NIST PREP Announcements

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.

The work will entail:

In semiconductor manufacturing and metrology, optical techniques are often utilized to assess the
quality of wafers or epitaxially grown layers because local material defects or contamination are
detrimental to device performance. Increasingly, these optical techniques are based on hyperspectral
imaging principles where every pixel of an image contains both the spatial and the spectral information
corresponding to photons arriving from a part of the chip. One very popular optical imaging method is
photoluminescence (PL) imaging where an area of the material is optically excited by a laser, or an LED
and the emitted luminescence photons are intercepted via a detector such as a spectrometer or a
filtered camera.

This research is focused on the development of a standard reference light source that can be used to
calibrate any wide field or scanning imaging system such that every pixel of an image is calibrated to
show the actual photon flux leaving the surface of the semiconductor material or the chip. Furthermore,
this reference light source will produce spectral photon flux maps so that hyperspectral images at
various emitted photon energies are calibrated in an absolute way. We will work on a process to ensure
that the measured defect emission spectra are properly scaled by a NIST calibration specimen such that
one can make a meaningful comparison between different optically detected defects measured on
readily available commercial devices. Furthermore, the radiative efficiency of the material will be
determined, which will directly correlate with the material quality and allows the manufacturer to reject
high-impurity, defective wafers during inline monitoring.

Key responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

• Perform uniformity mapping of standard light sources using programmable translational scanning stages.
• Perform angular measurements of light leaving various light sources using an in-house programmable robotic arm.
• Calculate a spectral calibration factor and develop a mathematical approach to apply it to every pixel of a hyperspectral luminescence image.
• Test the developed calibration factor on a few semiconductor wafers such as on GaAs or GaN chips.
• Develop an uncertainty budget for the measurement and analysis protocol.

Qualifications:

• Ph. D. degree in Physics, Computer Science, Electrical or Mechanical Engineering, or a related field.
• 2 years of relevant experience, including graduate research work.
• Familiarity with data analysis techniques and mathematical computations using programming tools such as Mathematica, Python or MATLAB.
• A strong desire to collaborate with other researchers and be involved on various related projects.
• Strong oral and written communication skills.

Please upload the following (preferably in a single PDF) with your application:

• CV/Resume

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.

• Announcement and Application

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.

The work will entail:

Commercial phase change materials (PCMs) in the US and EU markets are incorporated in macro- and micro-encapsulations for latent heat storage in building energy applications. The thermal conductivity and the specific heat capacity of these PCM products, which are usually reported in the specification’s datasheet and are measured by a Heat Flow Meter (HFM), are the main thermal data used for installation guidance and energy saving calculations. However, these measurements exhibit non-linear behaviors with temperature due to contributions from the encapsulation materials and other factors. Therefore, the thermal behavior of encapsulated PCMs masks the thermal properties of the actual PCM and its phase change properties. Furthermore, the measurement by an HFM is fundamentally a relative measurement being heavily correlated with the calibration of internal heat flux transducers using a reference material.

This work aims to establish the groundwork needed to develop a reference material for validating the specific heat capacity values, as well as thermal conductivity of macro-encapsulated PCMs. The research focus is to ultimately provide a new measurement service by developing a PCM reference material with reliable thermal properties and a well-defined phase-temperature relationship.

Key responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

• Simulating thermal distributions on empty and PCM filled – encapsulation panels between heating and cooling sources.
• Determining thermal conductivity and heat capacity values of the PCM encapsulation panels using computational methods.
• Analyzing PCM melting and solidification process in the encapsulations using computational methods.
• Presenting results at internal meetings, and occasional meetings with external stakeholders.
• Ensuring that results, protocols, software, and documentation have been archived.

Qualifications:

• A minimum master’s degree in computer science, Engineering, Manufacturing, or a related field.
• A minimum of 2 years of relevant experience is preferred.
• Familiarity with PCM and thermal simulations is a big plus.
• Ability to work with a commercial finite element software (experience with COMSOL is preferred but not required).
• Ability to develop an analytical model needed to analyze data.
• Strong oral and written communication skills.

Please upload the following (preferably in a single PDF) with your application:

• CV/Resume

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.

• Announcement and Application

This position is part of the National Institute of Standards (NIST) Professional Research Experience (PREP) program in support of microwave impedance measurements. 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.

The work will entail:

This position supports a project focused on developing and validating novel measurement methods for adeno-associated virus (AAV) gene therapy vectors. The primary goal is to address the critical quality control issue of accurately characterizing and quantifying “partially full” viral capsids.

The PREP associate will work with a unique set of AAV samples engineered with specifically sized DNA genomes to simulate known filling states. The core of the work involves using advanced microscopy and analytical techniques to establish a quantitative relationship between the AAV genome size, the physical filling state of the capsid, and the capsid’s surface hydrophobicity.

This research directly supports the NIST mission of advancing biomanufacturing by enabling the development of reference materials and more scalable quality control methods for the gene therapy industry.

Key responsibilities will include but are not limited to:

• Participating in the production and purification of Adeno-Associated Virus (AAV) samples
• Performing characterization of AAV preparations using techniques such as droplet digital PCR (ddPCR), enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), and size exclusion chromatography (SEC)
• Performing cryogenic electron microscopy (CryoEM) analysis on AAV samples
• Conducting atomic force microscopy (AFM) and chemical force microscopy (CFM) experiments
• Analyzing and correlating data from CryoEM, Analytical Ultracentrifugation (AUC), and AFM to establish clear relationships between AAV genome size, filling state, and capsid hydrophobicity
• Adhering to all biosafety protocols for materials such as AAVs and human cell lines
• Presenting results at internal meetings and potentially at scientific conferences
• Publication of results in peer-reviewed journals
• Ensuring that experimental results, protocols, and data analysis are thoroughly documented and archived

Qualifications:

• A Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, Biochemistry, Biophysics, or a closely related field
• Experience with the production, purification, and characterization of viral vectors (particularly AAV), viruses, or other biologics
• Proficiency in standard biochemical and molecular biology assays, such as qPCR, ddPCR, ELISA, and protein/nucleic acid quantification
• Experience in quantitative data analysis and the ability to correlate results from multiple complex analytical methods
• Strong oral and written communication skills, evidenced by a track record of publications and/or scientific presentations
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively within a multi-disciplinary team

Please upload the following (preferably in a single PDF) with your application:

• CV/Resume

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.

• Announcement and Application