#Postdoctoral

[biglisbonnews]

Communicating across time TeleAbsence, a project from the MIT Media Lab, probes and imitates the way humans process feelings of belonging, love, and loss. https://news.mit.edu/2023/communicating-across-time-teleabsence-0811

[pekasnugs]

Seeing the plasma edge of fusion experiments in new ways with artificial intelligence

🧬 ..::Science & Tech::.. 🧬 MIT researchers are testing a simplified turbulence theory’s ability to model complex plasma phenomena using a novel machine-learning technique

[jcmarchi]

MIT graduate programs empower the next generation of naval leaders

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/mit-graduate-programs-empower-the-next-generation-of-naval-leaders/

MIT graduate programs empower the next generation of naval leaders

Designing a ship or submarine for the U.S. Navy requires an understanding of naval architecture, hydrodynamics, electrical and structural engineering, materials science, and more. That’s why the Navy works so closely with MIT, where some of the world’s foremost experts in each of those disciplines converge.

The largest among the graduate-level naval programs at MIT is the 2N Graduate Program in Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering. The three-year 2N program helps naval officers work at the intersection of different academic disciplines to design ships and submarines from the ground up and solve the complex technical problems that arise from completing missions on the sea.

“The 2N program is designed to take officers who have experience operating ships and submarines and get them the technical foundation they need to be technical leaders in the Navy,” says 2N Professor of the Practice Andrew Gillespy, who graduated from the program himself in 2008. “We’re building the next generation of ship and submarine designers for the U.S. Navy.”

The MIT-Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) Joint Program also enrolls naval officers, in its dedicated master’s program in oceanography and applied ocean science and engineering, where they work on Navy-related research ranging from autonomous vehicles to applied ocean science, physical oceanography, and more. While the 2N program, which was founded back in 1901, has been around a lot longer than the MIT-WHOI Program, naval officers were among the first graduates of MIT-WHOI in 1970.

“The Navy’s been with us from the beginning,” WHOI Senior Scientist Ann Tarrant says. “MIT’s various naval offerings really show the strong link between the institutions. It shows MIT’s commitment to doing research that is valuable to our nation’s security, and the high esteem the Navy places on MIT more broadly.”

At MIT, both the 2N and MIT-WHOI programs are housed within the Department of Mechanical Engineering; MIT-WHOI, which also offers a doctoral program, is jointly hosted by the Department for Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences. Still, the programs engage students and faculty from across the Institute.

“Our students work with pretty much every professor who touches ocean engineering,” Gillespy says. “One of the great parts about our program is the ability for the students to do one-on-one thesis work with the best professors in the world here at MIT. That is something that the Navy really, values.”

A century of training naval leaders

MIT was one of the first educational institutions to include oceanography in its curriculum and has played a leading role in advancing the discipline. The Department of Mechanical Engineering first offered a program in marine engineering and naval architecture in 1886, which led to the Department of Naval Architecture.

The program has changed names several times since then, but it can be mapped to today’s Center for Ocean Engineering, which continues to support the Navy and MIT’s naval programs through its research.

The 2N program was founded in 1901 and has been taught by active-duty faculty members for close to a century. Students in the program, who also include members of the U.S. Coast Guard as well as foreign naval officers, jump back into academia with two years of classes followed by an industry-sponsored design project.

“The program gives you a solid foundation in naval engineering and the leeway to study what’s interesting to you; this way you can bring new research back to the fleet,” says Adam Jay Pressel, who’s entering his third and final year in the 2N program. “Being a full-time graduate student and naval officer at one of the best universities in the world is probably the best job I’ll ever have.”

Gillespy notes that while the requirements for most MIT master’s students is 72 credits plus a thesis, 2N graduates earn around 300 credits over their three years.

The reason for the high course load is that 2N graduates get two master’s degrees, and the 2N Naval Engineer’s degree is earned by meeting both MIT and the Navy’s requirements.

“We encourage them to get the second degree in an area they’re interested in and really want to pursue,” Gillespy says. “We’ve had students working in electrical engineering on power systems, in mechanical engineering, and system design and management, which is the joint program with the business school and the engineering program. That program is great because we’re not just engineers. In the future, our students are going to be technical leaders, so getting that leadership and management expertise from the business school is great. But you probably can’t pick a course at MIT that we haven’t had somebody get a second degree in.”

The MIT-WHOI master’s program is usually a little over two years long and features coursework at WHOI and MIT followed by a master’s thesis. Naval students have worked on topics like ocean circulation, autonomous vehicles, and meteorology.

“Having naval officers really benefits our whole student body and program,” Tarrant says. “They have a lot of extremely valuable real-world experience, and they help us understand how the research we’re doing can make an impact in the Navy and on the world.”

