A Post doctoral position is available at the National Institute of Standards and Technology NIST Center for Neutron Research NCNR in Gaithersburg MD in conjunction with the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at the University of Maryland to develop autonomous measurement approaches for ROADMAP a new collaborative multi year project leveraging NISTs next generation neutron instrumentation to map the interactions between peptides and lipid membranes httpswwwnistgovprograms projectsroadmap reflectometry driven optimization and discovery membrane active peptides The ultimate goal is to enable rapid discovery and optimization of peptides with desired membrane targeting properties and application to antimicrobial therapeutics drug delivery and novel vaccine formulationsWe are looking for a talented and highly motivated candidate biophysics chemistry physics engineering etc with a strong focus in surface characterization or autonomous experimentation interested in developing high throughput measurement approaches to support autonomous measurements that efficiently explore the lipidmembrane interaction space The successful candidate will closely collaborate with a multidisciplinary team in biology and data science sharing computational resources and domain expertise throughout the effort The successful candidate will deepen or acquire expertise in peptidemembrane interactions liquid flow cell design neutron or X ray scattering high throughput measurement and measurement automation benchtop characterization techniques eg SPR QCM D FTIR and Bayesian data analysis Experience in neutron scattering is not required The position is available immediately but the starting date can be negotiated