jennifer Helgeson)
It is expected that the PREP Researcher(s) will engage in all steps of the research process, including but not limited to: literature review, data collection, data analysis, preparation of reports and archival journal articles, as well as reporting and communication with stakeholders.
The objective of this role is to support community resilience planning through the development of methods and tools that evaluate the economic impacts of disruptive events and persistent stressors while accounting for stakeholder perceptions and associated decisions related to future event uncertainty and co-benefit (co-cost) valuation. There will be a special focus on criteria and methods to improve the resilient performance of structural systems in the built environment while maintaining cost-effectiveness and supporting community-defined objectives in addition to resilience.
This particular role is focused efforts to measure , quantify and qualify large datasets of public perceptions in order to: (1) increase public participation , voice and equity in federal and local environmental decision-making , (2) understand cultural variation in sentiments and perceived impacts of climate change and proposed policies and (3) develop an analytical method that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) reduce human analytical labor associated with summarizing public comment and perceptions of climate change and governmental proposed actions.
This research will explore synergies, and possibly tradeoffs, between adaptation and mitigation. It is clear that ambitious GHG mitigation is also critical to adaptation success. As noted by the AR6 IPCC Synthesis Report, "The effectiveness of adaptation, including ecosystem-based and most water-related options, will decrease with increasing warming". At the same time, some mitigation measures, deployed at certain scales, can have negative impacts on sustainable development and adaptation. For example, afforestation or production of biomass crops can have adverse socio-economic and environmental impacts, including on biodiversity, food and water security, local livelihoods and the rights of Indigenous Peoples, especially if implemented at large scales. Many gaps in knowledge remain about these synergies and trade-offs and frameworks for assessment. This work will highlight system transitions that can help exploit synergies and avoid trade-off, and also try to identify critical areas for future research. This will include: new modeling approaches, interdisciplinarity, bringing together qualitative and quantitative information, and developing more inclusive scenarios. The researcher may draw from peer reviewed and gray literature as well as research focused on cases in both the Global North and Global South for application to the U.S. context.
Key responsibilities will include but are not limited to:
Collaborate on data and methods to improve the methodology for measuring economic impact of community resilience planning, which is organized around the performance metric of 'cost plus loss' minimization - i.e., the economically optimal level of investment in prevention and mitigation activities to reduce future disturbance and disaster-related losses, as well as related expenditures that minimize the combined investment cost plus the value of expected losses.
Objectives
a. To develop a framework for using NLP to analyze policy documents, public comments, and social media posts at the intersection of community resilience and climate change.
b. To identify key conceptions, preferences, and stakeholder-perceived alternatives in (a) public comments and (b) social media data.
c. To quantify and understand uncertainty in the use of NLP and to provide verification and validation for the developed methods.
d. To develop replicable methods that complement existing community resilience economics methods for integrating, quantifying , curating, and communicating public comment features identified in 2.
e. To evaluate how public comments influence the development and modification of climate adaptation and mitigation policies, as well as community resilience policies and preferences.
§ Graduate degree in Computer Science, Economics, Social Science, Policy, Environmental Science, Law, or related field.
§ At least two years of relevant research experience.
§ Background in econometrics or statistics and at least two of the following areas:
o Applied microeconomics
o Climate change
o Decision-science or behavioral-science
o Environmental economics
o Environmental Law
o Environmental Science
o Non-market valuation
o Policy
o Regional economics
o Risk and uncertainty
o Social Science
§ Strong oral and written communication skills.
Please upload the following with your application:
- CV/Resume
- 2 professional references
*Please limit C.V to 2 pages only
*Do not include any personal information such as photos, home address or phone numbers
Privacy Act Statement
Authority: 15 U.S.C. § 278g-1(e)(1) and (e)(3) and 15 U.S.C. § 272(b) and (c)
Purpose: The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) hosts the Professional Research Experience Program (PREP) which 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.
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. This collection of information is needed to facilitate administrative functions of the PREP Program.
Routine Uses: NIST will use the information collected to perform the requisite reviews of the applications to determine eligibility, and to meet programmatic requirements. Disclosure of this information is also subject to all the published routine uses as identified in the Privacy Act System of Records Notices: NIST-1: NIST Associates.
