Postdoc: AI-Driven Fungal Bioprocess Engineer

Centre for Continuing Education; 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 under Professor Ali Abbas.

You will coordinate daily group activities, design experiments, develop automated workflows, contribute to publications and datasets, and mentor junior researchers

Qualifications

• PhD in chemical engineering, biotechnology, computational science or a related discipline.
• Experience in mechanistic modelling, numerical simulation or optimisation of biological/process systems.
• Experience applying AI or machine learning to scientific problems, with Python or similar tools.
• Experience coordinating research activities or laboratory workflows.

Responsibilities

• Develop and validate mechanistic and hybrid AI models of fungal growth and bioreactor performance.
• Apply ML/optimisation to guide experiments and improve process performance.
• Design and undertake laboratory experiments to validate predictions.
• Develop automated workflows connecting design, execution, data analysis and model updating.
• Coordinate day-to-day research group activities and reporting.

Skills

Mechanistic modelling

Numerical simulation

Optimization

AI / machine learning

Python programming

Experimental design

Mentoring

Team coordination

Education

PhD in chemical engineering, biotechnology, computational science or related

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 under Professor Ali Abbas.

You will coordinate daily group activities, design experiments, develop automated workflows, contribute to publications and datasets, and mentor junior researchers