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In this issue:

Featured Jobs:

  • Research Fellow - Biology

  • Postdoc in Computational Genomics

  • Faculty Member - Computational Biology, Machine Learning, & Digital Health

  • Postdoctoral Associate

Article: Navigating Academic Doubt During Your PhD

Closing Soon on the ISCB Career Center

Career Compass Featured Jobs

Research Fellow - Biology
The Infinity Fellowship
Job description:
We are a frontier artificial-intelligence laboratory, still in stealth, established for a single purpose: to build an AI capable of original discovery — a system that does not merely retrieve and recombine what is already known, but reasons toward genuinely new understanding of the problems put to it. We hold that an instrument able to truly discover is among the most consequential technologies humanity will ever build, and we are building it.

Our system has already produced results beyond the reach of any human team. We have demonstrated its power on a small number of problems. The purpose of this fellowship is to establish how far that power extends.

This is an invitation to bring a small number of researchers who will form the inaugural cohort of the Infinity Fellowship who will spend a year aiming this instrument at the hardest unsolved problems in their fields.

You choose the problems — the ones shelved because they demanded a decade. You carry each from formulation to validated result. You publish as lead author.

The terms are plain: a full-time salaried appointment of roughly one year ($125,000), hybrid in the San Francisco East Bay, with relocation support and visa sponsorship for international Fellows. It pays like a strong postdoc. No background in AI is required; we weigh the ability to learn above experience with any method. Top-performing Fellows will be offered permanent research positions.

The application takes ten minutes to begin: your CV, and a few sentences on the problem you would start with. The full one-page proposal — why it has resisted solution, what its solution would make possible — can follow.

pfa.zto77.com/apply-biology-life-sciences

Proposals received by Sep 15 will be considered first for the inaugural cohort, which convenes in September. Every application receives an answer within a week.

Few are present, in any era, at the founding of a new instrument of discovery. Bring the problem worth your year.

Postdoc in Computational Genomics at Harvard School of Public Health
Harvard University
Environmental Health, Biostatistics
Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
Job description: The Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard is seeking a highly motivated computational Postdoctoral Associate to join the Haber Lab and Klarman Cell Observatory to discover the complex cellular processes and structures that underlie our airways ability to defend themselves from the wide range of threats in the air around us.

Our interdisciplinary research group uses machine learning and genomics to study the immunology of environmental health and particularly physiological mechanisms of lung inflammation and asthma. We use cutting edge genomics and computational methods to answer major questions in the field: how do the airways of the lungs detect danger signals, such as allergens, viruses, or toxins, and trigger an immune response? Which are the most important types of ‘sentinel cells’ that are on the lookout for danger in inhaled air, and able to co-ordinate an effective defense? Prospective applicants should have made significant contributions to their area of study, as evidenced by a strong publication record. We are seeking creative and highly motivated individuals who want to work in a dynamic, multi-disciplinary research environment.

Qualifications

  • PhD or equivalent in computational biology, machine learning, data science, artificial intelligence, computer science, statistics, mathematics, or another quantitative field.

  • Candidates holding a degree in biological or medical science are also welcome to apply if they have strong background in computational or statistical work.

  • Strong interpersonal and communication skills, experience presenting and communicating research.

  • Excellent problem solving and quantitative analysis skills

Faculty Member- Computational Biology, Machine Learning, & Digital Health
Institute for Systems Biology
Seattle, Washington, USA
Job description: The Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) seeks a highly motivated and

talented Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor to join our faculty and lead transformative efforts in AI, machine learning, and computational biology to bridge the gap between basic science and next-generation medicine. The successful candidate will have a strong background in computational biology, statistics, machine learning/AI or a related field, and a passion for applying these techniques to address complex biological or medical problems.

Biomedical research pioneer Dr. Leroy Hood founded ISB in 2000 as the first-of-its-kind institute dedicated to systems biology. Unlike traditional academic departments, our faculty are cross-disciplinary, which enables us to take on big, complex problems. ISB is deeply committed to sharing our knowledge with society: we participate in the formation of companies, and strategically collaborate with healthcare systems and industry to improve human health and accelerate science.

ISB’s computational capabilities are in biological modeling and simulation, machine learning, biostatistical methods, bioinformatics, medical informatics, applied to: genomics, phenomics and exposomics. ISB's technical capacities include genomics, transcriptomics, metagenomics, proteomics, metabolomics, imaging, and single-cell omics. Accordingly, ISB faculty develop novel measurement technologies, formal theories and computational tools to support all aspects of systems biology and systems medicine, and these unique resources are shared across the institute. ISB’s affiliation with Providence, one of the largest not-for-profit health care systems in the United States, gives ISB access to unique resources including clinical trials, patient samples, 30 million electronic health records (EHRs), imaging, and the ability to translate discoveries into clinical applications that benefit patients.

Responsibilities:

  • Establish and maintain a research program in applied mathematics, statistics, computer science or data science to investigate fundamental biological processes and their relevance to human health.

  • Pioneer innovative computational frameworks to integrate multimodal biological and clinical data, such as genomics, proteomics, phenomics, or specialized domains, such as deep immunophenotyping, imaging, health dynamics, and spatiotemporalomics data that can drive new scientific paradigms or personalized medicine with actionable insights for patient care.

  • Develop and apply innovative methods to integrate data-driven and knowledge-based approaches for discovery of mechanisms and clinical decision support.

  • Collaborate with other researchers within the institute, external partners to translate computational discoveries into real-world applications in health care, from prevention to detection to treatment of diseases.

  • Secure external funding to support research activities and expand the scope of the research program.

  • Mentor graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and undergraduate students.

