Postdoc: AI-Driven Lab Automation for Structural Biology

Brookhaven National Laboratory; New York (NY); On-site; USD 71,900 - 119,000; Full time

Job summary

Brookhaven National Laboratory's NSLS-II seeks a Postdoctoral Research Associate to advance AI-driven lab automation for life sciences. The role focuses on AI methods to improve crystallization quality at scale and enables discoveries at the interface of AI and large-scale facilities.

The ideal candidate has background in Biophysics, Biochemistry, AI/ML, and strong publication record, and will work with crystallography beamlines, the crystallization lab, and computing center.

Qualifications

• Ph.D. in computer science, bioinformatics, biophysics, applied mathematics, or related field.
• Expertise in machine learning, computer vision, or image analysis.
• Experience with data management and databases.
• Experience working with Python, scientific software development, version control and collaborative code development, such as Git.

Responsibilities

• Develop and implement AI-enabled laboratory workflows for automated crystallization screening, optimization, and characterization integrating imaging, experimental metadata, and diffraction outcomes.
• Design and deploy computer vision methods to detect and track crystal growth.
• Develop closed-loop optimization approaches to recommend crystallization conditions and harvesting strategies based on experimental feedback.
• Develop, train and integrate AI/ML models with laboratory automation systems, including crystallization robotics, liquid handlers, and imaging platforms.
• Build scalable data pipelines linking experimental metadata, imaging data, and diffraction results for high-throughput analysis.
• Evaluate model performance using experimental metrics and support deployment into user-facing workflows.
• Collaborate with synchrotron beamline scientists and laboratory and crystallization staff.
• Document methods and results, contribute to manuscripts and reports, and present the work at conferences.
• Participate in interdisciplinary team science.

Skills

Machine learning

Computer vision

Python

Git

Interdisciplinary teamwork

publication record

Education

PhD in Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Biophysics, or related field

Tools

Git

Job description

Brookhaven National Laboratory's NSLS-II seeks a Postdoctoral Research Associate to advance AI-driven lab automation for life sciences. The role focuses on AI methods to improve crystallization quality at scale and enables discoveries at the interface of AI and large-scale facilities.

The ideal candidate has background in Biophysics, Biochemistry, AI/ML, and strong publication record, and will work with crystallography beamlines, the crystallization lab, and computing center.