Postdoc Position on Explainable NLP for Biomedical Discovery W/M

About Idiap

Idiap is an independent, not-for-profit, research institute recognized and funded by the Swiss Federal Government, the State of Valais, and the City of Martigny, and is academically affiliated with EPFL and University of Geneva.

Idiap offers competitive salaries and conditions at all levels in a young, high-quality, dynamic, and multicultural environment. Idiap is an equal opportunity employer and is actively involved in the "Advancement of Women in Science" European initiative. The Institute seeks to maintain a principle of open competition (on the basis of merit) to appoint the best candidate, provides equal opportunity for all candidates, and equally encourage both genders to apply. Employment at Idiap is thus based solely on a person's merit and qualifications directly related to professional competence. Idiap does not discriminate against any employee or applicant because of race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity/expression, national origin, disability, age, marital status, pregnancy, or any other basis protected by law.

Idiap is located in the town of Martigny in Valais, a scenic region in the south of Switzerland, surrounded by the highest mountains of Europe, and offering exceptional quality of life, exciting recreational activities, including hiking, climbing and skiing, as well as varied cultural activities. It is within close proximity to Lausanne and Geneva. Although Idiap is located in the French part of Switzerland, English is the official working language. Free French lessons are also provided on a complimentary basis.

For frequently asked questions (FAQs) about living in Switzerland, please go to https://www.idiap.ch/en/faq

Job description

The Idiap Research Institute invites applications for a postdoc position at the Reasoning & Explainable AI (ExplAIn) Lab in a project in partnership with Inflamalps.

In this project, we will focus on the construction of an explainable Natural Language Inference infrastructure to support domain experts in the discovery of new antibiotics. The project aims to develop models for complex scientific inference over multiple data modalities (text and molecular structures).

This is an exciting opportunity for joining a project which integrates and extends the state-of-the-art in explainable scientific inference to address a real-world problem in biomedicine.

Appointment for the position is for 18 months (with the perspective of renewal depending on funding availability). Starting date is as soon as possible.

Sought profile

Essential:
* hold a Ph.D. degree in computer science, bioinfirmatics or related fields (or close to completion)
* have a background in natural language processing, machine learning or bioinformatics, evidenced by high-quality publications
* previous project experience in developing complex deep learning based models (e.g. in NLP or Computer Vision)
* solid English communication (scientific writing and speaking)
* confident in Python programming

Optional:
* Pytorch experience
* a background in explainability applied to machine learning will be considered a plus.
* experience with medical applications will be considered a plus

The Postdoc candidate will work under supervision of one of senior researchers at Idiap, together with other colleagues from the Reasoning & Explainable AI group.
The Postdoc candidate should hold a PhD in relevant fields, while demonstrating excellence and motivation in research in general, and in the targeted research areas.

Positions will remain open until they have been filled. All queries related to the advertised position can be sent to info@idiap.ch.

Required languages

• English - Level advanced

Réf: 879da0eb-0acd-41c8-e320-08d9c91d43c0