Tarrant notes that many faculty members and researchers at both MIT and WHOI work on projects funded by the Navy, and naval officers bring valuable perspectives to that work.

“It helps us align the work we do with the Navy’s mission,” Tarrant says. “WHOI and MIT more broadly have a long-standing relationship with the Navy that really helps us.”

MIT leaves its mark

Naval officers’ work at MIT has gone on to make a huge impact on the Navy. Several students’ ship design and conversion projects from the 2N program have gone on to become actual ships the Navy builds. In 2019, 2N students worked on converting a massive destroyer called the DDG 1000 to accommodate hypersonic missiles. The students concept design showed it was feasible, and the Navy is actively overseeing that conversion now.

The graduates themselves have also gone on to assume leadership roles at every level of the Navy. The current program manager for a major Navy initiative designing a new class of submarines is 2N graduate Admiral Pete Small ’05, SM ’05, who previously taught as a professor of the practice at MIT.

“Our program has a really proud history of producing officers that are great leaders and have the technical foundation to lead highly advanced programs,” Gillespy says.

Gillespy says his own experience in the Navy has underscored the value of the 2N program. He and several other graduates of the program were responsible for designing the Columbia-class submarine, which is scheduled to go into service in 2031.

“Every day when we were designing the Columbia class submarine, we had the world’s experts in a particular area come in and present their design thoughts and what they’re working on, and being able to have intelligent conversations and push the program forward across all the disciplines was critical,” Gillespy says. “There wasn’t a course that I took here that I couldn’t trace back to a discipline that I was working on. My fellow officers echoed the sentiment of how well MIT prepared us to do submarine design.”

[dr-afsaeed]

Subscribe Youtube Channel For New Jobs and Scholarships

Subscribe Youtube Channel For New Jobs and Scholarships

[scribblesoul-20]

Post-Doctoral Associate in the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics

Job title: Post-Doctoral Associate in the Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Company: New York University Abu Dhabi Job description: Description The Center for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics (CAIR) at NYU Abu Dhabi invites qualified applicants with a doctorate degree in the areas of electrical or computer engineering or computer science, or related fields to apply. A strong…

[scarlettjohanssonnf]

New book release! Pick up a copy today! #humor #scarlett #books #americanAuthors #techWriters #cryptovanDownsByARiver

[faultfalha]

The whisper of a program's impact spreads quickly. In the beginning, it was only a relative handful of students who had the heart to follow the path of the Three Tata Fellows. But soon, a ripple of change began to spread, as more and more people heard of their plight and the way they dedicated themselves to improving the world. The Three Tata Fellows seemed to almost exist in two worlds at once - the one experienced by their fellow peers, and one seen only by them. They lived life on a higher level than most could understand, and operated with a level of understanding and insight that was unparalleled. Each of the Three Tata Fellows had achieved extraordinary things in the real world - inspiring others with their passion and commitment to the cause - but all had experienced a transformation of sorts during their involvement in the program. What began as a simple program of learning and growth had evolved into something much more - a way of life that impacted not only themselves, but the world around them.

[danielkrizmath]

Daniel Kriz Math - An Instructor in Pure Mathematics

Daniel Kriz Math, a renowned math expert, has been broadening his geometric approach to the Birch and Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture. His latest progress has been centering around linking the properties of p-adic L-functions with the rational solutions of elliptic curves. In his most recent achievement, Daniel Kriz was able to prove Sylvester's conjecture made in 1879 on prime numbers that may be expressed as a sum of two rational cubes.

[aqeons]

Aarhus University, Denmark is seeking online applications for various Postdoctoral Positions at their different Departments. We have compiled a list of postdoc opportunities presently available at Aarhus University, Denmark.

[rafaelina-casillas]

Officially a Postdoc fellow!

[cauat]

JOB ALERT: MSCA-PF Joint application at the University of Granada (Spain) Department of Prehistory and Archaeology

If anyone is interested in a two-year MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Granada within the field of late antique archaeology, please check this link with the basic information.

[jcmarchi]

Engineering proteins to treat cancer

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/engineering-proteins-to-treat-cancer/

Engineering proteins to treat cancer

Like many children of first-generation immigrants, Oscar Molina grew up feeling like he had two career choices: doctor or lawyer. He seemed destined for the former as he excelled in high school and planned to major in biochemistry at the University of California at Los Angeles, but as an undergraduate, he fell in love with research.

“I was fascinated by discovery. As I did it more in college, I realized I didn’t want to be a doctor,” he says. “Once I saw that I could make an impact and be at the forefront of therapy with biotech, I knew I wanted to do that.”

If the next couple of years go as planned, his parents will indeed see their son become a doctor — just not exactly the way they might have guessed. He’s entering the fifth year of his PhD program in biology at MIT and is currently working in the lab of Professor Ronald Raines, researching the potential of proteins to kill cancer cells.

