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Postdoctoral Researcher Position at Imperial College London

Calvin Tsay

A Research Associate position is available in the Department of Computing at Imperial College London beginning as early as July 2020 or as late as December 2020, by negotiation. The full job posting can be found here.

The Research Associate will work on a joint project sponsored by both the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and the company Eli Lilly. The project is titled ‘Smart chemometrics to support model maintenance’ and is concerned with developing underpinning technologies for synthetic drug manufacturing. This project develops and deploys three main technologies: 

  • Global optimisation for parameter estimation,
  • Regression tree modelling for contingency strategies,
  • Explainable artificial intelligence for deciding what to do with a model and its associated data.

The algorithm(s) will be tested and improved before implementation in a user-friendly software package.  The contributions unrelated to Eli Lilly data may be released open source, subject to review by Eli Lilly. This project, a collaboration between Imperial College and Eli Lilly, is at the intersection between optimisation, machine learning, and explainable AI. The post holder will make contributions to both foundational technologies and applications to pharmaceuticals.

The post holder will work with Imperial’s Computational Optimisation Group (London, UK). The post holder will also spend significant time collaborating with Eli Lilly (Indiana, USA).

The project allows for some flexibility in the profile of applicants. Candidates with expertise in the following areas may be a good fit:

  • Chemometrics in the pharmaceutical industry,
  • Global optimisation and/or optimisation under uncertainty,
  • Machine learning and its applications,
  • Explainable AI.

All applicants should be able to demonstrate the following:

  • A strong computing background with solid programming skills,
  • Optimisation expertise and/or machine learning and AI expertise,
  • An ability to work with third-party software and to liaise constructively with the developers of such software,
  • The ability to work independently and to drive both the research and software development agenda.
  • A strong background in related publications.

The successful applicant will have an PhD (or equivalent) in an area pertinent to the subject area. 

*Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as Research Assistant within the salary range £35,477 – £38,566 per annum.

For informal inquiries about this position please contact Dr Ruth Misener: r.misener@imperial.ac.uk

Closing Date: 18th February 2020 (midnight)

How to apply:

For further details on this opportunity visit https://www.imperial.ac.uk/jobs/ and search using vacancy reference number ENG01163. In addition to completing the online application, candidates should attach:

  • A full CV
  • A short statement indicating what you see are interesting issues relating to the above post and why your expertise is relevant

For queries regarding the application process contact Jamie Perrins: j.perrins@imperial.ac.uk

The Department of Computing is a leading department of Computer Science among UK Universities, and has consistently been awarded the highest research rating from the Higher Education Funding Council. In the 2014 REF assessment, the Department was ranked third (1st in the Research Intensity table published by The Times Higher), and was rated as “Excellent” in the previous national assessment of teaching quality.