NSF NCEMS - Huck Institutes Graduate Assistantship

Penn State University • University Park, IL

6d • Onsite

About The Position

Graduate Students are encouraged to apply for the Graduate Research Assistant opportunities with the National Synthesis Center for Emergence in the Molecular and Cellular Sciences (NCEMS) at Penn State. The NSF funded NCEMS is seeking highly motivated graduate students (8 for Summer semester; 17 for Fall/Spring semesters) in programs such as Bioinformatics, Genomics/Computational Biology, Biostatistics, Data Science, Computer Science, Statistics, Biomedical Informatics, and related life science or engineering graduate programs, especially those with experience building reproducible computational workflows for high-throughput molecular datasets. This opportunity is offered at the grade 15, half-time level beginning in Summer 2026 or earlier, with appointments made on a semester-by-semester basis and the possibility of renewal across multiple semesters. Graduate Research Assistants will support one or more of the Center’s Working Groups and will be mentored by designated NCEMS research staff.

Requirements

• Applicants must be full-time doctoral students at Penn State University Park, be in good academic and conduct standing, and demonstrate strong interest in computational and data-driven molecular or cellular science research.
• Ideal candidates will possess strong communication, organization, and technical skills; the ability to work independently while seeking guidance appropriately; and the ability to collaborate effectively with staff, faculty, and interdisciplinary research teams.
• Experience with Python or R
• Familiarity with Linux
• Project experience and interest in computational biology, bioinformatics, genomics, pipeline development, or related quantitative research areas

Nice To Haves

• Experience with machine learning applications
• Experience with multi-modal integration of common biological data types
• Experience with workflow languages such as Snakemake or Nextflow
• Proficiency in Python and R
• Experience with transcriptomics and other gene regulatory data, including processing from raw files
• Knowledge of basic applied statistics, including hypothesis testing and multiple testing correction

Responsibilities

• Support community-scale synthesis research by contributing to one or more NCEMS Working Groups
• Process and analyze molecular and cellular datasets, including transcriptomics and gene regulatory data such as ChIP-seq, ATAC-seq, and Hi-C
• Develop, run, and maintain reproducible computational pipelines and workflows
• Integrate and analyze multi-omics or multi-modal datasets for synthesis research
• Contribute to additional project areas based on project needs, including methodological work in machine learning and scientific applications in proteomics, molecular dynamics, and evolutionary biology.
• Produce and maintain well-documented code, notebooks, workflows, and other research outputs
• Provide weekly progress updates during scheduled meetings with mentoring research staff
• Prepare interim and final written reports or presentations as requested
• Participate in regular meetings with mentoring research staff, broader NCEMS research personnel, and Working Group members to review progress, address blockers, and align work with project milestones

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Part-time
• Career Level: Intern
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees