Jobs
SPRING 2026 JOB POSTING: I am currently searching for a postdoctoral scholar (preferred timeline: August 2026 – May 2028 or January 2027 – August 2028) interested in the ethics of deep decarbonization. Send CVs and a 1-page cover letter describing your fit and interest to egrubert@nd.edu: reviews will start 1 April and continue until a selection is made.
Here’s the job description:
The “Ethical Technology Transitions to Mitigate Climate Change” program seeks a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Notre Dame under Dr. Emily Grubert focused on the ethics of various pathways, governance, and institutional designs for deploying climate-focused “hard tech,” such as direct air capture for carbon dioxide removal, hydrogen, batteries, and end-use technologies like heat pumps. A primary focus will be how resources are allocated to and across industrial systems given limited deployment capacity relative to demand: for deployment scales consistent with the Paris Agreement’s target of limiting global warming to well below 2°C, manufacturing and installation capacities are likely to constrain total energy consumption in ways that will require either limiting certain activities or accepting higher levels of climate change impacts. This position is for up to 21 months, with a salary of $75,000/year, with $4,000/year of discretionary research funding and no teaching or service obligations. The fellow will have the opportunity to mentor undergraduate research assistants if desired. Remote work inside the United States is acceptable. Candidates must have completed a PhD prior to starting this position. The discipline is flexible, but successful candidates will have strong quantitative and writing skills, with demonstrated expertise in evaluating sociotechnical systems. For context on prior work, see Grubert and Talati 2024, https://doi.org/10.1080/17583004.2023.2292111.
Our Group
We are a group strengthened by our diversity, both in background and interests. We do interdisciplinary work focused on improving the social and environmental performance of human infrastructure systems in a community-conscious way, especially related to energy and justice.
Interested in joining us? In general I am looking for people who are question driven, have strong written communication skills, and are interested in systems-level but physically grounded research. If you have specific questions, please reach out to me at egrubert@nd.edu — in the interest of fairness, I try to keep evaluative conversations like CV reviews, interviews, etc. to the confines of our formal application process, but I’m happy to answer questions about projects and logistics outside of that process. I advise graduate students in Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs and Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences (CEEES) degree programs. Graduate application deadlines for fall admissions are generally in mid-December for Keough and February for CEEES, with details here and here.
I am also almost always looking for undergraduate researchers (for now, just Notre Dame students). Contact me at egrubert@nd.edu if that is interesting.
Our Team
Postdoctoral Fellows
Baxter Kamana-Williams: building system efficiency, peak load, and grid management under deep decarbonization
Joshua Lappen: minimum viable scale of fossil fuel infrastructure
PhD Students
Joshua Glass: characterization factors for water consumption in life cycle assessment, and water scarcity impacts under future climate and sociotechnical conditions
MS Students
Undergraduate Researchers
Spring 2026: Mary Braden, Sofia Buck, Genevieve Cicchiello, Payton Cooper, Jayna Cruz, Noah Dolan, Tatum Eisenreich, Ana Maria González Panigua, Kate Heitmann, Helena Hoyos Arango, Ravi Kaye, Eavan Kelly, Jacob Kong, James LaFever, Lucy Loes, Cecilia Marmori Soliz, Ciara McCloskey, Daniel McCoppin, Haynes Melchior, Jude Nofal, Gabriella Rado, Nathan Theodore, Marina Vonhof
Alumni
John Mulrow conducted postdoctoral research on life cycle assessment of electric vehicle charging system. His research focuses on capturing the impacts of the digital layer in these systems that is often hidden from view.
Adrienne Marshall conducted postdoctoral research working to understand the role of hydropower in increasingly decarbonized energy systems and a changing climate. More info here.
Susie Ha completed her PhD in the interdisciplinary area where data science, civil engineering, and public policy meet to address sustainability issues in energy policy, focused on application of natural language processing with deep learning to find interesting insights for policy makers on sustainability of infrastructure systems.
Victoria Dean conducted PhD research at the intersection of urban infrastructure development, environmental equity, and engineering education.
Alex Maxim completed her PhD on the impacts of climate change and climate migration on urban infrastructure systems, with a focus on the development of equitable, sustainable, and resilient systems that prioritize just transitions and the well-being of the vulnerable communities they are meant to serve.
Abigail Cohen conducted PhD research on building circular food systems by coupling waste management and agriculture.
Mathias Zacarias conducted MS research on decarbonization pathways of energy systems and their impacts on society, the economy, and the environment.
Manasi Gali conducted undergraduate research in solid waste management and future renewable energy goals.
Jeremy Chen conducted undergraduate research in Environmental Engineering.
Talia Herrera conducted undergraduate research on the decarbonization of the energy sector and logistics of Brownfields projects.
Clara Molnar conducted undergraduate research on power plant property taxes.
Katrina (‘Trina’) Reinhart conducted undergraduate research on Carbon Dioxide Removal feasibility studies.
Isaac Schmidt conducted undergraduate research analyzing the life cycle costs and greenhouse gas emissions of electric vehicles when compared to more conventional vehicles.
Christa Shreve conducted undergraduate research on sustainable infrastructure.
Jenna Krieger conducted life cycle stormwater costing research as a master’s student in the group. Check out that work here and here.
Diana Burns conducted research on methane emissions and energy system vulnerability and graduated in Spring 2021.