Postdoctoral Scholar - Gittlen Laboratories for Cancer Research

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JOB DESCRIPTION AND POSITION REQUIREMENTS:

Post-Doctoral Scholar Gittlen Laboratories for Cancer Research - Hershey, PA & Berkeley, CA

Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory (LBL) Developer and Facilitator for a Penn State/LBL “Geometry of Life” Approved Program Project

The Penn State College of Medicine, Department of Pathology and the Gittlen Laboratories for Cancer Research, in Hershey, PA and Berkeley, CA are seeking a highly qualified post-doctoral scholar. The lab seeks a highly qualified individual to serve as the postdoctoral LBL histotomography developer and coordinator for an aspirational “Geometry of Life “ Project dedicated to science and the public good. The goal of this work will be to facilitate exploration of the large potential benefits of new state-of-the-art large-field, high resolution X-ray microtomography (microCT) instrumentation at Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory Beamline 8.3.2. The project falls under the DOE category “Approved Program” and is a highly collaborative Team project between Penn State and Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory that was conceived and is being led by Dr. Keith Cheng in the Jake Gittlen Laboratories for Cancer Research and the Department of Pathology at the Penn State College of Medicine (Chenglab.io; https://researchoutreach.org/articles/x-ray-histotomography-characterising-every-cell-of-whole-organism/). Users and collaborators will include a growing number of investigators from across the globe interested in biological and biomedical questions, facilitated by the Cheng Lab team and beamline scientist Dr. Dula Parkinson at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL).

Development . The development aspects of the job will be done in collaboration with DOE and the Cheng lab to integrate, maintain, and support use of Penn State’s custom x-ray imaging detector system at the LBNL Advanced Light Source (ALS) synchrotron.

Facilitation . Upon completion of the installation, system optimization, and testing, the job will migrate to full-time on-site teamwork with DOE and users to provide imaging camera system maintenance, acquisition, troubleshooting, and image processing support. Collaborative facilitations between DOE staff and user will include remote coordination with Cheng lab engineers, programmers, and biologists at Penn State as needed to optimize scanning parameters, image acquisition, and image processing to advance the goals of the Approved Project. The applicant can anticipate appropriate levels of involvement in projects proposed by external ALS users, with an ultimate goal of user independence.

Qualifications . Individuals must be team-oriented, motivated by a commitment to the greater good, be curious, possess a breadth of interests and knowledge, have advanced time management skills, and be committed to the high level communication necessary for interdisciplinary problem-solving. Requisite qualifications include a history of strong scientific publications, experience with collaborative scientific project execution, and knowledge of optics and imaging physics. Specific experience with micro-computed tomography instrumentation, systems integration, synchrotron operation, and image processing are desirable.

Immediate and Longer-term Goals . The 5 to 10 mm field-of-view and 0.7 to 0.5 um isotropic resolution tomography will be applied to biology and to some extent, physical sciences, resulting in unprecedented combinations of resolution at scale, visualization and quantitative characterization of imaged samples. Long-term goals include work between the Cheng lab, Penn State, Dr. Dula Parkinson and ALS general users to build broader use capabilities for histotomography, including planning for a permanent new beamline in which the successful and interested applicant may potentially work. Among the broader goals of the Geometry of Life team are automated reconstruction and the development of 3D VR capabilities for users. Participation in and support of collaborations, grant- and paper-writing, digital data processing, CAD design of adapters and other components, stage control troubleshooting, image quality evaluation, and participation in beamline operation will also be involved.

This is a limited-term appointment funded for one year from date of hire.

The candidate must have a terminal degree in hand at time of start.

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

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