In this issue:
Featured Jobs:
Closing Soon on the ISCB Career Center
Article: Quick Tips to Prepare for an Industry Interview
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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
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PhD or equivalent in computational biology, machine learning, data science, artificial intelligence, computer science, statistics, mathematics, or another quantitative field.
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Candidates holding a degree in biological or medical science are also welcome to apply if they have strong background in computational or statistical work.
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Strong interpersonal and communication skills, experience presenting and communicating research.
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Excellent problem solving and quantitative analysis skills
Find more jobs here!
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Closing Soon on the ISCB Career Center
These jobs will be leaving the Career Center this month:
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Quick Tips to Prepare for an Industry Interview
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Interviewing for an industry position after years in academia can feel like stepping into a different world where expectations, responsibilities, and language are different from what you were used to in the lab. The good news is that the skills and experience you've built in academia are applicable to an industry position; you just have to know how to present them.
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Industry interviews tend to be more formal than the academic equivalent. Where a university position might involve an informal conversation with a PI, an industry interview is a structured, professional process with clear expectations around presentation, communication, and fit within a business environment. Not to mention the process itself is often multi-stage. You might start with an HR screen, move into a technical assessment or case study, and then face a panel interview, all before an offer is made. Knowing this ahead of time means you won't be caught off guard when you’re met with multiple rounds of interviews before hearing whether you got the job.
What interviewers are looking for is also different than in an academic setting. In academia, depth of knowledge and originality of research carry a lot of weight. In industry, the focus shifts toward how your skills translate to real problems and what results you can deliver. Being able to speak to the impact of your work will serve you well throughout the process.
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Behavioral questions are a staple of industry interviews and when you’re used to questions about your research, these might catch you off guard if you’re not expecting them. Questions like "tell me about a time you had to solve a complex problem" or "describe a situation where you had to work with a difficult collaborator" are designed to give interviewers a sense of who you are and how you respond in real life situations, information they can’t get from a resumé.
The STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—is a simple framework that might help reduce anxiety about answering behavioral questions. You already have years of research experience to draw from, you just have to put it in this framework!
Before your interview, think through a handful of examples from your work that address common behavioral interview questions; things that speak to problem-solving, collaboration, and delivering results. Knowing your narrative beforehand means you can walk into the room feeling confident and speak to your experience with ease.
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It’s perfectly acceptable to say that you don’t know the answer to a question that’s been asked, but that’s never where your answer should end. As an academic, you’re well-practiced at intellectual honesty, and that's an asset in an industry interview. "I don't know, but here's how I'd approach it" or "I haven't encountered that before, but based on my experience with X, I'd start by..." demonstrates self-awareness and the ability to think critically under pressure. Interviewers are rarely looking for someone who knows everything. What they are looking for is someone who can think.
Finally, it’s important to remember that an industry interview is a two-way conversation, and the questions you ask matter just as much as the ones you answer. Come prepared with thoughtful questions about the role, the team, and the organization as a genuine opportunity to evaluate whether this is the right fit for you. Questions about how success is measured, what the team's current priorities are, or what the day-to-day of the role actually looks like will signal that you're thinking seriously about the position.
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Transitioning from academia to industry can feel like a significant shift, but the skills, experience, and intellectual rigor you've developed during your academic tenure are exactly what industry is looking for. The interview process may be different, but you’re not starting from scratch. With a little preparation and the right framing, you're better positioned than you might think!
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Sign in to the ISCB Career Center.
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Complete the required payment for the Career Compass upgrade.
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