Research Fellow (109816-1024)

Location: University of Warwick Campus, Coventry

Duration: Ending 28 February 2026

About the Role

For informal enquiries, please contact Sina Saffaran (Assistant Professor) at Sina.Saffaran.1@warwick.ac.uk. 

This is a full time (36.5hrs/week) fixed-term contract for up to 12 months, finishing 28th February 2026, with possible extension.

This is an exciting opportunity to join The Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Systems Medicine (ICSM) group within the School of Engineering at the University of Warwick. Our research group designs and develops pathophysiological models of human organ systems, with the aim of addressing issues of impact in critical illness and medical crisis scenarios.

We are seeking to appoint a Research Fellow for the EPSRC project named ‘Combining Mechanistic Modelling with Machine Learning for Diagnosis of ARDS’ led by Principal Investigators Dr Sina Saffaran and Prof Declan Bates.

This project will combine large-scale electronic patient data, artificial intelligence algorithms, and mechanistic mathematical models, to develop systems that can improve the diagnosis, and hence treatment, of critically ill patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome.

The key idea is to use mechanistic virtual patient models as “filters” to extract relevant medical information on individual patients, significantly reducing biases introduced by machine learning on heterogeneous datasets, and allowing improved discovery of patient cohorts driven exclusively by medical conditions.

The research fellow and principal investigators will undertake multiple research trips to Aachen, Germany, to develop and apply new predictive models with the project partner, Prof Andreas Schuppert at Aachen University.

We will consider applications for employment on a part-time or other flexible working basis, even where a position is advertised as full-time, unless there are operational or other objective reasons why it is not possible to do so.  

About You  

We are seeking a highly qualified individual with a minimum 2.1 honours degree in a relevant subject and a PhD (or near completion) in a relevant discipline including but not limited to Engineering, Mathematics, Computer Science and/or Statistics.

The ideal candidate is expected to have sufficient breadth or depth of specialist knowledge in the discipline and of research methods and techniques, including expertise in developing mechanistic modelling, high-fidelity computer simulations of patients with acute lung injury, and using high-performance computing platforms.

You will also be proficient in relevant programming language(s) (e.g. MATLAB, python).

You will have strong communication skills including the ability to communicate effectively in English, both verbally and in writing is essential.

Experience of machine learning techniques is also desirable.

If you have not yet been awarded your PhD but are near submission or have recently submitted your PhD, any offers of employment will be made as Research Assistant on level 5 of the University grade structure. Upon successful award of your PhD and evidence of this fact, you will be promoted to Research Fellow on the first point of the level 6 of the University grade structure. 

For further information regarding the skills required for this role please see the personal specification section of the attached job description.

CLOSING DATE: Thursday 14 November 2024 at 11.55 pm

Full details of the duties and selection criteria for this role can be found in the vacancy advert on the University of Warwick's jobs pages. You will be routed to this when you click on the Apply button.

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