Postdoctoral Research Associate

Job Title

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Agency

Texas A&M Transportation Institute

Department

Air Quality and Environment Division

Proposed Minimum Salary

Commensurate

Job Location

Bryan, Texas

Job Type

Staff

Job Description

This position can be based at any of our urban offices in Austin, Dallas, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston, Laredo, or San Antonio, TX. New hires are required to report onsite for the first 30 days, after which flexible work options may be available at the agency’s discretion.

Who are we?

The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) is an agency of the State of Texas and member of The Texas A&M University System. For 75 years, TTI has addressed complex transportation challenges and opportunities with innovation, objectivity, and unmatched technical expertise. Our staff delivers excellence, value and thought leadership to ensure our research sponsors achieve their goals.

Our Mission and Vision

Our Vision - TTI leads in the creation of knowledge that transforms transportation for the benefit of society.

Our Mission - TTI delivers practical, innovative and sustainable solutions to improve the movement of people, data and goods through research, education and technology transfer.

​ Our Work Environment

Entrepreneurial culture

Affiliation with Texas A&M University students and faculty

Ability to work with nationally recognized experts

Ability to help train the next generation of transportation professionals

Premier office and research facilities and equipment

Accredited laboratories and safety proving ground

Outstanding research support services

Hybrid work environment/telecommuting

Flexible work hours

Family friendly

High staff retention rates

Leadership development and wellness programs

Data allowance and home office equipment reimbursements

Relocation assistance (if eligible)

Tuition reimbursement program (if eligible)

Our Employee Benefits

TTI employees can choose from several health coverage options offered by The Texas A&M University System for themselves and their families, as well as numerous other benefit programs. https://www.tamus.edu/business/benefits-administration/

What you need to know

TTI is a Texas based agency. This position has the flexibility of a hybrid remote option with two days in a TTI Texas based office. This can be discussed further during the interview process.

The salary range for this position is commensurate. Final salary will be determined based on the applicant's qualifications and experience.

A Presidential proclamation issued on September 19, 2025, imposes a $100,000 fee on new H-1B petitions filed after September 21, 2025. Please be advised that Texas A&M University will NOT pay this fee. Therefore, if you need immigration sponsorship for your employment, we recommend that you consult with your private immigration counsel at your own expense to ascertain whether your current immigration status would make a potential offer of employment from Texas A&M University subject to this fee.

In addition, on January 27, 2026, Texas Governor Abbot issued a moratorium on the filing of any new H-1B unless approved by the Texas Workforce Commission. Accordingly, if you will now or in the future require sponsorship for employment visa status this moratorium may affect our ability to employ you should you be selected as the final candidate

Job Summary

The Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI) is seeking a postdoctoral research associate to support a four-year multi-country research consortium investigating the health impacts of multipollutant and temperature mixtures, and how these can be modified by real-world and hypothetical policy interventions.

The Postdoctoral Research Associate will work under general supervision of the PI, and play a central role in both coordination of the overall initiative, as well as contributing technically to the activities led by TTI.

The project spans three integrated research arms:

Epidemiology , led by European partners, where we will use four pooled European birth cohorts to study the health effects of air pollution mixtures and heat on childhood asthma and lung function.

Toxicology , led by the Texas A&M School of Public Health, where we will investigate underlying biological mechanisms using standard and novel (mito-QC) mouse models, focusing on mitochondrial damage and airway hyperresponsiveness.

Policy , led by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, where we will assess how heat and air pollution mixtures may be modified by real-world and hypothetical policy interventions, co-created with stakeholders, and quantify the health and distributional impacts of these policy-driven changes in combined environmental exposures.

The incumbent will contribute to both the scientific execution of the policy research arm, and the operational coordination of the project, including stakeholder mapping and engagement, co-creation and prioritization of policy interventions and scenarios, advanced comparative risk assessment, public health impact modeling, and consortium management. The particular emphasis is on the evaluation of policy-relevant scenarios and interventions (e.g., air quality regulations, temperature mitigation pathways, and local and regional transportation interventions), their impacts on population health and the distribution of these impacts across different subgroups.

The role includes leading and contributing to scientific publications, presentations, policyrelevant outputs, media-ready summaries, and stakeholder-facing materials. The incumbent will work collaboratively and closely with an interdisciplinary, international team across the U.S., Europe and the U.K., and will support the PI in the coordination of consortium activities.

Continued employment is dependent upon availability of funding and satisfactory performance.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

Research (65%)

Conduct advanced research focusing on modeling the health impacts of combined air pollution and temperature mixtures.

Conduct atmospheric or source-receptor air pollution modeling to assess intervention and scenario-based exposure changes (e.g., using SHERPA, SHERPA-City.)

Evaluate intervention and scenario-based exposure changes through other methods, including:

Long-term shifts in pollutant mixtures (e.g., decreasing PM2.5, PM10, NO2 alongside increasing O3 and temperature.)

Heatwave-related exposure profiles with elevated O3, ultrafine particles (UFPs), and temperature.

Temperature stabilization pathways aligned with international targets (e.g., limiting warming to 1.5°C under SSP-RCP frameworks.)

Sector-specific interventions (e.g., reductions in traffic-related emissions and associated atmospheric chemistry responses.)

Locally co-developed interventions (e.g., low-emission zones, active transport, and urban infrastructure changes.)

Compile, harmonize, and manage multi-country exposure and health datasets (exposure surfaces, census, demographics, baseline health outcomes.)

Conduct multi-pollutant comparative risk assessments, including multi-pollutant exposureresponse functions and cluster-based approaches coordinating closely with the epidemiology team.

Perform spatial integration (alignment, upscaling/downscaling) for comparative analyses.

Assess the distribution of modeled exposures and health impacts across population subgroups.

Contribute to publications, research presentations, policy briefs, and technical reports.

Stakeholder Engagement and Co-Creation (10%)

Conduct initial stakeholder mapping and develop influence/impact matrices to guide engagement strategies and outreach.

Support the design and implementation of stakeholder engagement activities, including four prioritization workshops across study sites (Utrecht, Barcelona, Bradford, Stockholm).

Contribute to the co-creation and refinement of intervention and scenario pathways, ensuring