Postdoctoral Research Associate

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Texas A&M Transportation Institute

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.

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 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)

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, policy-relevant 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 exposure-response 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 stakeholder input and relevance to local policy and regulatory contexts.
• Project and Consortium Management (20%)
• Support the PI in the coordination and day-to-day management of a large, multi-institutional research consortium.
• Organize and participate in regular meetings, including biweekly team meetings, monthly plenary sessions, and quarterly governance meetings (e.g., Steering Committee, Data Monitoring Board).
• Support in tracking project milestones, deliverables, and reporting requirements in alignment with the grant timeline.
• Prepare documentation including meeting reports, progress updates, and dissemination materials.
• Actively participates in the preparation of required reports to the sponsor.
• Other (5%)
• Support collaborative research development and technology transfer activities.
• Provide flexible support to the PI across project needs as they evolve over the course of the grant.

Required Education and Experience

• PhD in environmental epidemiology, environmental health, exposure assessment, health impact assessment, or a closely related field.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Strong analytical and quantitative skills, including statistical programming (e.g., R, Python, or similar).
• Knowledge of causal inference methods and/or comparative risk assessment approaches.
• Familiarity with environmental exposures, including air pollution and temperature variables.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to translate complex findings for diverse audiences.
• Strong organizational and project management skills, with attention to detail and ability to manage multiple tasks and deadlines.
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively in an highly interdisciplinary and international team environment.

Preferred Qualifications

• Demonstrated expertise in quantitative data analysis and statistical modeling.
• Experience working with large, complex, and multi-dimensional datasets.
• Experience with spatial analysis and geospatial data integration, including use of GIS tools (e.g., ArcGIS, QGIS) to link, harmonize, and analyze datasets across spatial scales.

All positions are security-sensitive. Applicants are subject to a criminal history investigation, and employment is contingent upon the institution's verification of credentials and/or other information required by the institution's procedures, including the completion of the criminal history check.

Equal