Research Scientist

at  George Mason University

Department: College of Science
Classification: Research Staff 12-month
Job Category: Research Staff
Job Type: Full-Time
Work Schedule: Full-time (1.0 FTE, 40 hrs/wk)
Location: Fairfax, VA
Workplace Type: Hybrid Eligible
Salary: Salary commensurate with education and experience
Restricted: Yes
Criminal Background Check: Yes

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree in related field;
• At least 10 years of experience in transportation safety, developing material and computer simulation models, developing vehicle and roadside hardware models, and carrying out simulation analysis for vehicle and highway safety for vehicle applications;
• Good knowledge of transportation safety and testing standards;
• Good skills with finite element pre- and post-processors (e.g., HyperMesh, LS-PrePost, etc); and
• Excellent abilities in using Finite Element analysis and modeling, specifically using LS-DYNA.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS:

• Master’s degree in related field;
• Over 10 years of experience in vehicle safety engineering for vehicle structure design and occupant safety and a background in Solid Mechanics;
• Experience generating 2D and 3D drawings using CAD software (e.g., AutoCAD, SOLIDWORKS, etc.);
• Experience working in a collaborative team environment to develop creative solutions to complex challenges as well as the ability to work independently;
• Familiarity with the latest transportation safety research areas, concepts, practices, procedures, and problem-solving techniques;
• Knowledge in the behavior, failure, and numerical models of solids such as metals, soils and concrete; and
• Good verbal and written communication skills, especially with technical reports.

• Manages the development process of finite element models in the Vehicle Digitizing Lab;
• Supervises and conducts overall processes including scheduling, vehicle disassembling, scanning and geometry cleaning, meshing and model assembling, material testing and characterizing, etc;
• Performs the validation and verification of FE vehicle models;
• Conducts simulations of various regulatory crash modes to improve the validity of FE models by comparing them with crash tests;
• Carries out sponsored research related to simulations, design optimization, material model development, new design concept and improvement, etc;
• Builds the databases of simulation and test outputs, FE models of vehicles, roadside hardware, material models, etc;
• Manages FE models and material models; and
• Develops databases to manage FE models and Material models.