Description
Compensation: IS-13 ($121,785 per year plus benefits)
Location: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Edgewater, Maryland
Open Application Period: 31 July 2026
To apply: Submit application with resume and cover letter through the Smithsonian employment portal
Position Description:
The Smithsonian Environmental Research Center (SERC) invites applications for a Physical Scientist with expertise in system-level research in fields such as agroecology, sustainable agriculture, forestry and related topics. Applicants will need training and experience in physical science disciplines such as soil chemistry, soil physics, soil geochemistry, biogeochemistry or hydrology and research expertise in both field and laboratory settings that relates to agroecology, sustainable agriculture, forestry and related topics.
Our goal is to build a research program that addresses contemporary challenges such as agrivoltaics, regenerative farming, sustainable forestry, soil health, nutrient stewardship, water management or other themes related to ecological and environmental aspects of agriculture, and to do so in a systems framework that integrates across ecological, technological, economic, and social domains. Thus, the incumbent will establish significant partnerships with the research institutions, organizations, and the public to advance program goals. We also expect the research program to use the SERC as a model landscape and undertake comparative studies across other local, regional, and global sites as needed.
This position reports to the Associate Director for Research, serves as a Principal Investigator, and leads a research program at SERC. The SERC community seeks to fill this key position with a person capable of working productively with a diverse community of staff, students, volunteers, and visitors and other partners to develop a impactful research program. This is a full-time trust position that is fully funded by the Smithsonian for the first 3 years with associated benefits. The successful applicant will be expected to develop a research program that is primarily grant-funded including salary and benefits after 3 years.
We are interested in candidates with expertise in any of these areas, including but not limited to:
- Co-located agriculture and photovoltaic generation (ecovoltaics, agrivoltaics)
- Influence of agricultural practices on soil health or ecohydrology
- Ecosystem effects of tree species diversity in agroforestry
- Plant ecophysiology or microbial ecology related to agriculture
- Sustainable agriculture effects on aquatic ecosystems at watershed scales
Requirements
Requirements for this position include:
Degree: A combination of education and experience that included at least 24 semester hours in physical science and/or courses in related engineering science, physics, chemistry, geology, earth science, soil science, atmospheric or environmental science, or applied mathematics relevant to physical sciences, plus appropriate experience, or additional education. Or a degree in physical science, engineering, or mathematics that included 24 semester hours in physical science and/or related engineering science, such as mechanics, dynamics, properties of materials, and electronics.
You qualify for this position if you possess one year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-12 level in the federal service or comparable pay band system (it is a requirement that you list the duration of this experience in months and years, as well as the number of hours per week you worked, or your application may be rejected).
Specialized experience (your application must describe your experience in each of the following):
- Training and/or experience in physical science disciplines such as soil chemistry, soil physics, soil geochemistry, biogeochemistry or hydrology.
- Training and/or experience in ecovoltaics, agrivoltaics, agroecology, sustainable agriculture, or impacts of agriculture on terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
- Obtaining research funding from competitive internal and/or extramural funding sources.
- Publishing data-rich papers with regional and/or national application and significance.
- Presenting research results to scientific and other audiences.
Values and Opportunities:
SERC is a research unit of the Smithsonian Institution dedicated to ecological research and education. SERC’s 2,650-acre campus is a living laboratory for long-term ecosystem research on forests, farmland, wetlands, shorelines and estuaries. SERC is strategically located in a rural landscape with immediate proximity to the Baltimore-Washington DC-Annapolis urban system on the western shore of Chesapeake Bay and central to the Bay’s large watershed. Our vibrant community of 150 staff includes principal investigators, educators, technicians, postdocs, and graduate and undergraduate researchers, who annually engage and collaborate with interns, 500+ volunteers, and 25,000 public visitors.
Research and education at SERC address grand challenges in environmental science articulated by the Smithsonian Institution’s Life on a Sustainable Planet initiative. Our research crosses ecological scales, leverages long-term observations and experiments, and seeks outcomes that benefit ecosystems and people. Our scientists collaborate across the Smithsonian Institution and with federal and state agencies, universities, and international organizations. We value public engagement and have strong programs in participatory science, science education, and science communication.
The successful applicant will have access to and the opportunity to build upon considerable field, lab, and data resources available at SERC, including the possibility of a new agrivoltaic research facility. Existing resources include five decades of watershed research on weir- and automated sensor-equipped experimental watersheds, a watershed-scale stream restoration experiment, two large biodiversity-ecosystem function agroforestry experiments (BiodiversiTREE and Functional Forests). SERC hosts a National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON) site, a ForestGEO forest dynamics plot, and a large-scale coastal forest experiment to simulate the ecosystem effects of storm surge (TEMPEST). SERC is home to the Global Change Research Wetland (GCReW) dedicated to in situ experiments designed to unravel biogeochemical processes in coastal wetlands responding to CO2 enrichment, warming, and other global changes. A wide variety of analytical instruments and computing resources are available, including a server and workstations configured for geospatial analysis, statistical analysis, and modeling, and spatial software packages for analysis of maps and imagery data. Finally, the applicant will have access to the scholarly resources of the wider Smithsonian Institution including deep expertise at eight other science units such as STRI and NZCBI.
The SERC community strongly encourage candidates from all backgrounds to apply. We recognize that each applicant for this role will bring unique skills, knowledge, experiences, and background to this position. The Smithsonian Institution is an equal opportunity employer, committed to a policy of non-discrimination on the basis of race/ethnicity, national origin, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, age, religion, martial/parental/caregiver status, and disability.
Please address questions about the position announcement to [email protected].
