Bruno Rossi Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship

About the role

Mission Support and Test Services, LLC (MSTS) manages and operates the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) for the U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). Our MISSION is to help ensure the security of the United States and its allies by providing high-hazard experimentation and incident response capabilities through operations, engineering, education, field, and integration services and by acting as environmental stewards to the Site’s Cold War legacy.

Responsibilities

• The NNSS Science & Technology Directorate invites exceptional early ‑ career scientists to apply for the Bruno Rossi Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellowship.
• The Rossi Fellow will drive advances in the theory, computational modeling, and/or machine ‑ learning applications to the Scorpius linear induction accelerator (LIA) - one of the Nation’s flagship capabilities supporting NNSA missions.
• This is a high ‑ impact, publication ‑ friendly role embedded with a senior NNSS mentor and collaborating laboratories.
• Fellows will be fully supported to lead a research program focused on one or more of the following areas:
• Accelerator & Beam Physics (Theory/Computation)
• Relativistic Beam–Target Interaction Physics
• Beam Transport in Complex Environments
• Collective Effects and Instabilities
• Pulsed-Power and Accelerator Coupling
• Diagnostics by Design
• Multiphysics Target Response
• Representative tools and methods:
• Particle-In-Cell (PIC) and Vlasov–Fokker–Planck simulations
• Hybrid PIC–fluid models
• Envelope and moment techniques
• Monte Carlo radiation transport
• Surrogate modeling
• Adjoint and gradient ‑ based optimization
• Rigorous uncertainty quantification (UQ) and sensitivity analysis
• Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, and Digital Twin Foundations for the Scorpius Accelerator
• Data-Driven Machine Tuning
• Predictive Maintenance and Anomaly Detection
• Physics-Constrained Machine Learning
• Uncertainty-Aware Control

Qualifications

• PhD in a STEM discipline (physics, applied physics, nuclear engineering, EE, applied math, CS, or related field) awarded within 3 years of the start date, or all requirements completed by the start date.
• Demonstrated excellence in at least one of: high ‑ performance scientific computing; accelerator/beam physics; radiation transport; pulsed ‑ power modeling; multiphysics MHD; optimization/UQ; or modern ML/AI for physical systems.
• Strong written and oral communication skills and the ability to collaborate across disciplines.
• Demonstrated experience in building successful collaborations across multiple organizations.
• Effective verbal and written communication skills necessary to collaborate in a team environment and to present and explain technical information to stakeholders.
• Experience working independently, as well as in a team, with minimal direction in a driven environment.
• Primary duty location is the NNSS’ North Las Vegas facility with occasional travel to the NNSS site, LANL, LLNL, and SNL.
• A 4/10 work schedule (Mon–Thu) is typical and subject to change.
• Limited hybrid arrangements may be considered depending on program needs and security requirements.
• Pre-placement physical examination, which includes a drug screen, is required.
• MSTS maintains a substance abuse policy that includes random drug testing.
• Must possess a valid driver’s license.
• MSTS is required by DOE directive to conduct a pre-employment drug test and background review that includes checks of personal references, credit, law enforcement records, and employment/education verifications.
• Applicants offered employment with MSTS are also subject to a federal background investigation to meet the requirements for access to classified information or matter if the duties of the position require a DOE security clearance.
• Substance abuse or illegal drug use, falsification of information, criminal activity, serious misconduct or other indicators of untrustworthiness can cause a clearance to be denied or terminated by DOE, resulting in the inability to perform the duties assigned and subsequent termination of employment.
• In addition, Applicants for employment must be able to obtain and maintain a DOE Q-level security clearance, which requires U.S. citizenship, at least 18 years of age.

Benefits

Annual salary: $130,000
Research support: Up to $250,000 across the term for R&D expenses as described above, allocated annually with NNSS mentor and program approval.
Discretionary research support across the fellowship for hardware, software, data/storage, user facility access, travel, and—subject to policy and need—the ability to fund a graduate student or research associate.
Term: Up to 3 years (initial 2 ‑ year appointment with a 3rd ‑ year extension based on performance and program needs).

Pay

Annual salary: $130,000

Schedule

A 4/10 work schedule (Mon–Thu) is typical and subject to change.