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 the development of a relational database for structural components. The researcher will collaborate closely with a multidisciplinary team to create a unified database of the seismic performance of structural components to inform the development of future codes and standards. This open-source SQL repository will capture experimental and reconnaissance data on damage, capacity, and repair needs for various structural systems, with the potential to extend to other hazards. This opportunity is part of a high-impact research effort focused on advancing the science of seismic performance and data integration for next-generation codes and standards, directly supporting research transparency and data reuse in performance-based earthquake engineering. **Key Responsibilities:** - Synthesize knowledge and extract design, response, damage, and repair data for structural components from experimental programs and reconnaissance reports. - Develop and manage a robust relational database focused on the seismic performance of structural components. - Develop consequence models for various structural systems to demonstrate the real-world application of the unified database. - Design and implement front-end tools or user interfaces to facilitate data accessibility for researchers and practiti