Research Fellow, Institute for Global Sustainability

Boston University•Boston, MA

3d•$62,000 - $65,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The Institute for Global Sustainability is seeking a motivated and detail-oriented recent master’s graduate to work as a Research Fellow supporting interdisciplinary research developed by the Clean Energy & Environment Legacy Transition (CELT) Initiative. The research focuses on clean energy, energy affordability, climate, environmental health, and the built environment, and supports policy processes within Massachusetts state agencies, cities, and towns. The fellow will work with diverse, large, and complex datasets to investigate how energy systems, infrastructure, environmental conditions, and socioeconomic factors affect energy systems, health, equity, and quality of life across communities. Areas of work may include energy affordability and burden, access to clean energy programs, environmental exposures, climate vulnerability, heat, air quality, housing, the built environment, and disparities in environmental and health outcomes. The role combines data analysis, GIS and spatial analysis, remote sensing, coding, and data visualization. The fellow will help translate complex, spatially heterogeneous data into actionable insights for researchers, policymakers, community partners, and the public. The position is based in Boston, Massachusetts, with a hybrid work arrangement.

Responsibilities

Analyze large-scale datasets related to energy use and affordability, energy burden, clean energy programs, climate conditions, environmental exposures, public health indicators, housing, and socioeconomic characteristics.
Clean, preprocess, integrate, and validate energy, environmental, health, demographic, and administrative datasets to ensure data quality, consistency, and usability.
Conduct GIS and spatial analyses of geographic patterns and relationships among energy infrastructure, environmental conditions, climate hazards, public health, and community characteristics.
Work with spatial datasets at multiple geographic scales, including census geographies, parcels, buildings, neighborhoods, and municipalities; incorporate remote sensing and Earth observation data when relevant.
Develop analytical methods and metrics to assess energy affordability, energy burden, access to energy efficiency and clean energy programs, and disparities in energy and environmental outcomes.
Integrate geospatial, energy, environmental, health, and socioeconomic datasets to investigate relationships among infrastructure, exposure, vulnerability, and community well-being.
Write and maintain code for data cleaning, analysis, spatial processing, reproducible workflows, and research reports.
Develop maps, data visualizations, dashboards, and other communication tools to make research findings accessible to technical and non-technical audiences.
Support development of public-facing data tools and interactive resources communicating energy, environmental, climate, and public health trends and program impacts.
Collaborate with interdisciplinary teams of researchers, policy analysts, data scientists, GIS specialists, stakeholders, and community partners to integrate datasets and develop appropriate analytical approaches.