Opportunities

Specific positions will be posted below as they arise.

However, we always welcome inquires from undergrads, graduate students, and postdocs with backgrounds in neuroscience, physics, physiology, biomechanics, or engineering interested in studying agile systems!

Postdoc in Insect Neuroethology and Visual Control on Locomotion

Simon Sponberg’s Lab at Georgia Tech is seeking a postdoc as part of a Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative (MURI) to uncover principles of how insects rapidly and effectively parse complex sensory environments. We are specifically interested in:

1. The neural encoding of uncertainty
2. How insects move through their environments to acquire information while executing other tasks
3. How multiple behavioral objectives are reprioritized and executed with the same motor system

The experiments will involve electrophysiology and quantitative behavior. We are particularly interested in recruiting someone with an interest in comparative biology and ethology. Applicants from a broad range of fields will be considered, but candidates with experience in comparative biology, neuroethology, electrophysiology, or vision science are especially encouraged to apply. The postdoc will need to be eager to design and conduct experiments as well as perform data analysis, but training to complement their background will be provided. While the general topic is broadly defined, there is a great deal of flexibility in how to tackle this problem, allowing the postdoc to develop their own research vision in this context. The lab group is primarily experimental, but the postdoc will interface with a large collaborative team with expertise in machine learning, control theory, and computational neuroscience. Funding is available for at least 2.5 years, with additional years likely.

Postdoc in the Multiscale Biophysics of Muscle Utilizing X-ray Fiber Diffraction

Simon Sponberg’s Lab at Georgia Tech and the Integrative Movement Sciences Institute is seeking a postdoc in muscle biophysics and physiology experiments that bridge the molecular to tissue scales, focusing on understanding how the nano-to-micro scale of muscle architecture shapes properties of muscles relevant for locomotion. The postdoc will be part of the new Integrative Movement Sciences Institute, an NSF-funded collaborative project across 20 investigators and many institutions, supported for the next six years, studying how muscle enables movement in unsteady regimes across many organisms. The postdoc will have the chance to learn muscle fiber diffraction techniques at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Lab and combine those with muscle physiology, rheology, and materials testing. Computational analysis of x-ray diffraction data and biophysical modeling of muscle will also play a role, but the position is primarily experimental. The postdoc will be based out of my group at Georgia Tech in Atlanta but will collaborate with Argonne NL and other IMSI institutions and PIs. An explicit part of the funding line is for the postdoc to play a collaborative role in expanding access to X-ray diffraction methods to the broader comparative biomechanics and muscle physiology community. The ideal candidate would have experience in biophysics, soft matter, and/or muscle physiology, but other areas of physics and physiology will be considered. Prior experience with synchrotron experiments is beneficial but not required; training in these techniques will be provided. This would be an ideal position for someone interested in bridging the physics and comparative physiology communities and using muscle X-ray diffraction to establish their own collaborative research vision. Funding is secured for five years, but postdocs can of course be shorter than that too.

Application information: Interested candidates should send a CV, and a short statement about background, goals, and research interests to Simon Sponberg via email (sponberg@gatech.edu). Questions about the position can be directed to me as well.

Information about the lab: Sponberg's group, the Agile Systems Lab, (https://sponberg.gatech.edu/) is part of both the physics and biological sciences schools at Georgia Tech. We strive to create an inclusive community that includes a wide range of personal identities, cultures, and experiences all brought together by a shared curiosity in how organisms achieve diverse forms of movement in complicated, uncertain environments. We are part of Georgia Tech's Physics of Living Systems (PoLS) community, a neighborhood of 10 lab groups across biophysics with ~50 students and postdocs and supported by an NSF Student Research Network grant. We are also part of the large neuroscience and neuroengineering community with over 100 labs at GT and more in the surrounding Atlanta area. We are also part of the Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Machines and the Petit Institute of Bioengineering and Bioscience. The Agile Systems lab has students and postdocs from physics, comparative biology, neuroscience, and engineering backgrounds and broadly studies the physical and physiological mechanisms that enable agile movement in living systems, with an emphasis on flight and running at the centimeter scale. Atlanta is a vibrant international city located in the northwestern part of Georgia near the Blue Ridge and Smokey Mountains. It has a diverse population, high quality of life, and a moderate cost of living compared to most other major metropolitan areas in the US.