Post-Doctoral Research Associate, The Center for Molecular Biophysics: UTK

University of Tennessee • Knoxville, TN

11d • Onsite

About The Position

The Post-Doctoral Research Associate will assist Prof. Jeremy Smith and other research faculty and research scientists with research predicting protein function from multimodal inputs, including protein structure, dynamics simulations, and ligand binding. Work may use high-performance computing and/or cloud-computing platforms. The position is part of a team and involves close coordination with faculty and research scientist mentors, as well as outside collaborators. This is a grant-funded position contingent on continued grant funding.

Research topics include AI-enabled protein function prediction, molecular dynamics simulation, ligand binding, drug and vaccine design, and potentially workflow development. The researcher will assist with molecular modeling, software development, and development of AI models; prepare scientific manuscripts; and present results where appropriate. The work location is the University of Tennessee site at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), and the role is onsite.

Requirements

• PhD.
• Experience in atomistic computer simulations and/or AI and computer programming.
• Excellent working knowledge of chemistry, physics, or computer science.
• Analytical skills to collect information from diverse sources, perform analyses, summarize and present information, communicate data and trends, and solve problems.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to multitask.
• Experience in molecular modeling and simulation of biological macromolecular systems.
• Practical experience developing AI models.
• Experience simulating algorithms to understand fundamental behavior.
• Must be legally authorized to work in the United States full-time without needing now or in the future sponsorship for employment-based visa status.

Nice To Haves

• Experience deploying scientific software on high-performance computing and/or cloud-computing environments.
• Protein structure prediction experience.
• Ensemble docking experience.
• Computational workflow development experience.
• Experience with generative machine learning.

Responsibilities

• Develop research on AI-enabled protein function prediction, molecular dynamics simulation, and ligand binding.
• Undertake research on drug and vaccine design.
• Contribute to workflow development as needed.
• Assist with molecular modeling.
• Engage in software development and coordinate with others to develop AI models.
• Develop scientific manuscripts related to the work.
• Present research results where appropriate.
• Coordinate research efforts with faculty and research scientist mentors and outside collaborators.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree