Jobs

ICBO Biomedical Ontology Jobs Service

Participants in the ICBO meeting interested in employment opportunities in the biomedical ontology field, and employers seeking to recruit in this field, are invited to write to Leonard Jacuzzo <jacuzzo@buffalo.edu>, who is in charge of the ICBO conference Jobs Service.

Available Positions:

Position A

Applications are invited for Research Associate, Graduate Student and PDF positions in the Knowledge Navigation Infrastructure Team (KNIT) lead by the Innovatia Research Chair at the University of New Brunswick, Saint John http://www.unb.ca/news/view.cgi?id=1680

Researchers will collaboratively develop reusable infrastructures to support custom vertical search across multiple application domains in biomedical, health care, energy and telecom. Researchers will develop solutions for enterprise search using semantic web technologies, service oriented architecture, ontologies and text mining. Successful candidates will have demonstrated software development expertise and familiarity with knowledge engineering lifecycles. Candidates with demonstrated experience with two or more of the following technologies are encouraged to apply:

1) Web based Content Acquisition Strategies 2) Knowledge Representation with OWL / RDF 3) Text Mining / Natural Language Processing 4) Ontology based reasoning over instance / triple stores 5) Terminology Management and Curation 6) Literature and (Meta) Data Integration 7) Provenance Tracking / Tracability 8) Algorithm Design / Graph Matching 9) Human Computer Interaction 10) Semantically Enabled Software Architecture 11) Semantic Desktops and Publishing

Enquiries and applications and can be made by sending a full CV and cover letter to: bakerc@unbsj.ca

Position B

Department of Botany and Plant Pathology Oregon State University, 2082 Cordley Hall, Corvallis, Oregon 97331-2902 T 541-737-3451 | F 541-737-3573 | www.science.oregonstate.edu/bpp

Formal Position Announcement: Project Coordinator: Plant Ontology Project

Position Title: Research Associate / Research Associate (Post Doc)

Position description: The Plant Ontology Consortium is seeking applicants for a full-time position of scientific curator who will coordinate the Consortium’s efforts. The Plant Ontology Consortium is a collaboration among researchers at Oregon State University, Cornell University and New York Botanical Garden. The Consortium also collaborates with the curators of many model organism databases including rice, Arabidopsis, maize, grasses, legumes, Solanaceae, bryophytes and plant phylogenomics. The project aims to develop shared vocabularies on plant anatomy and growth and developmental stages, to describe patterns of phenotype(s) and gene expression.

For more details please see the following publications: Avraham, et al. (2008). "The Plant Ontology Database: a community resource for plant structure and developmental stages controlled vocabulary and annotations." Nucleic Acids Res. 36 (Database issue): D449-54. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=18194960

Ilic, e al. (2007). "The plant structure ontology, a unified vocabulary of anatomy and morphology of a flowering plant." Plant Physiol. 143 (2): 587-599. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=17142475

Pujar, et al. (2006). "Whole-plant growth stage ontology for angiosperms and its application in plant biology." Plant Physiol 142 (2): 414-28. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=16905665

Jaiswal, et al. (2005). "Plant Ontology (PO): a Controlled Vocabulary of Plant Structures and Growth Stages." Comp Funct Genomics 6 (7-8): 388-97. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&dopt=Citation&list_uids=18629207

Duties / Responsibilities: Develop and refine the ontologies with the PO curators in participating databases and core labs, annotate gene products and germplasms with the vocabularies in the ontologies, participate in the development and application of methods to streamline and enhance the quality of annotations, manage website content, set project milestones, organize and moderate monthly teleconferences, and work with the project members to deliver the database releases and project reports on strict timelines.

Required qualifications: Ph.D. in an aspect of plant biology (e.g. Development, Physiology, Biochemistry, Genetics, Plant Pathology, Systematics) and/or genomics, Plant Pathology, Phylogenomics, Systematics, Plant Biology and Plant Anatomy. Available immediately to start working on the project. Experience in High Performance Scientific Computing and Network maintenance. Demonstrated ability for independent, critical thinking and excellent communication, networking and teamwork skills. Previous work in any one or more areas of Plant Development, Plant Physiology, Plant Biochemistry, Plant Genetics and/or genomics, Plant Pathology, Museum specimen curation, Phylogenomics, Systematics, Plant Biology and Plant Anatomy. Excellent communication skills in English is a must. Experience in teaching and outreach. Familiarity with Plant Development and Anatomy. Able to travel and attend 3-4 meetings/year of the PO consortium.

In order to be considered for the Research Associate position, the candidate must have 3 or more years of postdoctoral/scientist research experience and supporting publications in peer reviewed international journals. The selection committee will judge the candidate based on the qualifications below; in addition, to showing the ability to lead on a scientific project as an independent researcher. Preferred qualifications: A demonstrable commitment to promoting and enhancing diversity. Past experience in project coordination, large scale gene expression and phenotype evaluation, familiarity with basic UNIX commands, spreadsheets, and commonly used biological research tools such as BLAST and Literature Databases searching is desired. A working knowledge of PERL and/or SQL will be considered an asset but not required.

How to Apply: To review the position description and apply, go to posting #0004322 at http://oregonstate.edu/jobs. When applying, you will be required to electronically submit your application, a cover letter citing your interest in the position and your experience, and a CV/resume including 3 references. Closing date 7/15/09.

Oregon State University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer and has a policy of being responsive to dual-career needs.

Position C

Vaccine Informatics Postdoctoral Position in University of Michigan

A postdoctoral position is available in the area of vaccine bioinformatics. The broad goals of this collaborative project are to develop a community-based Vaccine Ontology (VO, http://www.violinet.org/vaccineontology/), and develop a VO-based natural language process (NLP) program, and use them to study vaccine-induced immune networks. The responsibilities of this postdoctoral position include: coordinating the project among all participants, actively participating in the VO ontology development, helping software team develop VO-based literature mining system, and investigate driving biological problems through specific use case studies.

The applicant will work in an interdisciplinary and collaborative environment in the University of Michigan Medical School. The laboratory is located in the Ann Arbor campus of University of Michigan.

We are looking for highly motivated individuals who thrive on intellectual challenges. Applicants must have a PhD degree and a strong background in microbiology, immunology, and/or biomedical ontology development. Familiarity with literature mining and biological network simulation is a plus. Applicants should have the ability to annotate and present data, and be able to write manuscripts based on the research. Candidates with a strong academic record and good primary publication record will be considered.

Please submit a C.V., a brief statement of research interests and background, and the names of three references (preferably by email) to the address below:

Dr. Yongqun Oliver He, DVM, PhD Unit for Laboratory Animal Medicine, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, and Center for Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics 018 ARF, 1150 W. Medical Center Dr. University of Michigan Medical School Ann Arbor, MI 48105-5614, USA Email: yongqunh@med.umich.edu