Post Doctoral Associate

Post Doctoral Associate

Recruitment/Posting Title - Post Doctoral Associate

Department - DLS Molecular Biology & Bioche

Salary Details - $63,968-$75,564

Offer Information - The final salary offer may be determined by several factors, including, but not limited to, the candidate's qualifications, experience, and expertise, and availability of department or grant funds to support the position. We also take into consideration market benchmarks, if and when appropriate, and internal equity to ensure fair compensation relative to the university's broader compensation structure. We are committed to offering competitive and flexible compensation packages to attract and retain top talent.

Benefits - Rutgers provides a comprehensive benefits package to eligible employees. The specific benefits vary based on the position and may include: Medical, prescription drug, and dental coverage Paid vacation, holidays, and various leave programs Competitive retirement benefits, including defined contribution plans and voluntary tax-deferred savings options Employee and dependent educational benefits (when applicable) Life insurance coverage Employee discount programs

Posting Summary - The Kaelber lab located in the Department of Molecular Biology and Biochemistry on Rutgers' Busch Campus, within walking distance of research buildings for computer science and medicine as well as fundamental biology is searching for a Post Doctoral Associate. Prof. Kaelber is the 3DEM Advisor to the RCSBPDB (Protein Data Bank). The postdoctoral associate will attend relevant seminar series on this and other campuses of Rutgers related to origins of life research, artificial intelligence methods development, evolutionary biology, and computational biology. Prof. Kaelber is recruiting a "dry lab" scientist for methods development in evolutionary biology. The postdoctoral associate will develop and benchmark methods for evolutionary analysis by the comparison of protein structures, conduct rigorous evaluations of the concordance of computational results to validation sets, and then determine the origin of life on earth. Mentorship of 1-2 undergraduate students will be encouraged. The postdoctoral associate will collaborate with "wet lab" experimentalists in the research group and with interdisciplinary collaborating scientists. Elements of the experimental approach will include: Bayesian reconstruction of events on billion-year timescales, determination of optimal embeddings and encodings for protein structures, multiple structural alignments, relevant artificial intelligence (AI) approaches such as CNNs and transformers, and protein structure predictions.

Position Status - Full Time

Posting Number - 26FA0747

Posting Open Date - 09/04/2026

Posting Close Date - 10/05/2026

Minimum Education and Experience - Ph.D. in life sciences, chemical sciences or other related field.

Excellence in at least two of the following are required; structural biology, programming and high-performance computing, bioinformatics or evolutionary theory. Required skills are; commitment to ethical conduct of research, self-motivation and independence, good documentation habits and a track record of productive scientific results

Campus - Rutgers University-New Brunswick

Home Location Campus - Busch (RU-New Brunswick)

City - Piscataway

State - NJ