Exciting Career Opportunities with New MIT-Led National Science Foundation (NSF) Convergence Accelerator Grant to Advance Sustainable "Socioresilient" Materials Design

Station1 | March 15, 2023 — Station1, a leading nonprofit higher education institution focused on expanding opportunity through socially-directed science and technology, has been awarded a research grant by the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the multi-institutional research project: “Mind over Matter: Socioresilient Materials Design (SMD): A New Paradigm For Addressing Global Challenges in Sustainability”  This NSF Convergence Accelerator grant is $750,000 and part of the program's Phase 1, 2022 Cohort, Track I:Sustainable Materials for Global Challenges. More information can be found at the following link: https://lnkd.in/endvUN_j.

This MIT-led research program is an innovative cross-sector and cross-disciplinary effort that aims to fundamentally rethink, re-shape, re-direct, and accelerate materials research and development towards more environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable and resilient materials-based products and materials-driven outcomes. This research program will reframe the classical materials design paradigm through the incorporation of social metrics. develop state-of-the-art materials computational methods and software, and utilize and incorporate nature-inspired principles to meaningfully shift our current trajectory of planetary crises in pollution, waste, biodiversity, and climate change. This grant program have openings for two part-time roles described below.

Program Management Support: This part-time role will provide the opportunity to engage with an innovative, interdisciplinary, multi-institutional team of researchers, industrial leaders, and nonprofit practitioners on a topic with great potential for significant environmental and social impact. The individual in this role will assist with coordination and participate in project team convenings,  internal and external communications, digital archiving, writing and codification, and timeline, milestones, and deliverable management. The successful candidate will have strong organizational, interpersonal, and communications skills in virtual team environments, and preferably will possess a relevant degree in science or engineering. This position is fully remote and based at Station1 (www.station1.org), a national nonprofit higher education institution focused on socially-directed science and technology. This individual will work closely with the Principal Investigator of the project, MIT Professor Christine Ortiz, Ph.D. Compensation will be determined based on experience.

Stakeholder Engagement  Support. This part-time role will provide the opportunity to engage with an innovative, interdisciplinary, multi-institutional team of researchers, industrial leaders, and nonprofit practitioners on a topic with great potential for significant environmental and social impact. The individual in this role will coordinate stakeholder engagement, interviews, surveys, data analysis, and codification. Beneficial  experience for this role includes, for example, semi-structured interviewing methodologies, coding of qualitative data, human-centered design, user data collection and codification, customer discovery and voice-of-customer analysis, and/or community-based participatory research. Relevant fields of speciality, include for example, sociology, anthropology, and business and product development/market strategy. This position is fully remote and based at Station1 (www.station1.org), a national nonprofit higher education institution focused on socially-directed science and technology.  This individual will work closely with the Principal Investigator of the project, MIT Professor Christine Ortiz, Ph.D. Compensation will be determined based on experience.

Please email CV and cover letter to: nsfca.socioresilientmse.mit@gmail.com.

About Station1

Station1 (www.station1.org) is a nonprofit higher education institution that is paving a pathway of opportunity through a new model of learning and research - socially-directed science and technology. The Station1 model integrates science and technology with humanistic fields and the social sciences in order to interrogate, understand, and shape technologically-driven societal impact towards more equitable and sustainable outcomes. To advance this mission, Station1 designs and carries out transformative education, research, innovation, and collective impact projects, programs, and initiatives in the areas of socially-directed science and technology. Station1 collaborates with partners worldwide, including socially-minded startup companies, established industry, the social and public sectors, and academia. Current research areas of focus within socially-directed science and technology include computationally-enabled sustainable materials design, socioresilient infrastructure, sociotechnical systems in biotechnology and health equity, and technosocial possibilities and histories of the future. Core to the Station1 model is broadening access and opportunity for students that have been historically excluded with care given to intersectionality, especially students of color, those who are first generation to college, students from low socio-economic households, and students who are geographically limited in their access to higher education. Station1 has had over 260 supporters, engaged over 6,000 direct beneficiaries, educated over 90 undergraduate research fellows from more than 65 institutions of higher education, and has and partnered with over 90 organizations worldwide.