Postdoctoral AI Researcher in AI ML for Cellular and Protein Computational Biology
Harvard’s interdisciplinary research institute studying intelligence in natural and artificial systems.
Funding history
About Kempner Institute for the Study of Natural and Artificial Intelligence
The Kempner Institute is a Harvard University interdisciplinary initiative that brings together students, scientists, and engineers to study biological and machine intelligence, advance AI research, and develop related technologies. It operates AI computing infrastructure, research programs, education programs, and open-science resources.
Skills
About the Role
You will develop and apply modern AI and machine-learning methods to cellular and protein biology. You will research protein structure prediction and molecular docking, model cell states from Perturb-seq data, and build multimodal models of protein function and cellular state. You will collaborate on foundational machine-learning research and biologically informed applications under faculty supervision.
Requirements
- Hold or complete a PhD in a quantitative field by the expected start date
- Have received a PhD on or after September 15, 2024, or be on track to complete PhD requirements by October 15, 2026
- Demonstrate expertise in modern AI and machine learning, including deep learning
- Have hands-on experience with PyTorch or JAX
- Demonstrate a strong publication record or substantial open-source research contributions
- Have experience implementing, training, evaluating, or fine-tuning machine-learning models
- Have strong Python programming skills and experience maintaining research code
- Demonstrate effective use of AI-assisted and agentic coding tools
- Have experience in computational biology, biological data analysis, protein modeling, or cellular modeling
- Communicate technical work clearly and work effectively in a collaborative research environment
Responsibilities
- Develop new AI and machine-learning approaches for cellular and protein computational biology
- Apply AI methods to protein structure prediction and protein docking
- Model cell states using large-scale Perturb-seq datasets
- Develop multimodal models of protein function and cellular state
- Conduct research under the supervision of Harvard faculty members
Hiring Process
Submit application materials and references; selected candidates submit a short video presentation; a subset of candidates then interview with the selection committee via Zoom.