Molina, who is the first in his family to attend college, also works to support his fellow students through outreach and community-building efforts. In various roles, including as a Graduate Community Fellow in MIT’s Office of Graduate Education, he sought to connect and encourage students from underrepresented backgrounds as they pursued their own graduate studies.

“I had a lot of opportunities presented to me that made me ask, ‘Why me?’” he says. “I recognize that they were super valuable, and that’s why I should deliver that back to other people.”

Unlocking protein construction chemically

The spirit of giving back isn’t just limited to Molina’s work outside of the lab. He chose chemical biology and the pursuit of new cancer therapies as his research focus partly because his grandfather has been dealing with the disease for the last 10 years. The ultimate goal guiding his research is to make all protein-based cancer therapies more effective.

He and other collaborators in the Raines Lab published a paper in June that takes an important step in that direction, suggesting a way to make fusion proteins with greater customization and improved performance. They discovered that a chemical called 3-bromo-5-methylene pyrrolone can be used to combine three proteins efficiently and with high levels of control and modularity, a significant advance given most of the techniques for protein conjugation are only able to combine two at a time in a single spot.

“Now, we can have chemical control of where we include different things, where we can kind of plug-and-play,” he says.

Researchers can now adjust multiple characteristics at the same time — for example, increasing the protein’s half-life or improving its ability to target cancer cells — while still achieving a homogenous end product. They’re also relevant to immune cell redirection therapies, which require multimeric protein chimeras to activate immune clearance of cancer cells.

“That’s the most interesting thing to me,” he says. “How do we give a biologic therapy the best opportunity to be active and efficacious?”

His upcoming thesis will center around that question as it relates to chemotherapies based on ribonuclease 1, an enzyme that is best-known for cleaving RNA.

Paying it back and paying it forward

While that thesis will likely demand more of Molina than any other project he’s worked on in the past, he’s no stranger to hard work. After his mother and father left their respective homes of Guatemala and El Salvador in the 1990s, they dedicated their lives to giving their children futures that they themselves didn’t have access to.

Witnessing their efforts impressed two beliefs into Molina’s worldview: the value of education and the importance of support. Among his family, he is the first to graduate from a U.S. high school, the first to attend a four-year college, and the first to attend graduate school. These “firsts” can weigh heavily, and as he began his studies at MIT, he knew how difficult it can be to carry that burden alone.

“I saw the need and wanted to help other people be the first in their family to do things like go to college,” he says. “I also wanted to help people with similar backgrounds to mine, like being an underrepresented minority or a first-generation college student.”

That desire led Molina to join MIT’s Office of Graduate Education as a Graduate Community Fellow in January 2022, where he worked on supporting various affinity groups across the Institute. This included helping groups out with logistics, funding applications, community outreach and cross-group collaborations. He also spent part of last summer as a pod leader for the MIT Summer Research Program, which works to prepare underrepresented students for graduate education and research.

He’s also leveraged his personal interests to volunteer with various community organizations in Cambridge and Boston. Despite his numerous commitments, he’s an avid marathon runner, and ran the 2022 Boston Marathon while raising nearly $8000 for Boston Scores, a program that provides educational and athletic opportunities for students in the Boston Public Schools system.

After graduation, Molina plans on joining a startup in Boston’s biotech scene while learning more about the venture capital firms that fund their research. Wherever he ends up, he plans on continuing to apply the core truths that brought him where he is now.

“I want to be at the forefront of creating therapies. I really like science. I really like helping others. I really like the ability to create things that are impactful,” he says. “Now it’s time to take that and find my way to what’s next.”

[medsocionwheels]

Data Prep Day!

Finally fully back at work and in R/RStudio today. Today's goal was to set up some basic structural topic models using a dataframe of information about PubMed publications on post-acute COVID-19 sequalae.

No exciting results today, but if you're interested in topic modeling or wrangling data in R, I made a video so you can follow along with me while I code. Not a formal lesson, more of a "come to work with me" thing. Enjoy!

Highlights:

Full Video:

[scribblesoul-20]

Post-Doctoral Associate in the Division of Science Biology, Dr. Mazin Magzoub

Job title: Post-Doctoral Associate in the Division of Science Biology, Dr. Mazin Magzoub Company: New York University Abu Dhabi Job description: Description The Magzoub Laboratory ( ) at NYU Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) invites applications from individuals to be appointed as a Postdoctoral Associate. The research project, under the supervision of Professor Mazin Magzoub, will focus on developing protein-…

[higherentity]

[faultfalha]

Question and answer session: Three Tata fellows discuss the program's impact on themselves and the world. What started as a chance to change their lives has become a movement to change the world.