Postdoctoral Research Fellow - Integrated Assessment of Data Centers

Job Description

Job Description

Company Description

The University of Notre Dame is more than a workplace! We are a vibrant, mission-driven community where every employee is valued and supported. Rooted in a tradition of excellence and inspired by our Catholic character, Notre Dame is committed to fostering an environment of care that nurtures the whole person—mind, body, and spirit. Here, you will find a deep sense of belonging, a culture that prioritizes well-being, and the opportunity to grow your career while being a force for good in the world. Whether contributing to world-class research, shaping the student experience, or supporting the University’s mission in other ways, you will be part of a dedicated team working to make a meaningful impact on campus and beyond. At Notre Dame, your work matters, and so do you!

Job Description

This Postdoctoral Fellow position is being managed through a separate application system. We are sharing here to increase visibility and accessibility. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis starting on September 2, 2026, and will continue until the position is filled. Apply  here if you are interested.

The University of Notre Dame invites applications for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to join a dynamic, interdisciplinary team undertaking a spatially explicit, contextually informed, and justice-centered assessment of the strategies and resources – including power, water, land, health, and workforce infrastructure – needed to inform current decision-making about data centers in Indiana and the Midwest in the near term and design the data centers of the future. This will start with the development of a framework for capturing the multidimensional and complex potential impacts (both positive and negative) that are unique to each community in the region. This assessment will also assess the local, state, and national level policies and strategies that can drive the sustainability of the changing landscape of data center growth in the region by integrating their social, technical, economic, and environmental implications for communities in the region and for the region itself.

This research fellow will join a postdoctoral research cohort with diverse and complementary areas of expertise in LLMs, machine-learning, infrastructure sustainability, policy, environmental economics, community resilience, and spatial modeling. In close collaboration with Notre Dame faculty and partners, the cohort will lead a series of research activities intended to create a strong foundation for long-term work. We particularly encourage applicants with expertise in hydrology, modeling, water resource management, systems ecology, or geographic information systems, who can articulate how their unique combination of perspective, methods, and/or substantive focus will expand the collective capacity of the postdoctoral cohort and strengthen the project’s ability to support resilient and equitable community responses to data center design and growth in the Midwest and beyond. Early activities will likely include, but are not limited to:

• Use of large language models and AI techniques to support data collection, synthesis, analysis, and construction of a modeling platform for key resource current and potential future demands, including electricity, water, land, and physical infrastructure;
• Data collection, analysis, and modeling for capturing social, economic, workforce, and health considerations, with particular emphasis on distributional effects, justice, and participatory methods;
• Policy analysis at the local, state, and federal levels

The postdoctoral fellow will assume the following key responsibilities:

• Collaborate with faculty to design and carry out interdisciplinary research central to the envisioned integrated assessment of hyperscale data center development in the Midwest.
• Develop analytical frameworks of evaluation for the environmental, technical, economic, social, and policy dimensions of data centers.
• Develop accessible models and other decision-support tools that support holistic understanding of tradeoffs across sectors for future scenario planning.
• Co-author and support high-impact, interdisciplinary research publications in leading sustainability and environmental science journals.
• Engage in collaborative grant writing and proposal development to sustain and expand the cohort’s research initiatives.

This search is conducted with leadership from Notre Dame’s Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative and Notre Dame Energy. The Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative is Notre Dame’s University-wide effort to build a sustainable future where people and nature flourish together. Notre Dame Energy is a research center that seeks to mobilize transformative energy research for the common good.

The fellow will join a interdisciplinary cohort of postdoctoral scholars conducting diverse research projects supported by the Just Transformations to Sustainability Initiative. The cohort works on sustainability research that engages ecological, social, economic, and ethical dimensions together rather than in isolation.

This is a full-time position available with an initial appointment of one-year, renewable for an additional year on the basis of satisfactory performance and availability of funding.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. (in hand by the starting date) in a relevant field, including, but not limited to, hydrology, ecology, environmental science, geography and engineering.
• Demonstrated ability to lead research in at least one critical domain of the larger research effort. 
• Strong analytical and methodological expertise, appropriate to the applicant’s discipline, with a record of applying those methods to complex, real-world problems.
• A strong publication record in a field directly relevant to the envisioned program. 
• Excellent communication skills and an ability to work collaboratively with researchers from a wide range of disciplines.

Additional Information

The University of Notre Dame seeks to attract, develop, and retain the highest quality faculty, staff and administration. The University is an Equal Opportunity Employer, and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, sex, disability, veteran status, genetic information, or age in employment. Moreover, Notre Dame prohibits discrimination against veterans or disabled qualified individuals, and complies with 41 CFR 60-741.5(a) and 41 CFR 60-300.5(a). We strongly encourage applications from candidates attracted to a university with a Catholic identity.