Staff Research Scientist

**Date Posted**:08/10/2024
**Req ID**:39235
**Faculty/Division**: Faculty of Arts & Science
**Department**: Acceleration Consortium
**Campus**: St. George (Downtown Toronto)

**Description**:
**Description**:
The Acceleration Consortium (AC) promotes an inclusive research environment and supports the EDI priorities of the unit.

**_

The Acceleration Consortium received a $200M Canadian First Research Excellence Grant for seven years to develop self-driving labs for chemistry and materials, the largest ever grant to a Canadian University. This grant will provide the Acceleration Consortium with seven years of funding to execute its vision.

The AC is developing seven advanced SDLs plus an AI and Automation lab:

- SDL1 - Inorganic solid-state compounds for advanced materials and energy
- SDL2 - Organic small molecules for sustainability and health
- SDL5 - Formulations for pharmaceuticals, consumer products, and coatings
- SDL6 - Biocompatibility with organoids / organ-on-a-chip
- SDL7 - Synthetic scale-up of materials and molecules (University of British Colombia partner lab)
- A central AI and Automation lab to support all the SDLs

**Position Overview**:
**This posted position is for a Staff Research Scientist joint with SDL3 (Medicinal Chemistry) and SDL6 (Human Organ Mimicry).**

**This is a 2 years term with possibility of renewal.**

**Expertise that is desired**:
**Computational expertise**
- Programming and high-performance computing
- Experience with programming languages and scripting methods (Python, MATLAB, C++, CUDA, Bash, and/or SQL) and machine learning / deep learning methods.
- Active learning, exploration, optimal experiment design, Bayesian optimization, reinforcement learning, and/or representation learning
- Experience with chemoinformatics (clustering, SAR analysis, molecular fingerprints) and familiarity with chemical database software

**Additional expertise that is desired (but not required)**:

- Experience with ML-based tools for image-analysis and signal processing, development of ML prediction tools
- Experience with PyTorch and/or TensorFlow, experience with databases and high-content imaging platforms
- Experience with molecular docking by physics-based (e.g., AutoDock Vina, GLIDE) and/or machine learning-based (e.g., DiffDock) of small molecule ligands to protein targets with a given crystal structure for go-no-go screening of ligands for experimentation
- Experience with free-energy perturbation (FEP)
- Virtual screening of small molecules for their potential for binding interaction with protein targets
- Representation learning related protein-ligand featurization
- De novo generation of synthesizable small molecules based on a library of available chemical building blocks (i.e., generative modeling)
- Machine learning techniques for compound property prediction

The Staff Research Scientist will work with a diverse team of leading experts at U of T, including Professors Alán Aspuru-Guzik, Anatole von Lilienfeld, Florian Shkurti, Animesh Garg, Oleksandr Voznyy, Robert Batey, Cheryl Arrowsmith, Milica Radisic, and Vuk Stambolic. The Staff Research Scientist will also work with Staff Scientists in Medicinal Chemistry, Human Organ Mimicry and AI SDL.

The Staff Research Scientists involved in the AC are highly skilled and experienced researchers who will work independently to develop the AI and automation technologies required to build robust and scalable self-driving labs, manage these SDLs, and design and implement research programs (based on the direction of the AC’s scientific leadership team) that leverage the SDL platforms to discover materials and molecules. Moreover, the Staff Research Scientists will work collectively, sharing knowledge among each other, faculty, and trainees. This role will report to the Academic Director and Executive Director of the Acceleration Consortium.

**The components and duties of the work can include**:
**Machine learning for SDL Development**

**The components and duties of the work can include**:

- **
SDL and Automation Development**

Working with the AC community, including faculty and partners, to determine the required capabilities of the SDLs to be built. Developing SDL plans to meet user requirements and designing novel instruments for automated material synthesis and characterization. Developing customized hardware and Python software packages to build SDLs. Selecting, procurement, and installation of the equipment required for SDLs.
- **
Research Direction**

**Tasks include**:

- Managing the research and development projects of AC’s industry partners when implemented in AC labs.
- Developing plans supporting research collaborations and estimating financial resources required for programs and/or projects.
- Working with Product Managers to ensure research outcomes meet partner requirements.
- Promoting AC’s research capacity, including delivering presentations at conferences.
- Collaboration in preparing and submitting r