The Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN) at Brookhaven is a DOE-funded national scientific user facility, offering users a supported research experience with top-caliber scientists and access to state-of-the-art instrumentation. The CFN mission is advancing nanoscience through frontier fundamental research and technique development and is the nexus of a broad collaboration network. Each year, CFN staff members support the research of more than 600 external facility users.

Three strategic nanoscience themes underlie the CFN scientific facilities: The CFN conducts research on Nanomaterial Synthesis by Assembly, designing precise architectures with targeted functionality by organizing nanoscale components.  The CFN researches and applies platforms for state-of-the-art techniques for Accelerated Nanomaterial Discovery, integrating synthesis, advanced characterization, physical modeling, and computer science to iteratively explore a wide range of material parameters. The CFN develops and utilizes advanced capabilities for studies of Nanomaterials in Operando Conditions for characterizing materials and reactions at the atomic scale in real-world environments.

The CFN is seeking an exceptional Postdoctoral Research Associate to conduct research directed at catalysis science by developing and using state-of-the-art electron microscopy facilities. In this postdoc position, you will be a member of the Electron Microscopy group and interact strongly with NION. You will be involved hands-on with developing and building first-of-its-kind scanning transmission electron microscopes (STEM) at NION.  You will be mentored by scientists from both the CFN and NION.  The Electron Microscopy Group is composed of six permanent, scientific, and technical staff members and a set of five state-of-the-art electron microscopes optimized for cutting-edge studies of nanomaterials (details onlinewww.bnl.gov/cfn ), including an aberration-corrected Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope (STEM) with a secondary electron detector. The Electron Microscopy Group is one of five scientific groups in the CFN, and supports the Electron Microscopy facility, which is the largest CFN scientific facility. 

The CFN is acquiring two new customized, ultra-high spatial resolution and ultra-high energy resolution scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM), which will have several first-of-their-kind spectroscopic capabilities.  Both instruments will have sub-angstrom spatial-resolution and sub-10meV energy-resolution for STEM electron energy-loss spectroscopy (EELS) capabilities.  With expected installation in 2023, the first STEM will achieve 20 keV for beam-sensitive materials. It will have a secondary electron detector for surface imaging at the atomic scale, such as supported single metal atoms for single atom catalysis. The second STEM will be an ultra-high vacuum environmental STEM with nine orders of magnitude pressure range with expected installation in 2025, for in situ and operando studies of heterogeneous catalysis.

To learn and advance the techniques and instrumentation enabled by this first-of-its-kind low keV STEM, you will “station” at NION, located outside of Seattle, WA, for several months.  You will participate in developing and building these two first-of-its-kind advanced scanning transmission electron microscopes at NION and then use these unique instruments to advance catalysis science at the CFN.  This project is highly collaborative. We anticipate that you will also work closely with experimentalists and theorists at Brookhaven and at nearby leading academic institutions such as Columbia, SUNY Stony Brook, Penn State, and U. Pittsburgh.  You will be professionally mentored by Dr. Judith Yang and Dr. Sooyeon Hwang, and receive technical guidance from the instrumentation scientists at NION and other CFN Electron Microscopy group members.  Because of the sophistication of the instrumentation and the uniqueness of the instrument, you will have demonstrated your hands-on expertise with microscope instrumentation and high-resolution STEM/EELS during your graduate research.

This position is an extraordinary research opportunity to develop instruments and apply techniques at the forefront of electron microscopy as well as advance fundamental science of the catalytic behaviors of ultra-small clusters down to single atoms.  You will investigate, understand, and ultimately control heterogeneous catalysis of these atomic-scale systems through site-specific quantitative, in situ, and operando measurements. 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Contribute to developing and using STEM instrumentation for forefront spectroscopy, including EELS and secondary electron (SE) spectroscopy.
• Use and develop instrumentation to perform quantitative,in situ/operando STEM experiments with an exceptional spatial and temporal resolution for catalysis science.
• As part of a team, perform in situ and ex situ experiments to lead the discovery of key physical processes emerging from the unique data in research areas, including catalysis science.
• Collaborate with scientific staff with diverse backgrounds, including data analytics, electron microscopy, modeling, materials theory, and reaction engineers focused on catalysis science.
• You will perform impactful nanomaterial research, publish papers, and give external presentations on your work.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Ph.D. in a relevant discipline (Materials Science, Physics, Chemistry, or a related engineering discipline) within the past (5) years or will complete your degree before the starting date.
• Demonstrated extensive experience with operating and developing aberration-corrector scanning, and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, including electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) and secondary electron (SE) imaging.
• Experience using and advancing EELS data analytics and modeling, which may include using FEFF, Python, or other modeling/programming languages.
• Demonstrated track record of publications of research in high-quality peer-reviewed journals and conference presentations, GitHub repository records, or other public communications.
• Communication and interpersonal skills to interact effectively with a diverse group of scientists, engineers, and technical staff.
• You are committed to fostering an environment of safe scientific work practices and cultivating an inclusive and respectful workplace environment.

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Preferred Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• You have hands-on experience and a strong interest in aberration-corrected STEM and high-resolution TEM/STEM instruments
• You have experience acquiring and interpreting images, EELS, diffraction for transmission electron microscopy, and other advanced microscopy techniques.
• You work effectively in an interdisciplinary team to tackle challenging scientific problems, particularly the application of data analytics to understand experimental results.
• You communicate effectively, verbally and in writing.
• You are committed to disseminating your results through peer-reviewed publications, conference presentations/proceedings, and GitHub repository records or other public communications.

Brookhaven Laboratory is committed to providing fair, equitable and competitive compensation. The full salary range for this position is $68,400-90,825-113,250. Salary offers will be commensurate with the final candidate’s qualification, education and experience and considered with the internal peer group.

Brookhaven employees are subject to restrictions related to participation in Foreign Government Talent Recruitment Programs, as defined and detailed in United States Department of Energy Order 486.1A. You will be asked to disclose any such participation at the time of hire for review by Brookhaven. The full text of the Order may be found at: https://www.directives.doe.gov/directives-documents/400-series/0486.1-BOrder-a/@@images/file