NASA Foundation Models for Earth Science (Ecosystems, Biodiversity, Environmental Variable Downscaling)

About the role

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA’s missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology.

Responsibilities

The NASA Earth eXchange (NEX) seeks a post-doctoral fellow to conduct research related to developing and applying foundation models, including the recently developed Prithvi WxC model. The fellow’s work will be conducted in the context of NASA's Earth Science programs with particular emphasis, but not restricted to, on one or more of the following topics:

• downscaling environmental variables
• incorporating foundation model outputs into traditional ecosystem, biodiversity, and/or ecological conservation models/products
• evaluating the impact and utility of the foundation model in these fields of science

Requirements

The fellow will be a part of the NASA Earth eXchange (NEX), a cross-cutting activity in NASA's Earth Action portfolio. Current NEX activities include exploiting global geostationary operational satellites for Earth science research and applications, modeling and data assimilation, and developing digital twin technologies.

Qualifications

• Domain expertise in either foundation models or one of the NASA Earth Science focus areas
• Familiarity with high performance computing, including NASA's High End Computing Capability (HECC)
• Experience with foundation models is preferred, but not required

Skills

Candidates should be able to work independently and collaboratively in a dynamic and collaborative environment.

Benefits

NASA provides a comprehensive benefits package, including health insurance, retirement savings plan, and paid time off.

Pay

The salary range for this position is $70,000 - $90,000 per year.

Schedule

The schedule for this position is full-time, with a start date of October 1, 2026.

Contact Information

To learn more about this opportunity, please email npp@orau.org.