Research Assistant Positions Available at Purdue University

The Sustainable Product and Engineering Lab at Purdue University is currently looking for Ph.D. students to work on the following projects (Spring 2014 or Fall 2014 start):

1. Developing Multi-agent Life Cycle Assessment Tool to Support Sustainable Design of Electronics. This project attempts to answer a critical question: to what degree will the new development and advancement of materials, design, and processing technologies improve environmental, societal and economic sustainability of electronic products? It is expected that the new tool will be based on integration of agent-based modeling (or other system-of systems methodology) and life cycle assessment. Student working on this project will be support through the NSF IGERT on Sustainable Electronics: http://www.igert.org/projects/292

2. Life cycle assessment of rare earth elements and products.

Rare earth elements are key materials needed by modern clean energy technologies – such as wind turbines, electric vehicles, and energy-efficient lighting. However, little is known about their environmental performance over life cycle. With close collaboration with industrial partners this project aims at filling this knowledge gap and provides support for the development of new materials and processes that enhance US energy security. This project is supported by the DOE through the Critical Materials Institute: http://cmi.ameslab.gov/index.html.

3. Understanding the economic and environmental consequences of widespread deployment of thin film solar photovoltaics. LCA studies on thin film PVs to date are mostly attributional and have largely ignored the ripple effects in affected industrial/economic sectors. This NSF-supported project aims at filling this critical knowledge gap by developing a new consequential LCA framework. Student working on this project is expected to have some training/background on economics and optimization.  

The ideal candidates should have M.S. in a related engineering field and background/training on optimization and/or economics.

If you are interested please contact me for further discussion.  Please feel free to circulate this email to anyone who may be interested in applying.

Contacts

Fu Zhao (赵浮), Ph.D.

Associate Professor

School of Mechanical Engineering

Division of Environmental and Ecological Engineering

Purdue University-West Lafayette

Phone: 765-4946637

Fax: 765-4940539

https://engineering.purdue.edu/~fzhao/