Disclosure: Furnishing this information is voluntary. When you submit the form, you are indicating your voluntary consent for NIST to use of the information you submit for the purpose stated.
Salary Range
The referenced salary range represents the minimum and maximum salaries for this position and is based on Johns Hopkins University's good faith belief at the time of posting. Not all candidates will be eligible for the upper end of the salary range. The actual compensation offered to the selected candidate may vary and will ultimately depend on multiple factors, which may include the successful candidate's geographic location, skills, work experience, internal equity, market conditions, education/training and other factors, as reasonably determined by the University.
Total Rewards
Johns Hopkins offers a total rewards package that supports our employees' health, life, career and retirement. More information can be found here: .
Equal Opportunity Employer
The Johns Hopkins University is committed to equal opportunity for its faculty, staff, and students. To that end, the university does not discriminate on the basis of sex, gender, marital status, pregnancy, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status or other legally protected characteristic. The university is committed to providing qualified individuals access to all academic and employment programs, benefits and activities on the basis of demonstrated ability, performance and merit without regard to personal factors that are irrelevant to the program involved.
Pre-Employment Information
If you are interested in applying for employment with The Johns Hopkins University and require special assistance or accommodation during any part of the pre-employment process, please contact the HR Business Services Office at jhurecruitment@jhu.edu . For TTY users, call via Maryland Relay or dial 711. For more information about workplace accommodations or accessibility at Johns Hopkins University, please visit accessibility.jhu.edu .
Background Checks
The successful candidate(s) for this position will be subject to a pre-employment background check including education verification.
EEO is the Law:
Diversity and Inclusion
The Johns Hopkins University values diversity, equity and inclusion and advances these through our key strategic framework, the JHU Roadmap on Diversity and Inclusion .
Vaccine Requirements
Johns Hopkins University strongly encourages, but no longer requires, at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The COVID-19 vaccine does not apply to positions located in the State of Florida. We still require all faculty, staff, and students to receive the seasonal flu vaccine . Exceptions to the COVID and flu vaccine requirements may be provided to individuals for religious beliefs or medical reasons. Requests for an exception must be submitted to the JHU vaccination registry. This change does not apply to the School of Medicine (SOM). SOM hires must be fully vaccinated with an FDA COVID-19 vaccination and provide proof of vaccination status. For additional information, applicants for SOM positions should visit and all other JHU applicants should visit .
The following additional provisions may apply, depending upon campus. Your recruiter will advise accordingly. The pre-employment physical for positions in clinical areas, laboratories, working with research subjects, or involving community contact requires documentation of immune status against Rubella (German measles), Rubeola (Measles), Mumps, Varicella (chickenpox), Hepatitis B and documentation of having received the Tdap (Tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis) vaccination. This may include documentation of having two (2) MMR vaccines; two (2) Varicella vaccines; or antibody status to these diseases from laboratory testing. Blood tests for immunities to these diseases are ordinarily included in the pre-employment physical exam except for those employees who provide results of blood tests or immunization documentation from their own health care providers. Any vaccinations required for these diseases will be given at no cost in our Occupational Health office.
About Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University remains committed to its founding principle, that education for all students should be grounded in exploration and discovery. Hopkins students are challenged not just to learn but also to advance learning itself. Critical thinking, problem solving, creativity, and entrepreneurship are all encouraged and nourished in this unique educational environment. After more than 130 years, Johns Hopkins remains a world leader in both teaching and research. Faculty members and their research colleagues at the university's Applied Physics Laboratory have each year since 1979 won Johns Hopkins more federal research and development funding than any other university. The university has nine academic divisions and campuses throughout the Baltimore-Washington area. The Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, the Whiting School of Engineering, the School of Education and the Carey Business School are based at the Homewood campus in northern Baltimore. The schools of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing share a campus in east Baltimore with The Johns Hopkins Hospital. The Peabody Institute, a leading professional school of music, is located on Mount Vernon Place in downtown Bal ... timore. The Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies is located in Washington's Dupont Circle area.
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