Autonomous Material Processing Postdoctoral Fellow

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory • Berkeley, CA

1d • Onsite

About The Position

Berkeley Lab’s Energy Geosciences division is hiring an Autonomous Material Processing Postdoctoral Fellow to help transform how critical materials are produced.
In this role, you’ll bring together machine learning, real-time monitoring, and thermochemical insight to build smarter, self-improving materials processing systems. Your work will help strengthen a sustainable domestic lithium supply while significantly cutting waste, water use, and carbon emissions.
You’ll work side by side with talented scientists and engineers from national laboratories, universities, and industry, all collaborating to rethink how critical materials are produced — making the process cleaner, smarter, and more efficient.
This is an opportunity to help reshape how critical materials are produced — moving toward smarter, data-driven processes that are autonomous, scientifically grounded, and continuously improving. If you’re ambitious, creative, and excited about building the foundation for AI-powered materials processing, this is a unique opportunity to make a lasting impact in a field that’s rapidly evolving.
Why join Berkeley Lab?
We invest in our employees by offering a total rewards package you can count on:
Exceptional health and retirement benefits, including pension or 401K-style plans
A culture where you’ll belong - we are invested in our teams!
In addition to accruing vacation and sick time, we also have a Winter Holiday Shutdown every year.
Parental bonding leave (for both mothers and fathers)

Requirements

• Ph.D. in Mineral Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Materials Engineering, or related field
• Demonstrated record of first-author publications in high-impact, peer-reviewed journals, evidencing scientific leadership and originality.
• Proven ability to independently develop hypothesis-driven, fundamental research programs, from conceptual framing through experimental execution and publication.
• Demonstrated understanding of kinetics, transport phenomena, and interfacial processes in complex materials systems.
• Advanced data analysis and scientific model development using Python or other scientific programming languages, including experience with automation, instrumentation control, or feedback systems.
• Demonstrated ability to design, fabricate, operate, troubleshoot, and repair laboratory equipment, including custom-built or high-temperature/high-pressure systems.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with thermodynamic modeling, phase equilibria, or melt/mineral systems, including CALPHAD, OpenCalphad, or similar tools.
• Hands-on expertise in experimental calorimetry, including differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), drop-solution calorimetry, acid-solution calorimetry, isothermal titration calorimetry (ITC), or related thermochemical methods.
• Experience with high-temperature or molten salt systems, electrochemical systems, or reactive gas/pressure systems.
• Experience integrating spectroscopic or analytical instrumentation (e.g., LIBS, XRF, ICP-OES/MS, XRD) into quantitative workflows.
• Experience with CAD design, rapid prototyping, or laboratory-scale reactor design.
• Comfort working with flow systems, pumps, hydrocyclones, pressure vessels, electrochemical cells, or thermal systems.
• Demonstrated ability to integrate hardware, software, and analytics into coherent experimental platforms.

Responsibilities

• Develop and lead hypothesis-driven research focused on autonomous thermochemical processing of complex mineral and melt systems, with guidance from senior researchers.
• Design and execute fundamental experiments to understand energy landscapes, phase behavior, interfacial processes, and reaction pathways in multi-component systems.
• Design, fabricate, commission, and operate advanced laboratory systems including high-temperature reactors, calorimetry platforms, flow systems, molten salt setups, and electrochemical cells.
• Conduct and interpret calorimetric measurements (e.g., DSC, drop solution, acid solution, isothermal titration) to quantify thermodynamic and kinetic parameters.
• Troubleshoot and repair instrumentation and custom-built experimental systems.
• Ensure rigorous experimental reproducibility, safety compliance, and high data integrity standards.
• Publish high-impact, peer-reviewed research and present findings at leading international conferences.
• Contribute to proposal development and future research directions aligned with PRISM objectives.

Benefits

• Exceptional health and retirement benefits, including pension or 401K-style plans
• A culture where you’ll belong - we are invested in our teams!
• In addition to accruing vacation and sick time, we also have a Winter Holiday Shutdown every year.
• Parental bonding leave (for both mothers and fathers)

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree