NASA Postdoctoral Program - Microgravity Science and Technology

The NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) 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 pertains to the use of reduced gravity environments for the advancement of science and the enabling of technologies for space exploration in the areas of combustion science, fluid physics, and biological and medical systems research. NASA Glenn Research Center has a world-class and unique suite of ground-based microgravity research facilities that include: a 2.2-second drop tower, a 5-second zero-gravity facility, and access to reduced-gravity aircraft. Focused research investigations are in the specific areas of high-pressure combustion, spacecraft fire safety, advanced life support systems and space physiology. Research is conducted in the physical sciences with an emphasis on gravitational effects on fundamental processes in such diverse areas as high pressure combustion, supercritical phase transition, supercritical water oxidation, colloids, material flammability, flame spread, aerosol dynamics, smoke detection, boiling and heat transfer. In the research area of the biological and medical systems this would include the development of compact, robust, multi-function biomedical sensors to monitor astronaut health and reduce levels of risk in NASA's exploration missions. The investigations provide new knowledge that is used to improve processes and equipment (energy, environment, manufacturing, and medical) used for the exploration of space both robotically and by long-duration manned missions.