Location: Gaithersburg, MD
Cap-Exempt H-1B Position — No lottery required
**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. A postdoctoral fellow is sought for a position in Structural Engineering to contribute to cutting-edge work on resilience-based seismic design of steel structures. This opportunity is part of a high-impact research effort focused on advancing the science of seismic design to enable the functional recovery of steel buildings at both the component and system levels. The researcher will collaborate closely with leading experts at NIST and academia to accelerate the development of next-generation seismic design and post-earthquake evaluation procedures. **Research Title: Design of Steel Structures for Functional Recovery** **Key Responsibilities:** - Synthesize knowledge from past experimental tests and high-fidelity models of structural steel components. - Develop new nonlinear finite element models to address key data gaps in steel component behavior. - Develop and validate functional recovery design limits for various steel components and systems - Translate findings into technical guidance that informs seismic design for functional recovery, post-earthquake assessment, and decision-making for structural engineers. - Conduct nonlinear dynamic analyses and consequence modeling across a suite of steel building archetypes to demonstrate the real-world application of the developed procedures. - Prepare high-quality research papers for peer-reviewed journals, and present findings at natio