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 position will collaborate with NIST researchers and NIST’s external collaborators in a variety of topics relevant to their work including social scientists, engineers, and scientists – connecting economics to fundamental research, multi-disciplinary analysis, and decision support tools related to activities across a range of research topic areas, building and infrastructure, circular economy, climate, sustainability, resilience, and decision science. Initial activities will include evaluating consumer preferences for recycled and recyclable products and demonstrating the benefits and costs, including socioeconomic impacts, of emissions data and measurements collected from USG’s recently announced Strategy to Advance in Integrated GHG Measurement and Monitoring Information System.
The position is in the Applied Economics Office (AEO), a part of the Engineering Laboratory (EL) at NIST, provides economic products and services through research and consulting to industry and government agencies in support of productivity enhancement, economic growth, and international competitiveness, with a focus on improving the life-cycle quality and economy of constructed facilities and manufacturing processes that support social and economic functions. The AEO is integrated within EL’s major research thrusts: sustainability, energy conservation, community resilience planning, manufacturing, fire, smart grid, building construction, and safety. The AEO delivers high quality research and tool development that informs and assists stakeholders in their decision-making processes.
This position will support two different ongoing research projects. The first project is the Decision Science for a Circular Economy: Evaluating Consumers Preferences for Recycled Products Using Mass Balance Accounting Project. Mass balance accounting (MBA), which ensures that the total mass of recycle content is allocated to outputs to ensure no double counting of those inputs in any product claims while providing some flexibility in how the recycled content is allocated across products manufactured at the same process/facility. This is particularly important for plastic products because the demand for differentiated products based on recycle content allocation may vary significantly across product types as well as the level of recycle content claim. Understanding how to communicate the recycled content allocation to consumers as well as if consumers buy in to the claims is critical in the success of MBA for recycled plastic, particularly for chemical recycling. Decision science tools can be used to understand how consumers make decisions surrounding different product information and how they trade off different attributes including the percentage of and type of (mechanical, chemical) recycled content. The central research question is to what extent does product labeling affect market demand for recycled goods, differentiating between products labeled to reflect the five common chain of custody (CoC) models, with particular focus on the MBA allocation model (proportional, non-proportional), and compared with those products based on mechanically recycled materials.
The second project is the Measuring the Benefits of GHG Emissions Measurements Project. Advancements in measurement science towards more precise spatial data on emissions of methane and carbon dioxide provides industries and governments with information to manage emissions effectively and allows researchers (and end-users) to estimate models using emissions data more accurately. The research question is to evaluate the impact of improved GHG measurement, focusing on benefits quantification of emissions data and measurements for stakeholders and how emissions data are used in socioeconomic analysis.
The work will entail:
Key responsibilities could include, but are not limited to, leading the following activities:
Analyzing data
Reviewing relevant literature
Assist in Designing data collection instruments
Writing reports and research articles
- Assist in Publishing within refereed journals and technical research series
Communicating research at professional conferences
Qualifications
A masters in Economics, Social Science, Psychology, Sociology, Policy, Sustainability or related field.
At least one year of relevant research experience.
Background in econometrics or statistics and at least two of the following areas:
Applied microeconomics
Climate change
Decision-science or behavioral-science
Environmental economics
Environmental studies
Environmental Science
Geography
Non-market valuation
Policy
Psychology
Regional studies or planning
Risk and uncertainty
Social Science
Sociology
Sustainability
Strong oral and written communication skills.
Logical thinking and Problem solving
Patience and Attention to detail
Excellent writing and communication skills
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The university is an Equal Employment Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer that does not unlawfully discriminate in any of its programs or activities on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or on any other basis prohibited by applicable law.