Postdoctoral Research Associate - Detector and Data Acquisition System

$70,000 - $90,000/Yr

Brookhaven National Laboratory - Upton, NY

Full-time - Entry Level

Upton, NY

Administrative and Support Services

About the position

The Postdoctoral Research Associate position at Brookhaven National Laboratory focuses on the design and development of data acquisition systems for custom radiation detectors, particularly in applications related to national security, nuclear security, and healthcare. The role involves collaboration with a diverse scientific community and requires expertise in electronic circuit design and application development. The successful candidate will contribute to ongoing research, lead design efforts, and participate in testing and evaluation of radiation detection systems.

Responsibilities

• Work with the Group Leader and other research scientists to create development plans for radiation detection systems in applications of national security, nuclear security, and healthcare.
• Responsible for electronics designs in product development cycle from schematic design to firmware/software development, system integration, and system testing.
• Work closely with engineering team on PCB layout designs and PCB/Detector assembly.
• Participate in the testing and evaluation of custom-built and commercial radiation detection systems in the laboratory and at other experimental sites.
• Provide engineering support to radiation detector test and evaluation campaigns.
• Give presentations at BNL lectures, conferences, and project review meetings where research results are discussed.
• Publish results of research and development in peer-reviewed, scientific journals and contribute technical reports to sponsors/clients.

Requirements

• A PhD degree in Electrical Engineering, Nuclear Engineering, Physics, or equivalent discipline.
• Knowledge of analog, digital and mixed-signal circuits.
• Hands-on experience in printed circuit board schematic and layout designs.
• Hands-on experience in FPGA programming in VHDL or Verilog language and development of firmware for standalone microcontrollers or SoC chips.
• Knowledge of I/O and communication standards, e.g., SPI, I2C, USB 2/3, PCIe, and Gigabit Ethernet.
• Laboratory experience in troubleshooting in printed circuit boards.
• Knowledge and experience in data analysis to determine performance of circuits and systems.
• Clear and concise oral and written communication and presentation skills.

Nice-to-haves

• Working knowledge of and experience in radiation detectors and radiation detection systems.
• Working knowledge and experience in electronics manufacturing and production.
• Experience in desktop application development in C/C++ or Python in Linux and/or Windows.
• Experience in the latest Xilinx/Altera FPGAs and/or SOC FPGAs.
• Experience in ARM and/or RISC-V CPUs.
• Programming experience using C++ with QT framework.
• Working knowledge of real-time Operating System.

Benefits

• Comprehensive employee benefits program
• Competitive salary
• Opportunities for professional development
• Support for research and development initiatives