  • Contribute to ISB's research and educational mission.

Expected Salary: Compensation for this role will be based on skills, experience, and rank upon hire in the expected range of $155,000 to $300,000 per year.

Postdoctoral Associate
Yale University
Department of Biostatistics
New Haven, Connecticut, USA
Job description: Leying Guan is an Associate Professor of Biostatistics at Yale Univ. Her team develops statistical and machine-learning methods for reliable scientific discovery from complex, high-dimensional data, along three interconnected directions: (1) models that capture structure in heterogeneous, high-dimensional data — latent-factor and multi-view models, structured/tensor estimation, high-dimensional regression, and integrative modeling; (2) inference that stays valid after complex or data-adaptive analysis — conformal prediction, robust inference, adaptive signal detection with error-rate control, and post-selection assessment; and (3) computational biology — building tools with improved statistical rigor for large-scale immune, single-cell, and multi-omics data, in collaboration with immunologists and consortium-scale data resources. Looking ahead, she is currently extending all three directions further toward new model structures and data types.

Depending on background and interest, projects may span new computational models for single-cell data targeting unresolved challenges; software and computational platform development with large-scale application to consortium data resources; theoretical and methodological development in robust uncertainty quantification or high-dimensional structured modeling. Candidates also have good flexibility to propose and develop their own research topics.

You don't need to fit all of these, but should be strong on at least one axis:

Methodologists: rigorous training in statistics, biostatistics, ML theory, comfortable enough with code and real data to implement and validate methods at scale.

Computational biologists / strong engineers moving into methodology: excellent software and data engineering skills (scalable computing, single-cell or genomic data pipelines).

ML-trained researchers curious about biology: strong deep learning background who are interested in working on problems with real statistical stakes in a biological domain and are motivated to learn the biology as they go.

Across all profiles, what matters most: genuine intellectual motivation, comfort working hands-on with real and large-scale data, and interest in building methods that are both theoretically sound and practically useful.

Compensation

Salary: Compensation will follow Yale University’s postdoctoral compensation guidelines and will be commensurate with experience.

Preferred Start Date: Preferred Early 2027, but negotiable. Applications will be considered until the position is filled.

International applicants are welcome.

Qualifications

PhD (or near completion) in Statistics, Computer Science, Biostatistics, Computational Biology, or a related quantitative field, with a track record in either rigorous methodology, computational software development, or applying/extending computational methods to real, large-scale single cell/omics data.

Navigating Academic Doubt During Your PhD

For many PhD students, the end of the year is a natural time to pause and take stock of where things are headed. If questions about whether academia is still the right path have been creeping in, here are some things worth considering before making any major decisions.

How to Know When It’s Time to Leave

The reality is that most people deciding whether to leave academia are weighing two very different kinds of evidence: the practical and the emotional. Knowing how to read both, and weigh them appropriately, is what makes the difference between a decision you feel good about and one you're second-guessing a year later.

The practical signals tend to show up in the day-to-day reality of your program. Research that has stalled despite your best efforts, a supervisory relationship that has become a consistent source of friction rather than support, or a quiet but growing sense that the degree itself is no longer something you actually want are all worth paying attention to rather than explaining away.

Emotional signals are just as real as the practical ones, but they require a little more interpretation. Frustration, exhaustion, and feeling undervalued are experiences most graduate students move through at some point, and on their own they don't mean much. What's worth paying attention to is persistence. When those feelings stop being tied to a specific setback, deadline, or difficult period and start feeling like the default state of being in your program, that's a signal of a different kind.

The Second Year Slump

Many PhD students find themselves hitting a wall around the two-year mark of their degree. At this point, the initial excitement of starting a new chapter has worn off, the work has probably gotten harder, a bit dull, or even more isolating, and the end still feels impossibly far away. This is a genuinely difficult phase, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that it’s around this time that students start wondering if they've made a mistake.

Before making any major decisions during this period, it's worth considering whether what you're experiencing is actually burnout rather than a fundamental mismatch with academia. Burnout is common in graduate school and when it happens, it can make even the right path that you were excited about a couple years ago feel like the wrong one. If you find yourself answering "yes" to most of these questions, burnout may be worth addressing before making any permanent decisions:

  • Did these feelings develop gradually after a particularly demanding period rather than being present from the start?

  • Are there specific aspects of your program or environment driving how you feel, rather than a general sense that academia itself isn't right for you?

  • Can you imagine feeling differently with a break, a change of supervisor, or a shift in your research direction?

If what you're experiencing isn't burnout but something more fundamental, that's worth taking seriously too. Talking to a mentor, counselor, or peers who've been through it can help you make sense of what you're feeling and what your options actually are.

Making a Decision Despite Uncertainty

Uncertainty doesn't go away just because you've thought about something long enough, and waiting for complete clarity before making your decision can become its own kind of stalling.

What can help is separating the decision from the fear. Leaving academia doesn't mean your PhD was a failure, and staying doesn't mean you're settling. Both paths have merit, and the right one is the one that aligns with what you actually want, not what you think you're supposed to want, or what the people around you expect.

If you're genuinely stuck, talking to people who have made both choices can be invaluable. Seek out researchers who left academia and built careers elsewhere, as well as those who stayed and found their footing. Their experiences won't make the decision for you, but they can make the options feel more concrete and less abstract.

Ultimately, no decision made thoughtfully and honestly is the wrong one. The goal isn't certainty, it's clarity on what matters most to you.

Final Thoughts

Deciding whether to stay in academia is rarely straightforward, and there's no formula that makes it easy. What matters most is that the decision is yours, and that it’s made thoughtfully, honestly, and on your own terms.

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