The EPA Environmental Research and Business Support Program has an immediate opening for a part-time EPA Environmental Exposure Research Assistant with the Office of Research and Development at the EPA facility in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

The Office of Research and Development at the EPA supports high-quality research to improve the scientific basis for decisions on national environmental issues and help EPA achieve its environmental goals. Research is conducted in a broad range of environmental areas by scientists in EPA laboratories and at universities across the country.

The Environmental Public Health Division (EPHD) within the Office of Research and Development (ORD) at EPA focuses on the adverse public health impacts of environmental exposures. The research utilizes human subjects data and publicly available databases to investigate the human health effects of air and water pollutants and other environmental exposures. Researchers in the Epidemiology Branch of EPHD have created an Environmental Quality Index (EQI) for all counties across the U.S. for the time period 2000-2005. Five environmental domains were created: air, water, land, sociodemographic and built. The researchers are currently updating the index for 2006-2010 and also exploring different spatial aggregations (e.g., census tract, neighborhood). The researchers have used the EQI as an exposure metric in health outcome research utilizing health databases with millions of records.

The selected applicant shall assist a researcher in the Epidemiology Branch with analytical, management and administrative responsibilities and communication responsibilities required to support and maintain a robust research program, including the administration and management of large geospatial data sets.

Analytical responsibilities will include:

• Developing geospatial datasets of ambient environmental exposures,
• Extracting large publically available datasets to investigate environmental ecological conditions, goods, and services and adverse health outcomes,
• Using large geospatial datasets to map, analyze, present in relation to environmental exposures linking with health data, and
• Developing and running coding for geospatial and statistical analyses.

Management and Administrative responsibilities will include:

• Extracting, cleaning, linking, merging, documenting and managing large complex geospatial databases from both environmental quality (e.g., EPA air quality system, Safe Drinking Water Information System, Toxic Release Inventory) and health data (e.g., National Center for Health Statistics natality and linked birth certificate/infant death certificate databases, National Birth Defects Prevention Network data, mortality data) platforms,
• Organizing electronic and hardcopy geospatial records and files,
• Researching and summarizing information relating to the spatial implications with environmental quality and health outcomes, and
• Maintaining records of meetings, correspondence, and action documents, and maintain a system to track projects in progress.

Communications-related responsibilities will include:

• Assisting in the logistics and coordination activities for briefings, meetings, workshops, and other collaborative efforts,
• Assisting the team in developing oral presentation results and impacts using graphics and other interactive formats,
• Assist in developing summary analysis documents of results and impacts from geospatial data analyses
• Assisting in writing study results in manuscripts, presentations, and fact sheets, and
• Creating abstracts for scientific meetings and present work at meetings.

Location: This job will be located at the EPA facility in Chapel Hill, NC.

Salary: Selected applicants will become temporary employees of ORAU and will receive an hourly wage of $32.88 for hours worked.

Travel: Occasional overnight travel may be required.

Expected Start Date: The position is part-time up to 20 hours per week and expected to begin April 2016. The selected applicant will be a temporary employee of ORAU working as a contractor to EPA. The initial project is through May 14, 2016, followed by up to four (4) additional 12-month optional periods.

Working Conditions 

The selected applicant shall be supervised by a mentor who will provide day-to-day direction, as well as coach, advise, counsel and review his/her work.  This position will involve work in an administrative setting and is not expected to involve exposure to hazardous elements.

For more information, contact EPAjobs@orau.org. Do not contact EPA directly

Eligible applicants must:

• Be at least 18 years of age and
• Be enrolled at an accredited U.S. college or university as a doctoral student. The degree program shall be from one of the following disciplines: Geography, Environmental Sciences, Epidemiology, Public Health, Statistics, Social Sciences, Biostatistics and
• Be a citizen of the United States of America or a Legal Permanent Resident.

EPA ORD employees, their spouses, and children are not eligible to participate in this program.

Required Knowledge, Skills, Work Experience, and Education

The applicant shall:

• Demonstrate education and/or experience in advanced geospatial methods, analyses, programming and techniques and demonstrate that he/she can apply the geospatial data for epidemiologic and statistical methods with an emphasis on large (millions of records) datasets,
• Demonstrate proficiency in working with very large (millions of records) geospatial databases in extracting and cleaning,
• Demonstrate education and/or experience in using database software (e.g., MS Access, SQL, etc.),
• Demonstrate experience in administration support functions (i.e., recordkeeping, filing), managing and organizing records (electronic and hardcopy), and management of extremely large (millions of records) databases, and
• Demonstrate strong written, oral and electronic communication skills.

How to apply:

Submit application and supporting documents by clicking on Apply Now button.

For more information, contact EPAjobs@orau.org. Do not contact EPA directly.

• Citizenship: LPR or U.S. Citizen
• Degree: Master's Degree or Doctoral Degree received within the last 24 month(s).
• Discipline(s):
  • Chemistry and Materials Sciences (12 )
  • Communications and Graphics Design (1 )
  • Engineering (27 )
  • Environmental and Marine Sciences (13 )
  • Life Health and Medical Sciences (45 )
  • Mathematics and Statistics (10 )
  • Other Non-Science & Engineering (5 )
  • Physics (16 )
  • Social and Behavioral Sciences (28 )

I certify that I am at least 18 years of age; enrolled at an accredited U.S. college or university as a doctoral student. The degree program shall be from one of the following disciplines: Geography, Environmental Sciences, Epidemiology, Public Health, Statistics, Social Sciences, Biostatistics; a citizen or a Legal Permanent Resident of the United States of America; and not a current employee of EPA ORD or the spouse or child of an EPA ORD employee.