Applications are open for Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Texas at San Antonio in the United States of America.

The candidates will assist in the planning and direction of research and to perform advanced scientific duties requiring special qualifications. Latitude for independent action and decision expected. Responsible for assisting with the direction of a research program; evaluation, long-term planning, design, implementation, performance, analysis and interpretation of a scientific research project; and for performing complex research assignments requiring the development of new or improved techniques and procedures.

Key Duties

A Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Texas at San Antonio is currently available funded by a National Nuclear Security Administration, Minority Serving Institution Partnership Program grant. The postdoctoral associate will conduct research in the Extreme Environments Materials Laboratory under the supervision of the principal investigator, Dr. Elizabeth Sooby jointly appointed in the Departments of Physics and Astronomy and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Texas-San Antonio. This position will be in the fabrication of relevant nuclear materials compounds and compacts including uranium oxides, silicides, carbides, and nitrides in addition to various uranium intermetallic compounds. Surrogate fuel fabrication, employing lanthanide analogs for actinides, is also of interest for these materials groups. Fabrication techniques of relevance are arc melt synthesis and traditional powder metallurgical methods (solid-state diffusion synthesis, sintering, milling, pellet pressing, etc).

Successful applications will also participate in experimental testing and characterization of fabricated fuels and fuel-surrogates. The experimental techniques employed for characterization will be thermogravimetric analysis, differential scanning calorimetry, scanning electron microscopy, and mass spectroscopy. The postdoc associate selected for this posting will receive training and mentoring in the use of various experimental and limited computational techniques, though prior fabrication and or metallurgical experience is sought in this call.

Required Qualifications

• PhD awarded in Materials Science (and/or Engineering), Physics, Chemistry, Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering or a related field.

The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) is a public research university in San Antonio, Texas. With over 34,000 students, it is the largest university in San Antonio and the eighth-largest in the state of Texas. It includes three campuses across the San Antonio metropolitan area that span 725 acres of land. UTSA offers 67 bachelor’s, 69 master’s, and 24 doctoral degree programs.