Postdoc Position in Hydraulic Modeling

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS:

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If you are NOT a current employee or student, please click “Apply” and complete the application process for external applicants .

Approval of remote and hybrid work is not guaranteed regardless of work location. For additional information on remote work at Penn State, see Notice to Out of State Applicants .

This is a term position; length of the term will be discussed during the interview process. Continuation past the term length discussed will be based on university need, performance, and/or availability of funding.

POSITION SPECIFICS

The Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at The Pennsylvania State University has a Postdoctoral Scholar opening starting in July 2026 (starting date negotiable, but preference will be given to candidates who can start at this time).

This position is funded through a project to research on roadway hydraulic structure perform, such as culvert, through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and flume experiments. The product of this project will be used as a guidance for practitioners.

Job responsibility:

Under the guidance of the PI and collaborators from other university and industry, the major responsibility of the research associate is to carry out the research tasks in the project, which include literature survey, data collection, flume experiments, computational modeling, result analysis and synthesis, and report writing.

Requirements and qualifications:

Applicants should have a Ph.D. in civil engineering or related fields with a focus on hydraulics, environmental fluid mechanics, or water resources in general. The applicant must have prior experience with computational modeling and flume experiments. Experience with CFD software such as OpenFOAM is preferred, but not required.

To be considered for this position or if you need more information, please contact Dr. Xiaofeng Liu ( xzl123@psu.edu) . Dr. Liu’s research group webpage: http://water.engr.psu.edu/liu/ .

BACKGROUND CHECKS/CLEARANCES

Employment with the University will require successful completion of background check(s) in accordance with University policies.

BENEFITS

Penn State provides a competitive benefits package for full-time employees designed to support both personal and professional well-being.

For more detailed information, please visit our Benefits Page. (Note: For Postdoctoral benefits, please see our Postdoctoral Benefits page.)

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