Physicochemical Data Scientist - ORAU

The EPA National Student Services Contract has two immediate opening for a full time Physicochemical Data Scientists position with the Office of Research and Development at the EPA facility in Research Triangle Park, NC.

The Office of Research and Development at the EPA supports high-quality research to improve the scientific basis for decisions on national environmental issues and help EPA achieve its environmental goals. Research is conducted in a broad range of environmental areas by scientists in EPA laboratories and at universities across the country.

What the EPA project is about

The Center for Computational Toxicology and Exposure (CCTE) supports ORD by providing solutions-driven research to rapidly evaluate the potential human health and environmental risks due to exposures to environmental stressors and ensure the integrity of the freshwater environment and its capacity to support human well-being.  CCTE researchers are developing and applying cutting edge innovations in methods to rapidly evaluate chemical toxicity, transport, and exposure to people and environments.  Within CCTE, the Chemical Characterization and Exposure Division (CCED) performs research to develop and advance analytical chemistry, computational chemistry, and cheminformatic approaches that are critical to the rapid characterization of the presence, structural characteristics, and properties of chemicals that underlie chemical exposure, environmental fate, toxicokinetics and toxicity.

What experience and skills will you gain?

As a team member, you will support research under the Chemical Safety for Sustainability (CSS) research program on PFAS (Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances). PFAS are a group of man-made chemicals that are very persistent in the environment and in the human body – meaning they don’t break down and they can accumulate over time. There is evidence that exposure to PFAS can lead to adverse human health effects. Physicochemical (or physchem) properties are needed to be able to assess human exposure to these chemicals.

 General Responsibilities

• Collecting, curating, and organizing data in databases on physchem properties including relevant metadata (e.g., CAS number, chemical name, temperature, pressure).
• Responding to data requests from colleagues as needed (e.g. retrieve data according to specified criteria) through development of programming scripts or SQL
• Developing of novel models and text analytics methods for identifying data sources with physchem data.

Communications-related responsibilities

• Participating as a member of a multi-disciplinary research team;
• Interacting with other members of the development team as well as EPA scientists;
• Documenting all work as directed by EPA mentor to comply with EPA quality assurance procedures for transparency and reproducibility of work; and
• Summarizing work in internal reports/memos to be used by EPA 

Required Knowledge, Skills, Work Experience, and Education 

• Experience programming in the Java, R, or Python;
• Experience with quantitative techniques, basic statistics, and use of spreadsheets; and
• Strong reading comprehension skills and experience logically interpreting pieces of data. 

Desired Knowledge, Skills, Work Experience, and Education

• Knowledge of basic chemistry in terms of molecular structure and physicochemical properties;
• Master’s coursework in statistics, data science, user experience and design, and data analysis;
• Experience with computational or mathematical modeling (i.e. cheminformatics) and data science techniques; and
• Experience with databases (e.g. MySQL).

Location:  This job will be located EPA’s facility in Research Triangle Park, NC.

Salary: Selected applicant will become a temporary employee of ORAU and will receive an hourly wage of $32.01 for hours worked.

Hours: Full-time

Expected start date: The position is full time and expected to begin June 2024. The selected applicant will become a temporary employee of ORAU working as a contractor to EPA. 

For more information, contact EPANSSC@orau.org. Do not contact EPA directly.

• Be at least 18 years of age and
• Have earned at least a Master’s degree in physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, applied sciences, environmental health, exposure science, computer sciences, information technology, data science, or a related field of study from an accredited university or college within the last 24 months and
• Be a citizen of the United States of America or a Legal Permanent Resident.

EPA ORD employees, their spouses, and children are not eligible to participate in this program.