Postdoctoral Scholar - Computational Biology

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS:

• CURRENT PENN STATE EMPLOYEE (faculty, staff, technical service, or student), please login to Workday to complete the internal application process. Please do not apply here, apply internally through Workday.

• CURRENT PENN STATE STUDENT (not employed previously at the university) and seeking employment with Penn State, please login to Workday to complete the student application process. Please do not apply here, apply internally through Workday.

• If you are NOT a current employee or student, please click “Apply” and complete the application process for external applicants.

Approval of remote and hybrid work is not guaranteed regardless of work location. For additional information on remote work at Penn State, see Notice to Out of State Applicants.

This is a term position; length of the term will be discussed during the interview process. Continuation past the term length discussed will be based on university need, performance, and/or availability of funding.

POSITION SPECIFICS

The Uzun Lab at the Penn State College of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, Hershey, PA, is seeking a postdoctoral scholar in Bioinformatics/Computational Biology. Our lab’s research interests are focused on Systems Biology, Epigenetic Gene Regulation, Single-Cell Genomics and Cancer Biology. Responsibilities for this position include data analysis, method development, scholarly activities and other related tasks.

Responsibilities:

1) Biomedical data analysis (40%): Statistical analysis of biomedical data by using existing methods and developing custom code scripts.

2) Bioinformatics method development (40%): Developing Bioinformatics frameworks using computational and statistical approaches for the problems that are not addressed adequately in the Biomedical domain.

3) Scholarly activities (10%): Generating academic outputs, such as presentations, grants, and manuscripts.

4) Related tasks (10%): Other related tasks assigned by the principal investigator.

Eligibility:

Candidates holding a PhD degree in Computer Science, Math, Statistics (in hand at time of hire) or a related field are eligible to apply. Life sciences (Biology, Genetics, Biochemistry, etc.) PhDs with computational experience are also eligible for this position. Bioinformatics experience is preferred but not required. International scholars and members of underrepresented groups are encouraged to apply. PhD candidates who submitted their doctoral thesis can also apply.

Application process:

The candidates are required to submit their electronic applications via PSU Career Portal. The following documents are required for the application to be processed:

1) Cover Letter (1 page): Must contain a brief description of background, career goals and how they are related with this position.

2) CV (4 pages maximum): Must contain at least contact information, education, experience, publication list and skills.

3) Statement of Purpose (3 pages maximum): A detailed description of research and educational background, research interests and intentions and career plan. Upload as Name_SURNAME_SOP.pdf. This document must be composed of three sections:

  3.1) Background: Expertise and skills.

  3.2) Research Interests: Research intentions and goals for the postdoctoral role and afterwards.

  3.3) Career Plan: Career goals and 5-year career plan. 

4) Reference List (1 page): Must contain information for at least 3 references. For each reference, the following information is to be provided: Name, title, institute, department, email address, phone number, relationship (advisor, co-advisor, collaborator, etc.). Should include the PhD advisor as the first reference. If that’s not possible, a short explanation must be provided stating the reason (retirement, inaccessibility, etc.) for the exclusion, in this document.

5) Unofficial Transcripts: Unofficial electronic copies of undergraduate (bachelor’s), master’s degree (if applicable) and PhD education transcripts. If the transcripts are in any language other than English, their certified translations are also required.

6) Diplomas: Electronic copies of undergraduate (Bachelor’s), master’s degree (if applicable) and PhD diplomas.  If a PhD diploma is not awarded yet, an official letter of thesis acceptance letter from the graduate program/school is required. If the diplomas are in any language other than English, their certified translations are also required.

All the documents must be combined into a single PDF file and named as “Name_SURNAME_All_Documents.pdf” before uploading to the PSU Career Portal, under the “Resume/CV/Cover Letter/Additional Documents'' heading in the “Experience” step. If the file cannot be successfully uploaded due to size restrictions or other problems, it should be sent as an email attachment to the Principal Investigator ([email protected]) after completing all the steps in the PSU Career Portal and submitting the application.

Notes:

1) This is NOT a remote-working position.

2) In order for the applications to be processed, all 6 required documents listed above MUST be uploaded during the application. The applications with missing documents will be discarded and will NOT be considered for the position. If you have any questions or issues with the application process, please directly contact the Principal Investigator: [email protected]

Reference Letters:

Once the application has been submitted, a recommendation letter from at least 3 references needs to be sent directly to the Principal Investigator: [email protected], within one week of the submission. Upon selection of the applicant for the interview, the references will be directly contacted for inquiry.

BACKGROUND CHECKS/CLEARANCES

Employment with the University will require successful completion of background check(s) in accordance with University policies.

BENEFITS

Penn State provides a competitive benefits package for full-time employees designed to support both personal and professional well-being.

For more detailed information, please visit ourBenefits Page.

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