Associate Research Scientist (PREP0004292)
General Description
PREP Research Associate
Senior Research Fellow: AI and Community Resilience
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, and 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 collaboration's scientific research.
US Citizenship is required for this position.
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) with expert-level consultation on the use of AI to strengthen socio-economic analysis of community resilience alternatives.
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. The focus of this role is on the use of advanced AI techniques to augment traditional BCA efforts and to deepen understanding of socio-economic systems through the development of LLMs and automated Mental Modeling techniques.
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 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.
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.
e. To evaluate how narratives influence the development and modification of public perceptions and frame BCA questions in the realm of community resilience planning.
Qualifications
§ Graduate degree in Computer Science, Economics, Social Science, or related field.
§ At least four years of relevant research experience and ten years of teaching/advising experience.
§ At least two years of proven research in the area of AI use and development of LLMs and automated processing of Mental Models.
§ Background in econometrics or statistics and at least two of the following areas:
o Applied microeconomics
o Decision-science or behavioral-science
o Non-market valuation
o Regional economics
o Risk and uncertainty
§ Strong oral and written communication skills.
Application Instructions
Please upload the following with your application:
- CV/Resume
*Please limit C.V to 3 pages only and ONLY include a valid email address for your contact info. Your resume will not be considered if the following information is included on your CV/resume.
- Self portraits
- Phone number
- Home address/Country
- Languages spoken
- Sex/Gender
-
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: https://hr.jhu.edu/benefits-worklife/.
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
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Background Checks
The successful candidate(s) for this position will be subject to a pre-employment background check including education verification.
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https://www.eeoc.gov/sites/default/files/2023-06/22-088_EEOC_KnowYourRights6.12ScreenRdr.pdf
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 https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/coronavirus/covid-19-vaccine/ and all other JHU applicants should visit https://covidinfo.jhu.edu/health-safety/covid-vaccination-information/.
The following additional vaccine requirements may apply, depending upon your campus. Please contact the hiring department for more information. 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.