Working at MIT offers opportunities that just aren’t found anywhere else, including generous and unique benefits that help to ensure that MIT employees are healthy, supported, and enjoy a fulfilling work/life balance. Discover more about what it's like to work at MIT.

We welcome people from all walks of life to bring their talent, ideas, and experience to our community. We value diversity and strongly encourage applications from individuals from all identities and backgrounds – like yours. If you want to be part of our exceptional, multicultural, collaborative, and inclusive community, then take a look at this opportunity.

MIT provides pay ranges representing its good faith estimate of what the Institute reasonably expects to pay for a full time position at the time of posting (if you are applying for a part time salaried job, you will need to prorate the posted pay range). The pay offered to a selected candidate during hiring will be based on factors such as (but not limited to) the scope and responsibilities of the position, the candidate's work experience and education/training, internal peer equity, and applicable legal requirements. This pay range represents base pay only and does not include any other benefits or compensation.

Postdoctoral Associate

Job Number: 25310
Functional Area: Research - Scientific
Department: Plasma Science and Fusion Center
School Area: VP Research
Pay Range Minimum: $71,000
Pay Range Maximum: $90,000

Employment Type: Full-Time
Employment Category: Exempt
Visa Sponsorship Available: Yes
Schedule:
Pay Grade: No Grade

Posting Description

POSTDOCTORAL ASSOCIATE, Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC), to carry out fundamental and applied research in support of integrated core and edge MHD instability control for metallic wall tokamaks; work in the Disruptions group and focus on the application and controllability quantification of real-time solutions for avoiding and preventing off-normal events, e.g. tearing and neoclassical tearing modes in metal-wall scenarios; support the creation and validation of machine learning (ML) and hybrid physics + ML models to monitor and control the proximity to stability boundaries, their compliance with open and FAIR principles, besides leading/supporting experiments at DIII-D and international tokamaks; make original research contributions to the PSFC program; produce work for publication; present work at scientific conferences; and mentor graduate and undergraduate students.

Job Requirements

REQUIRED: Ph.D. in Physics, Nuclear Engineering, Plasma Science, Computer Science, or a related field; experience with plasma physics, MHD stability, or fusion energy research; familiarity with large-scale data management, curation, FAIR data principles, and machine learning; experience conducting original scientific research as well as publishing in scientific journals; demonstrated skills in scientific programming (Python preferred, JAX desirable), and control system integration (C/C++ familiarity); strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively in a multi-institutional environment, including staff and students from MIT, other universities, national laboratories, and private industry; and commitment to mentoring and outreach in support of a diverse research community.

This is a one-year position with the possibility of renewal depending on satisfactory performance and continued funding.

The position will be 100% off-campus at General Atomics (GA) in San Diego, CA, working in close coordination with GA researchers and MIT collaborators, including Columbia University, UCSD, and UCI.

Application material should include a cover letter, CV, and the names and contact information of three references. This material should be submitted as a single PDF in the resume field of the application.

11/12/2025