AI-Driven Fungal Bioprocess for Plastic Recycling (Postdoc)

The University of Sydney; Sydney; On-site; AUD 118,000 - 126,000; Full time

Job summary

The University of Sydney's School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering invites applications for a Postdoctoral Research Associate to advance fungal process systems engineering for plastics biodegradation and circular bioprocesses. The role combines mechanistic modelling, AI and laboratory validation to enable autonomous discovery.

You will coordinate daily research activities, support planning and lab operations, mentor junior researchers and contribute to publications and project reporting.

Qualifications

• PhD in chemical engineering, biotechnology, computational science or a related discipline.
• Demonstrated experience in mechanistic modelling, numerical simulation or optimisation of biological or process systems.
• Experience applying AI or machine learning to scientific problems, with proficiency in Python or equivalent programming tools.
• Experience in experimental design and validating computational predictions against laboratory data.
• Desirable experience in fungal or microbial biotechnology, plastics biodegradation, laboratory automation or autonomous experimentation.
• Experience coordinating research activities or laboratory workflows, including mentoring researchers and tracking deliverables.
• Desirable experience in tertiary level teaching and education related activities.

Responsibilities

• Develop and validate mechanistic and hybrid AI models of fungal growth, polymer degradation and bioreactor performance.
• Apply machine learning and optimisation to guide experiments and improve fungal process performance.
• Design and undertake laboratory experiments with biological and analytical collaborators to validate predictions.
• Develop automated workflows connecting experimental design, execution, data analysis and model updating.
• Contribute to publications, reproducible code and datasets, and project reporting.
• Coordinate day-to-day research group activities, including work plans and milestone tracking.
• Coordinate laboratory access, equipment readiness, consumables and scheduling with technical staff.
• Support research students and junior researchers through mentoring and coordination of activities.
• Assist with project reporting, publication coordination, funding applications and partner engagement within the approved scope.
• Undertake teaching and education related activities as per workload policy.

Skills

Mechanistic modelling

Numerical simulation

AI/ML applications

Python

Education

PhD in chemical engineering or related discipline

Tools

Python

Job description

The University of Sydney's School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering invites applications for a Postdoctoral Research Associate to advance fungal process systems engineering for plastics biodegradation and circular bioprocesses. The role combines mechanistic modelling, AI and laboratory validation to enable autonomous discovery.

You will coordinate daily research activities, support planning and lab operations, mentor junior researchers and contribute to publications and project reporting.