Computational Materials Science for In-Space Welding, Joining, and Additive Manufacturing

The NASA Postdoctoral Program offers unique research opportunities to highly-talented scientists to engage in ongoing NASA research projects at a NASA Center, NASA Headquarters, or at a NASA-affiliated research institute. These one- to three-year fellowships are competitive and are designed to advance NASA's missions in space science, Earth science, aeronautics, space operations, exploration systems, and astrobiology. This specific opportunity focuses on advancing welding, joining, and additive manufacturing processes for in-space environments at NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. The postdoctoral scholar will develop and apply expertise to the Integrated Computational Materials Engineering (ICME) workflow for in-space applications, using tools that link the physics and length scales of process modeling, metallurgical modeling, and atomistic techniques. The research will evaluate the effects of microgravity, reduced pressures down to vacuum, and extreme temperatures on the melting, solidification, and mechanical behavior of materials. The postdoc will work closely with the Biological and Physical Sciences group and the Materials and Processes Laboratory at MSFC, applying computational materials science methods including density functional theory, molecular dynamics, CALPHAD, phase field modeling, and machine learning approaches. These efforts will align with existing and planned International Space Station, parabolic flight, and drop tower experiments for validation.