Postdoc Fellow Position #1: 

Start Date: December 2023 or January 2024
Term: Full-time, up to 3 years

Dr. Like Li’s research group, the Thermal Energy Storage and Decarbonization 
(TESD) Lab, at the University of Central Florida (UCF), invites enthusiastic 
applications from highly motivated and talented individuals for a Postdoctoral 
Fellowship with focus on computational modeling of heat transfer in materials, 
structures, and thermochemical reactors. 

The postdoc fellowship will be supported by a U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) 
Solar Energy Technologies Office (SETO) funded three-year project, “Reactive 
Particle Based Thermochemical Energy Storage System for Concentrating Solar‐
Thermal Power (TCES-CSP)”, focusing on the design, modeling, and lab-scale 
testing of high-temperature thermochemical reactors for solar and other 
renewable energy conversion and storage. The postdoc fellow will co-lead a 
collaborative research team with members from three universities, one clean 
energy start-up company, and a DOE national laboratory (Sandia) for a prototype 
reactor development and demonstration.

In addition, the UCF Preeminent Postdoctoral Program 
(https://graduate.ucf.edu/postdoc-funding-resources/) will also provide support 
for the recruited postdoc fellow.

The required minimum qualifications include:
1.	PhD in Mechanical Engineering, Aerospace Engineering, Applied 
Mathematics, Applied Physics, or a very closely aligned field. 
2.	Expertise in numerical modeling of thermal-fluid systems (e.g., CFD).
3.	Strong computational skills in developing in-house code (using FORTRAN, 
C, MATLAB, or others), and in using CFD-related commercial software such as 
ANSYS Fluent or others.
4.	A team player that is able to work together with external collaborators 
on chemical reactor design, model validation, and reactor scale-up, and possess 
good oral and written communication skills.

The preferred qualifications include:
1.	Experience in numerical modeling of coupled thermal-chemical transport 
phenomena and fluid-solid interactions is desired.
2.	Research experience with studying high-temperature radiation transfer, 
solar receiver design and modeling, particulate or granular flow, reactive 
material reduction/oxidation kinetics is highly desired.
3.	Experience in using high-performance computing (HPC) and parallelization 
(e.g., OpenMPI) is desired.

Interested applicants should email Dr. Like Li (like.li@ucf.edu) the following 
documents:
1.	A CV including publications and a list of three references.
2.	A research statement that explains: (1) why you are interested in 
working with my group, and (2) your qualifications for working on the research 
project.

About the research group:

Dr. Li begins his UCF career in December 2023, as an Associate Professor in the 
Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE), and an affiliated 
faculty member of the Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research 
(CATER). He was a faculty member at Mississippi State University from 2017-2023.
The research focus in Dr. Li’s lab includes: (1) modeling and testing of 
reactive materials and structures in thermochemical energy storage systems; (2) 
fundamental understanding of thermal and chemical transport in thermo-fluids 
systems, such as fluidized beds and particle reactors; and (3) experimental 
design and testing of lab-scale thermochemical reactors for zero-carbon energy 
conversion and storage systems. Dr. Li’s group has received funding from federal 
agencies including NSF, DOE, NASA, DOD and also one grant from a utility company 
– the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).

Dr. Li’s lab will be located in the Siemens Energy Center in the UCF Research 
Park. Siemens Energy Center has over 10,000 sqft of space for state-of-the-art 
experimental rigs, staff/student offices, Siemens meeting room, and access to 
high performance computing clusters. Adjacent to the UCF main campus, the 
Research Park has a land of 1,027 acres and more than 58 buildings for housing 
more than 125 companies for research and technology transfer. There are 
approximately 10,000 employees working in the research park.

About energy and decarbonization at UCF:

Decarbonization is one of the most important topics for a sustainable future. 
The world continues to move towards a low-carbon economy, with more than 110 
countries and 200 of the world's largest companies pledging to achieve net zero 
carbon by 2050. One thing is clear: the energy transition must be clean, 
affordable, accessible, and reliable. A transition of this size requires 
collaboration across the government, public and private sectors, academia, NGOs, 
and communities around the world. As a leader in Decarbonized Energy, the 
University of Central Florida (UCF) has committed to the challenge of shaping 
this transition through the Zero Carbon Energy (ZCE) initiative. The ZCE 
initiative will further strengthen several ongoing research and education 
activities at UCF that are focused around zero carbon energy and 
decarbonization.

UCF houses four distinct energy-related research centers or clusters: Resilient, 
Intelligent and Sustainable Energy Systems (RISES) Center, Renewable Energy and 
Chemical Transformation (REACT) Cluster, the Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC), 
and the Center for Advanced Turbomachinery and Energy Research (CATER).
CATER was founded to focus on student training and research on turbo-machineries 
and associated energy systems for application in power generation, aviation, and 
space propulsion. CATER currently has 10 core faculty members from MAE, with a 
staff of 12 postdoctoral researchers and 75 doctoral students who brought in 
$7.9M of external funding and graduated 16 doctoral students in AY2021-2022.

More about UCF:

UCF is one of the nation's largest universities with a diverse student body of 
approximately 70,000 students and has grown substantially in size, quality, 
diversity, and reputation. Today, the university offers more than 230 degree 
programs. UCF's students represent all 50 states and over 120 countries. UCF is 
in a centralized location that is 30 minutes to Walt Disney World and Universal 
Orlando and 60 minutes to the beach. UCF has 16 sports teams, including 
football, soccer, tennis, volleyball, and 600+ cultural, academic, and social 
student clubs and organizations all led by faculty mentors. 
The Carnegie Foundation has classified UCF as a R1 Doctoral University for its 
high research activity and community engagement. According to the most recent US 
News in 2024, UCF was ranked #124 in National Universities and #14 in Most 
Innovative Schools. This past fiscal year, UCF brought in nearly $205M. For the 
fifth consecutive year, UCF has been recognized among the nation's most 
innovative universities according to U.S. News & World Report, while Kiplinger's 
and The Princeton Review have ranked UCF as one of the nation's best values for 
a college education. 

Central Florida has been also home to several global energy companies. With NASA 
Kennedy Space Center less than an hour away from Orlando, many well-known 
companies such as Siemens Energy, Mitsubishi Power, and Lockheed Martin have 
their major headquarters in Orlando. Others such as Pratt & Whitney (Raytheon) 
and Northrop Grumman have their headquarters within easy drivable distances. All 
these companies share the same talent pools available in this region.