Overview

Salary £30,160 – £33,370 per annum (pro rata for part time hours)

(Maximum starting salary: £30,160 per annum pro rata)

Silwood Park Campus

The Department of Life Sciences was the top ranked university department in the UK for research intensity in Biological Sciences in REF2014 (Times Higher Education), scoring 100% on our environment.

A Research Assistant position in Ecological Informatics is available to join the laboratories of Dr Lauren Cator and Dr Samraat Pawar in the Department of Life Sciences based at Imperial College London’s Silwood Park Campus (near Ascot).

The Research Assistant will be an integral part of the Vector Behaviour in Transmission Ecology Research Coordination Network (RCN) project (VectorBiTE, see vectorbite.org). This project, jointly funded by the UK BBSRC and US NIH agencies, is bringing together a multi-disciplinary, international group of researchers working on Vector-Borne Diseases over a 5-year period. The RCN’s ultimate goal is to develop an end-user-friendly web interface that merges extensive data on variation in phenotypic traits of disease vectors with theoretical models to predict disease transmission dynamics. The Research Assistant will be responsible for the development and curation of two databases and their web interface/applications: VecTraits (a global database on variation in phenotypic traits of disease vectors) and VecDyn (a global database on population dynamics of disease vectors).

You must have a Masters’ degree (or equivalent qualification) in informatics and/or computing relevant to biological/ecological data. You must have Computational skills suitable for big data science, bioinformatics and data mining.  Specifically, you must also have experience with relational database management systems such as MySQL or PostgreSQL, and some knowledge of web (development) frameworks such as Ruby on Rails or Django. Experience of managing and visualizing large biological or ecological datasets would be a major advantage.

Experience of working in a team, the ability to develop and apply new concepts and have a creative approach to problem-solving are essential.  You must also have excellent verbal and written communication skills and be able to organise your own work with minimal supervision and prioritise in response to deadlines.

This position will be fixed-term for two years initially (with the possibility of an extension beyond this), on either a part-time (17.5 hours per week) or full time basis.

The College cannot normally apply for a Certificate of Sponsorship for this post under Tier 2 of the UK Border Agency’s Points Based System. Any candidate, who is considering applying for this position and requires sponsorship, must ensure that they are able to obtain permission to work in the UK through an appropriate immigration route.

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Closing Date

20 September 2016 (midnight BST)

How To Apply

Our preferred method of application is online via this website. Please download the following application form and save to your computer. Once completed, please upload your application form prior to submitting your application.

 

Please note that CVs should only be submitted for Academic posts and must be accompanied by an application form. For all other posts, including Research and Administrative and Support posts, please submit an application form only, unless requested otherwise.

 

Research application form

 

 

For an informal discussion about the role please contact Samraat Pawar (s.pawar@imperial.ac.uk).

 

Alternatively, if you are unable to apply online, please contact Mrs Christine Short on 020 7594 2276 or email c.j.short@imperial.ac.uk to request an application form.

Job Description and Person Specification

Job description and person specification

 

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