Research Investigator - Radiation Oncology - Research

the mission of the university of texas m.

D. Anderson cancer center is to eliminate cancer in texas, the nation, and the world through outstanding programs that integrate patient care, research and prevention, and through education for undergraduate and graduate students, trainees, professionals, employees and the public.

the primary purpose of the research investigator is to assist the principal investigator and other faculty members with scientific research projects. Learns and adapts techniques for use in ongoing research, plans and assists training and research work activity for research personnel, and provides guidance and training to early-stage researchers within the lab. Supervises use of laboratory equipment, implements safety procedures, maintains records, compiles, writes and submits project results to superiors.

Participates in planning and preparation of applications for grants and other research support pipelines. Reads and understands current scientific literature.

the research investigator will execute research projects under the supervision of dr. Joseph d. Butner, a computational and data scientist in the radiation oncology department at md anderson cancer center, with a focus on developing skills to transition the trainee from mentored research to independent research. Research topics include mathematical and computational modeling of cancer development and therapy for predicting therapeutic response and improving patient outcomes.

Primary duties will include development and coding of mechanistic computational models of systemic and targeted therapy, statistical models, and deep learning models, authorship of peer-reviewed publications and grant applications, conference attendance to disseminate results to the scientific community, assisting the principal investigator with mentoring junior lab members, and leading collaborative projects between the research team, clinical staff, and industry partners.

Successful applicants will demonstrate a successful track-record of applying predictive models to measured data and effective presentation of results. Candidates with extensive data science experience are especially encouraged to apply.

this position is within a clinical department, providing a rare opportunity for computational researchers to directly interface with clinicians on a day-to-day basis to pursue improved cancer outcomes through engineered, personalized treatment strategies. The selected candidate will play an integral role in helping to spearhead the early stages of long-term research conducted in the division of radiation oncology and at the newly developed institute for data science in oncology (idso) at md anderson cancer center (mdacc), will have the chance to establish their own systems and have a major impact in shaping the lab’s culture, and will influence the lab’s approach to science for the coming years.

While working with both clinical collaborators in the radiation oncology department and other computational scientists in idso at mdacc, the postdoctoral fellow will gain valuable experience in designing predictive tools that are readily deployable to current clinical practice.

candidates should have an interest in adapting computational and mathematical modeling approaches to integrate within the limitations of real-world clinical operations, and in overcoming the challenges that often restrict computational models to theory-generation only. Relevant skills include strong mathematical competency and rapid comprehension of new statistical methods, and experience in object-oriented programming including python or r, with proficiency in c++ preferred.

They should also be knowledgeable in building software in cluster computing (e.g., bash, cmake, working in the terminal), including compiling against linking third-party libraries in linux environments.

required: bachelor's…