Senior Staff Scientist (AI Lab)

at  University of Toronto

Date Posted: 05/24/2024
Req ID: 37419
Faculty/Division: Faculty of Arts & Science
Department: Acceleration Consortium
Campus: St. George (Downtown Toronto)

DESCRIPTION:

The Acceleration Consortium (AC) at the University of Toronto (U of T) is leading a transformative shift in scientific discovery that will accelerate technology development and commercialization. The AC is a global community of academia, industry, and government that leverages the power of artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, materials sciences, and high-throughput chemistry to create self-driving laboratories (SDLs), also called materials acceleration platforms (MAPs). These autonomous labs rapidly design materials and molecules needed for a sustainable, healthy, and resilient future, with applications ranging from renewable energy and consumer electronics to drugs. AC Senior Staff Scientists will advance the field of AI-driven autonomous discovery and develop the materials and molecules required to address society’s largest challenges, such as climate change, water pollution, and future pandemics.
The Acceleration Consortium (AC) promotes inclusive research environment and supports the EDI priorities of the unit.

EXPERTISE IN ONE OR MORE OF THE FOLLOWING AREAS IS DESIRED:

• Generative modelling

• Active learning, exploration, optimal experiment design, Bayesian optimization

• Reinforcement and imitation learning
• Safe exploration and learning
• Representation learning
• Learning to search, learning planning heuristics
• Continual learning, transfer learning (sim-to-real, real-to-sim), meta-learning
• Domain adaptation
• Uncertainty quantification, reasoning under uncertainty, POMDPs
• Neurosymbolic reasoning
• Simulation-based inference
• Multimodal foundation models

Senior Staff Scientists will work with a diverse team of leading experts at U of T, including: Professors Anatole von Lilienfeld, Florian Shkurti, Animesh Garg, Alán Aspuru-Guzik, Oleksandr Voznyy, and more.
The Senior Staff Scientists involved in the AC are highly skilled and experienced researchers who will work independently to develop the AI and automation technologies required to build robust and scalable self-driving labs, manage these SDLs, and design and implement research programs (based on the direction of the AC’s scientific leadership team) that leverage the SDL platforms to discover materials and molecules.
Senior Staff Scientists will play a leadership role within the AC research enterprise; and set objectives and directions for a subgroup of Staff Scientists. These positions involve a significant degree of autonomy and latitude on how to achieve the ambitious goals of the AC. This role will report to the Academic Director and Executive Director of the Acceleration Consortium. We are looking for individuals with diverse backgrounds and expertise to support the development of self-driving labs and materials discovery.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS:

Education – Ph.D. in chemistry, materials science, life sciences, physics, engineering, robotics, computer science, or related discipline

EXPERIENCE

• Over 10 years of experience in research and development
• Experience working closely with a Principal Investigator or as a Principal Investigator, or as a Project Director with responsibilities of managing, developing and executing a major research project
• Strong experience and expert knowledge of AI and automation.
• Experience with the development of self-driving laboratories and overseeing the activities of a lab
• Experience working with industry partners and on industry led research and development projects
• Strong experience presenting research at academic conferences
• Experience managing research staff
• Experience managing a laboratory budget and procuring equipment
• Must have a strong scholarly publication record

SKILLS

• Strong and effective communicator in oral and written English
• Collegial in working with team members and collaborators
• Ability to work independently

ALL QUALIFIED CANDIDATES ARE ENCOURAGED TO APPLY; HOWEVER, CANADIANS AND PERMANENT RESIDENTS WILL BE GIVEN PRIORITY

Closing Date: 12/31/2024, 11:59PM ET
Employee Group: Research Associate
Appointment Type: Grant - Continuing
Schedule: Full-Time
Pay Scale Group & Hiring Zone: 150K - 180K (salary will be assessed based on skills and experince)
Job Category: Administrative / Manageria

Tasks include:

• Managing the research and development projects of AC’s industry partners when implemented in AC labs.
• Developing plans that support research collaborations and planning and estimating financial resources required for programs and/or projects.
• Supervising the work of Staff Scientists, Software Engineers, Research Associates, and Post-doctoral Fellows.
• Working with Product Managers to ensure research outcomes meet partner requirements.
• Monitoring and reporting on relevant research activity to the Academic Director and Executive Director.
• Promoting AC’s research capacity, including delivering presentations at conferences.
• Collaboration in the preparation and submission of research proposals to granting agencies and progress reporting.
• Preparing manuscripts for submission to peer review publications/journals and stewarding them through the process