Postdoctoral Research Associate – Arid Hydrology & Water Systems

About the role

The successful candidate will join the Arid Hydrology and Water Systems group at Texas A&M AgriLife Research in El Paso. This postdoctoral position focuses on transboundary water resources modeling, integrating NASA Earth observation data with advanced hydrologic models to support U.S.–Mexico water allocation and infrastructure planning.

Key responsibilities

• Develop, implement, and validate remote‑sensing‑enabled models for surface‑water and groundwater assessment.
• Integrate NASA EO products (e.g., GRACE/GRACE‑FO, SWOT, MODIS, GPM, Landsat, ECOSTRESS, OpenET) with in‑situ and field‑sensor data.
• Configure, calibrate, and apply hydrologic and groundwater modeling systems such as SWAT+ with gwflow/MODFLOW and ParFlow for the Rio Grande basin.
• Design AI/ML/DL predictive frameworks to evaluate water availability, drought impacts, groundwater depletion, and salinity risk.
• Lead data collection, QA/QC, harmonization, storage, and processing workflows across heterogeneous binational datasets.
• Collaborate with U.S.–Mexico stakeholders, including the International Boundary and Water Commission and the North American Development Bank.

Required profile

• Ph.D. in hydrology, water resources, environmental engineering, or a closely related field.
• Demonstrated experience with remote sensing, hydrologic modeling, and data‑driven decision‑support tools.
• Strong publication record and ability to work in interdisciplinary, binational research environments.

Required skills

• Remote sensing and NASA Earth observation products
• GRACE/GRACE‑FO, SWOT, MODIS, GPM, Landsat, ECOSTRESS, OpenET
• Hydrologic modeling: SWAT+, gwflow, MODFLOW, ParFlow
• Artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning
• Data QA/QC, harmonization, and processing workflows