Dear Colleagues, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab has a great job opportunity for a computationally oriented crystallographer focused primarily on XFEL and serial crystallography. The next decade of structural biology at the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) will include groundbreaking advances in time-domain protein crystallography, diffuse scattering, and single particle diffraction, and we are developing scalable methods to make these advances possible.
We seek a scientist with strong physical and mathematical intuition who can formulate and code the best algorithms for data processing, and who has the patience and drive to deal with the many experimental uncertainties and sources of noise. Unique challenges including the sheer volume of data, and the special treatment required for still shots. The successful candidate will join a team of developers focused on software for new science, but building on a strong pre-existing software foundation, including the DIALS and cctbx.xfel toolkits created here ( http://cci.lbl.gov/publications/nick_sauter.html). One focus area is photosystem II, where we use a combination of time-resolved crystallography and X-ray emission spectroscopy to elucidate the sequence of redox events leading to the release of molecular oxygen. Our combined groups (Sauter, Yano, Yachandra, and Kern) are involved in all aspects of the project, including experimental design and construction, data collection, software development, and crystallographic analysis. Another critical area is the examination of other metalloenzymes such as nitrogenase. Crystallography can spatially resolve the absorption edges from distinct metal centers in the catalytic cofactors, and the absorption spectra will inform us about the electronic environment and valence states of the atoms. The projects are funded by a combination of NIH and DOE sources. We also have an ongoing DOE-funded collaboration with SLAC, to scale up the crystallography data analysis pipeline to petascale supercomputers here at NERSC, and eventually to exascale servers in the next decade. This is a great chance for personal growth in a highly collaborative environment, for candidates who come well prepared with a working knowledge of Python and C++, and attendant problem-solving skills. Please address informal questions to nksau...@lbl.gov and apply at https://lbl.referrals.selectminds.com/jobs/xfel-computational-crystallographer-postdoctoral-scholar-214 Best Regards, Nick Nicholas K. Sauter, Ph. D. Senior Scientist, Molecular Biophysics & Integrated Bioimaging Division Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory 1 Cyclotron Rd., Bldg. 33R0345 Berkeley, CA 94720 (510) 486-5713
