Title:  Applied Physics and Engineering in Radio Frequency Electromagnetics

Description: The mission of the AFRL’s Radio Frequency Bioeffects Branch (RHDR) is to understand the interaction of radio frequency (RF) directed energy with biological systems to improve human health and safety. To better understand the potential biological hazards of exposure to RF radiation, our lab uses RF systems to expose biology and study underlying changes in biological systems caused by the absorption of RF.

RF exposure studies require personnel with advanced physics- and engineering-based knowledge of the RF systems being utilized. We are searching for an applied physicist or engineer with a strong background in theoretical and applied physics and engineering related to electrical engineering, electromagnetic radiation, RF systems and antennas, high voltage and RF transmission systems and attenuation, and computational electromagnetic modeling, algorithms, and mathematics. The physicist/engineer must provide hands-on setup and control of the hardware and software of high voltage and RF systems and subsystems and understand and characterize, at a physics-based level, the electric and magnetic fields emitted. The physicist/engineer must perform rigorous field measurements (i.e., dosimetry) and be able to innovate, or identify and adopt, recent advancements in RF systems, subsystems, and measurement sensors and techniques and incorporate them into new projects. The physicist/engineer must perform high quality acquisition, processing, and interpretation of the data on the electric and magnetic fields and on their interactions with materials, use computational electromagnetic modeling and algorithms to inform and understand the RF systems and exposures, and provide insightful comparisons and interpretation of the experimental and computational results. Rigorous and repeatable experimental RF dosimetry is necessary to validate and verify (V&V) our bioelectromagnetic computational models and to better understand RF-induced biological effects.

We are a collaborative team consisting of personnel from multiple military research units, industry, and academia. Our teammates have expertise in a wide range of research areas, including bioelectromagnetics, biophysics, computational modeling, electrical engineering, optical and laser physics, biomedical engineering, biology, physiology, and electrophysiology. We seek a talented applicant with a strong background in RF engineering, mathematics, computational modeling, and hands-on RF setup and experimentation. The applicant should have experience in electrical engineering, electricity and magnetism, mathematics, physics, real-time hardware setup/control (e.g., LabVIEW), software programming and computational modeling (e.g., Python, xFdtd), data collection, analyses, and statistics.

Keywords: antennas, computational modeling, directed energy, dosimetry, electrical engineering, electromagnetics, microwave, physics, radio frequency, real-time hardware control, RF transmitters

Eligibility:  Open to U.S. Citizens

Level: Open to Postdoctoral and Senior applicants

DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT A. Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited [P.A. Case No. AFRL-2024-3942, 17 July 2024]. The views expressed are those of the authors and do not reflect the official guidance or position of the United States Government, the Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the United States Space Force.

key words

antennas, computational modeling, directed energy, dosimetry, electrical engineering, electromagnetics, microwave, physics, radio frequency, real-time hardware control, RF transmitters

Citizenship:  Open to U.S. citizens

Level:  Open to Postdoctoral and Senior applicants