Postdoctoral Scholar-Fixed Term

MSU Careers Details • East Lansing, MI

5d • Onsite

About The Position

The Institute of Water Research is seeking a Postdoctoral Scholar with deep, hands-on expertise in the Water Quality Analysis Simulation Program (WASP). The primary responsibility of this position is to work directly with WASP's computational structure and water-quality and contaminant-transport processes and to integrate WASP with SWAT and MODFLOW. Exceptional Fortran programming expertise is essential and will be a major selection criterion. The selected candidate must be able to read, understand, modify, extend, compile, debug, test, optimize, and document complex scientific Fortran code and use these capabilities to develop stable coupling interfaces among WASP, SWAT, and MODFLOW. The integrated framework should support synchronized simulation time steps and spatial exchanges and enable transfer of surface-water flows, watershed inflows, groundwater-surface-water exchanges, constituent loads and concentrations, contaminant mass fluxes, and other required state or flux variables among the three models. Particular emphasis will be placed on bidirectional coupling and feedback where needed for physically consistent flow and contaminant transport, rather than relying solely on sequential or one-way model execution. The candidate will maintain water and contaminant mass balance across model interfaces; develop preprocessing, postprocessing, automated testing, calibration, and visualization workflows; and conduct model verification, sensitivity analysis, calibration, validation, performance evaluation, and troubleshooting. Strong Python skills are required for workflow automation, data processing, testing, and model orchestration. Familiarity with C or C++, APIs, dynamic-link libraries, version control, Linux environments, and high-performance or parallel computing is desirable. The candidate will also prepare technical documentation, reports, peer-reviewed publications, and presentations and collaborate with an interdisciplinary research team. Initial appointment is for one year from the date of hire, with the possibility of extension for up to two years, contingent upon funding availability and satisfactory performance. As an institution of higher learning, Michigan State University is committed to providing a safe environment for its students, faculty, and staff in support of its educational mission. With this commitment, the University conducts criminal background checks and professional misconduct reviews of all applicants for employment in faculty, academic staff, and executive management searches.

Requirements

• Greater than one year of relevant and progressively responsible experience in water-quality or contaminant-transport modeling.
• Demonstrated advanced expertise in WASP, including model setup, process representation, calibration, interpretation of model behavior, and development or modification of scientific modeling workflows.
• Exceptional Fortran programming expertise, including demonstrated ability to read, understand, modify, extend, compile, debug, test, optimize, and document complex scientific model code.
• Capability of working directly with computational model routines and developing reliable coupling interfaces rather than relying only on external preprocessing or file-based exchange.
• Demonstrated experience developing or modifying model-coupling and data-exchange frameworks for process-based environmental models, including synchronization of model time steps and spatial units, transfer of hydrologic and contaminant variables, implementation of bidirectional feedback where required, and verification of water and contaminant mass balance across coupled model interfaces.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently and collaboratively on interdisciplinary research.
• Fluency in English.

Nice To Haves

• Demonstrated experience modifying, extending, debugging, compiling, or interfacing with WASP computational code and routines for customized water-quality or contaminant-transport applications.
• Direct experience with SWAT and MODFLOW.
• Demonstrated ability to integrate a receiving-water-quality model with watershed and groundwater models.
• Experience developing tightly coupled SWAT-MODFLOW-WASP applications that exchange flow, groundwater-surface-water fluxes, constituent loads or concentrations, and contaminant mass in both directions, where required by the coupled processes.
• Advanced scientific software-development experience with Fortran-based environmental models.
• Familiarity with Python, C, or C++.
• Experience with APIs, dynamic-link libraries, SQL, Git or other version-control systems, Linux, high-performance computing, parallel computing, or automated testing.
• Strong understanding of WASP water-quality and contaminant fate-and-transport processes, receiving-water transport, watershed hydrology, groundwater-surface-water interactions, and rigorous water and contaminant mass-balance verification in an integrated modeling system.
• Experience with model calibration, sensitivity or uncertainty analysis, technical documentation, peer-reviewed publications, and collaborative scientific software development.

Responsibilities

• Work directly with WASP's computational structure and water-quality and contaminant-transport processes.
• Integrate WASP with SWAT and MODFLOW.
• Read, understand, modify, extend, compile, debug, test, optimize, and document complex scientific Fortran code.
• Develop stable coupling interfaces among WASP, SWAT, and MODFLOW.
• Support synchronized simulation time steps and spatial exchanges.
• Enable transfer of surface-water flows, watershed inflows, groundwater-surface-water exchanges, constituent loads and concentrations, contaminant mass fluxes, and other required state or flux variables among the three models.
• Place particular emphasis on bidirectional coupling and feedback where needed for physically consistent flow and contaminant transport.
• Maintain water and contaminant mass balance across model interfaces.
• Develop preprocessing, postprocessing, automated testing, calibration, and visualization workflows.
• Conduct model verification, sensitivity analysis, calibration, validation, performance evaluation, and troubleshooting.
• Automate workflows, process data, test, and orchestrate models using Python.
• Prepare technical documentation, reports, peer-reviewed publications, and presentations.
• Collaborate with an interdisciplinary research team.

Benefits

• Possibility of extension for up to two years, contingent upon funding availability and satisfactory performance.

What This Job Offers

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