EARTH Administrative Director

Heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and refrigeration (HVACR) are essential to the quality of life for all humans. HVACR systems are widespread throughout society, enabling transportation and preservation of fresh foods, storage of medicines, and cooling of buildings. However, most refrigerants used today are hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which have high global-warming potential (GWP), with 2000-4000 times the impact of CO2. Combined with high leak rates (direct effect — 50-90% of refrigerants leak into the atmosphere) and high energy consumption (indirect effect — 20-40% of U.S. residential and commercial building electricity usage comes from HVACR), HFCs account for 7.8% of total greenhouse-gas emissions.

To address this challenge, a new NSF Engineering Research Center (ERC): Environmentally Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub (EARTH) will create a “sustainable refrigerant lifecycle” to address technical, environmental, and societal challenges facing the HVACR industry. EARTH is a multi-institution, multi-disciplinary team from the University of Kansas, University of Notre Dame, University of Hawai'i, University of Maryland, University of South Dakota, and Lehigh University.

The Wonderful Institute for Sustainable Energy at the University of Kansas is looking for an Administrative Director to provide operational and financial management support for their Environmental Applied Refrigerant Technology Hub (EARTH). The EARTH Administrative Director will be responsible for operational management, financial management, data collection, publicity, and reporting. This position will manage and provide updates on budgets, timelines, and reporting to the EARTH leadership team (EARTH-LT) and will report to the ERC EARTH Director. The AD will supervise the day-to-day activities of the EARTH administrative assistant, accountant, communications officer, and warehouse curator and will work with the EARTH Project Manager to prepare the annual report for the NSF, organizing the annual site visits. This position will assist the Project Manager to build clear roadmaps and project plans, drive project execution from scoping through delivery, clarify milestones, and ensure visibility and alignment with overall center goals. When projects reach completion, this position will work with the Project Manager and project leadership to prepare a final report. The AD will be a leader that the EARTH team members, particularly the students, can rely on for support and encouragement. An ideal candidate for this position is someone who is eager to make a difference in academia by strengthening faculty interactions and mentoring students.

50% - Budget Monitoring and Reporting
The EARTH Administrative Director will monitor the budgets, timelines, and reporting of EARTH projects. This will include activities such as:

• Provide updates on budgets, timelines, and project milestones to EARTH-LT
• Work with the EARTH Project Manager, Thrust and Project Leads to build clear roadmaps and project plans, drive project execution, milestones clearly communicated and executed, and ensure alignment of project goals with overall center goals.
• Work with project leadership when programs are complete to prepare final reports.
• Coordinate activities between multiple projects.

20% - Managing day-to-day operations of ERC EARTH

• Coordinate activities for EARTH Administrative Assistant and EARTH Accountant.

20% - NSF Coordination, Planning, and Organization

• Coordinate and collect information, and preparing annual report for NSF.
• Plan and organize annual NSF site visit with EARTH Project Manager.

10% - Other duties as assigned

• Work with EARTH-LT to coordinate technical seminars as well as seminars on professional development topics such as teamwork, communication, lab safety and others.