Margaret Butler Fellowship - Argonne Scholar

Argonne National Laboratory; Lemont (IL); Hybrid; USD 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Competitive salary

Generous professional allowance

Job summary

The Argonne Leadership Computing Facility's Margaret Butler Fellowship in Computational Science invites postdoctoral researchers to pursue high-impact science at the intersection of AI for Science and HPC. The fellowship aims to broaden domain science in leadership-class computing and advance AI-enabled scientific discovery on Argonne's exascale resources.

Selected fellows will work with multidisciplinary teams at Argonne, leveraging Aurora and AI accelerators, with a one-year appointment that

Qualifications

• Ph.D. (completed within the last 0–5 years, or to be awarded by the start of the appointment) in applied mathematics, physics, chemistry, computer science, or similar field.
• Experience with at least one AI-driven approach, such as distributed foundation model development and fine tuning; agentic AI orchestration; development and application of surrogate models.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills to contribute to creative solutions to complex problems.
• Effective verbal and written communications skills.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with researchers and contribute to impactful research outcomes.

Skills

Analytical skills

Communication skills

Collaborative work

Teamwork ethos

AI experience

HPC knowledge

Education

Ph.D. in applied mathematics, physics, chemistry, computer science, or similar field

Job description

The Argonne Leadership Computing Facility's (ALCF) Margaret Butler Fellowship in Computational Science

The Argonne Leadership Computing Facility's (ALCF) Margaret Butler Fellowship in Computational Science is an exciting and unique opportunity to pursue high-impact scientific research at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Science and High-Performance Computing (HPC) to drive scientific discoveries. The mission of this fellowship is to broaden domain science in leadership-class computing.

This postdoctoral fellow is expected to leverage the ALCF's world-class computing resources. These include the Aurora Supercomputer - one of the two exascale computing platforms in the US for open science research - and novel AI accelerators in the AI Testbed. The postdoctoral fellow will work closely with multidisciplinary science teams to drive a research agenda and help chart the future direction of scientific computing and artificial intelligence on leadership-class supercomputing facilities. The responsibilities will be determined based on the accepted research proposal and plan and based on meetings with the supervisor/mentor of this fellow.

The appointment is for one year and may be renewed for another year, subject to performance, project needs, and funding availability. The benefits of the appointment include a highly competitive salary and a generous professional allowance. For additional details, including past recipients, see: https://www.alcf.anl.gov/margaret-butler-fellowship-computational-science

This position requires on-site presence at the Argonne campus in Lemont, Illinois, with the possibility of a hybrid schedule which applies to employees regularly scheduled for some onsite and some remote days, with employees typically working up to 40% of their time remotely.

This position description documents the general nature and level of work but is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all activities, duties and responsibilities required of job incumbent. Consequently, job incumbent may be required to perform other duties as assigned.

ABOUT MARGARET K. BUTLER (1924-2013)

This Argonne-based postdoctoral fellowship program is named in honor of Margaret K. Butler, a pioneering scientist who spent her career at the leading edge of computer science and nuclear energy. She programmed the first digital computers at Argonne National Laboratory in the early 1950s, helped design subsequent ones, and contributed to simulations of nuclear power reactors. Butler was the first female Fellow at the American Nuclear Society and director of the National Energy Software Center. Her analytical talents, vision, and drive led to a lifetime of scientific contributions.

Position Requirements

Required skills and qualifications :

• Ph.D. (completed within the last 0-5 years, or to be awarded by the start of the appointment) in applied mathematics, physics, chemistry, computer science, or similar field.
• Knowledge of high-performance computational science. Examples include, but are not limited to computational science research in at least one of the following: Biology; chemistry; earth science; engineering; materials science; nuclear energy; physics; renewable energy; energy science; artificial intelligence; numerical methods & applied mathematics.
• Experience with at least one AI-driven approach, such as distributed foundation model development and Fine tuning; agentic AI orchestration; development and application of surrogate models; AI integration with autonomous laboratories; multimodal AI; etc.
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills to contribute to creative solutions to complex problems.
• Effective verbal and written communications skills.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate effectively with researchers and contribute to impactful research outcomes.
• Ability to work effectively with collaborators within Argonne and at other laboratories, universities, computing centers, and industry organizations.
• Ability to model Argonne's core values of impact, safety, respect, integrity, and teamwork.