Flatiron Research Fellow - Biophysical Modeling, Center Computational Biology

The Center for Computational Biology (CCB), an in-house research center of the Simons Foundation
’s Flatiron Institute
, is actively seeking enthusiastic, full‑time post‑doctoral Flatiron Research Fellows to join its Biophysical Modeling Group
. The start date is flexible, with the Fellow expected to begin no later than September 2027. Applications will be reviewed beginning in Fall 2026 and considered on a rolling basis until the positions are filled. Applicants with strong backgrounds in applied and computational mathematics, biophysics, engineering, statistical inference, and related fields are particularly encouraged to apply.

CCB has a twofold mission: to develop the rigorous modeling tools and theory needed for understanding biological processes, and to create computational frameworks that will facilitate the analysis of the large, complex data sets being generated by quantitative experimental technologies. To accomplish this, CCB brings together experts in various biological domains (including genomics, molecular, cellular, and developmental biology) whose approaches are informed by the modern computational tools of applied mathematics, statistical inference, artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), biophysics, and computer science.

The goal: to enable CCB to undertake ambitious, long‑term research projects that transcend conventional disciplinary boundaries and that lead to a quantitative and predictive understanding of biological phenomena; and to develop high‑quality, well‑tested, versatile and extensible software across its research areas.

CCB currently comprises more than 50 scientists at career stages from Ph.D.s through senior scientists, as well as visiting scientists and guest researchers, affiliated graduate students and interns. Together, the CCB scientific staff are pioneering an approach to biology in which theory, computation, and experimentation are integrated, from problem conceptualization onwards. This approach enables CCB to tackle not only recognized, fundamental problems in biology that have so far eluded solution, but also, because of the value placed on curiosity‑driven research, to find and develop new areas of biological inquiry.

Led by Michael Shelley, the Biophysical Modeling group studies the dynamics of complex and active materials, as well as aspects of collective behavior and self‑organization in both natural and synthetic systems. With a focus on complex biophysical systems that arise in cell biology, the group’s research areas include the assembly, structure, positioning and transport of cellular organelles such as the spindle, the organization and dynamics of the nucleus, biophysical fluid‑structure problems, and related self‑organizing active matter systems.

Many such phenomena occur only within dense, highly interacting systems, inaccessible to standard techniques. To probe such regimes requires the development of fast and scalable algorithms for many‑component systems, and of coarse‑grained models that can be analyzed and simulated.

Flatiron Research Fellows in CCB are individuals at the postdoctoral level with backgrounds in one or more of the following areas: applied mathematics, statistics, computational biology, biophysics, computer science, engineering, mathematical physics, or related disciplines.

Reporting to the Group Lead, Fellows are expected to carry out an active research program that can be independently directed and/or involve substantial collaboration with other members of CCB or the Flatiron Institute. In addition to their research, Fellows help build the rich scientific community at CCB and the Flatiron Institute by…