About the role
Working/Functional Title
Postdoctoral Scholar
Position Summary
The Institute of Water Research is seeking a Postdoctoral Scholar with deep, hands-on expertise in the Water Quality Analysis Simulation Program (WASP). The primary responsibility of this position is to work directly with WASP's computational structure and water-quality and contaminant-transport processes and to integrate WASP with SWAT and MODFLOW. Exceptional Fortran programming expertise is essential and will be a major selection criterion. The selected candidate must be able to read, understand, modify, extend, compile, debug, test, optimize, and document complex scientific Fortran code and use these capabilities to develop stable coupling interfaces among WASP, SWAT, and MODFLOW. The integrated framework should support synchronized simulation time steps and spatial exchanges and enable transfer of surface-water flows, watershed inflows, groundwater-surface-water exchanges, constituent loads and concentrations, contaminant mass fluxes, and other required state or flux variables among the three models. Particular emphasis will be placed on bidirectional coupling and feedback where needed for physically consistent flow and contaminant transport, rather than relying solely on sequential or one-way model execution. The candidate will maintain water and contaminant mass balance across model interfaces; develop preprocessing, postprocessing, automated testing, calibration, and visualization workflows; and conduct model verification, sensitivity analysis, calibration, validation, performance evaluation, and troubleshooting. Strong Python skills are required for workflow automation, data processing, testing, and model orchestration. Familiarity with C or C++, APIs, dynamic-link libraries, version control, Linux environments, and high-performance or parallel computing is desirable. The candidate will also prepare technical documentation, reports, peer-reviewed publications, and presentations and collaborate with an interdisciplinary research team.
Initial appointment is for one year from the date of hire, with the possibility of extension for up to two years, contingent upon funding availability and satisfactory performance.
As an institution of higher learning, Michigan State University is committed to providing a safe environment for its students, faculty, and staff in support of its educational mission. With this commitment, the University conducts criminal background checks and professional misconduct reviews of all applicants for employment in faculty, academic staff, and executive management searches.
Professional Misconduct Review
A professional misconduct review is a prerequisite for a candidate to be selected for this position. Applicants will be asked to disclose whether they are subject to any pending investigation, findings or sanctions related to professional misconduct. Professional misconduct includes misconduct related to a person’s employment, including, but not limited to, theft, embezzlement, research integrity, discrimination, or harassment under civil rights laws and policies, including protected identity harassment, sexual harassment, sexual misconduct (sexual assault, sexual exploitation, dating violence, domestic violence, stalking, etc.), and retaliation. All applicants will be asked to sign an authorization and release, which authorizes the University to contact the candidate’s current and former employers, for a period of 7 years prior to the date of application, related to any pending investigations, findings of responsibility and/or sanctions related to professional misconduct. Nothing will be sent to current or former employers unless the candidate reaches the semi-finalist stage.
The existence of professional misconduct history does not automatically exclude a candidate from employment. The University will assess the history, including any information provided by the candidate, in determining whether it is compatible with the position. The University may decline to hire a candidate based on the professional misconduct review. All records obtained from external employers will be kept in a secure location, separate from personnel files. If an applicant fails to sign the authorization and release, the application will be deemed incomplete and will be withdrawn.
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement
All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, citizenship, age, disability or protected veteran status.
Required Degree
Doctorate -Doctorate - Ph.D. degree in Civil, Environmental, Agricultural, or Biological Engineering; Hydrology; Water Resources; Computational Science; or a closely related field
Minimum Requirements
- Greater than one year of relevant and progressively responsible experience in water-quality or contaminant-transport modeling, with demonstrated advanced expertise in WASP, including model setup, process representation, calibration, interpretation of model behavior, and development or modification of scientific modeling workflows
- Exceptional Fortran programming expertise, including demonstrated ability to read, understand, modify, extend, compile, debug, test, optimize, and document complex scientific model code; the candidate must be capable of working directly with computational model routines and developing reliable coupling interfaces rather than relying only on external preprocessing or file-based exchange
- Demonstrated experience developing or modifying model-coupling and data-exchange frameworks for process-based environmental models, including synchronization of model time steps and spatial units, transfer of hydrologic and contaminant variables, implementation of bidirectional feedback where required, and verification of water and contaminant mass balance across coupled model interfaces
- Excellent written and oral communication skills, demonstrated ability to work independently and collaboratively on interdisciplinary research, and fluency in English
Desired Qualifications
- Demonstrated experience modifying, extending, debugging, compiling, or interfacing with WASP computational code and routines for customized water-quality or contaminant-transport applications is strongly preferred
- Direct experience with SWAT and MODFLOW and demonstrated ability to integrate a receiving-water-quality model with watershed and groundwater models. Experience developing tightly coupled SWAT-MODFLOW-WASP applications that exchange flow, groundwater-surface-water fluxes, constituent loads or concentrations, and contaminant mass in both directions, where required by the coupled processes, is highly desirable
- Advanced scientific software-development experience with Fortran-based environmental models. Familiarity with Python, C, or C++ is particularly valuable for working across model interfaces; experience with APIs, dynamic-link libraries, SQL, Git or other version-control systems, Linux, high-performance computing, parallel computing, or automated testing is also desirable
- Strong understanding of WASP water-quality and contaminant fate-and-transport processes, receiving-water transport, watershed hydrology, groundwater-surface-water interactions, and rigorous water and contaminant mass-balance verification in an integrated modeling system
- Experience with model calibration, sensitivity or uncertainty analysis, technical documentation, peer-reviewed publications, and collaborative scientific software development
Required Application Materials
Please submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae, and names and contact information for at least three references.
Special Instructions
For questions, please contact iwr@msu.edu. Applicants must submit their application through the MSU Careers portal.
Review of Applications Begins On
09/08/2026
Website
www.canr.msu.edu/iwr
MSU Statement
Michigan State University has been advancing the common good with uncommon will for more than 160 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU pushes the boundaries of discovery and forges enduring partnerships to solve the most pressing global challenges while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.