Working environment and context
Located in the heart of Paris, PSL inspires dialog among and between all areas of knowledge, innovation, and creativity in Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences, Engineering and the Arts. Selective and committed to equal opportunity, it draws directly from current research to train researchers, entrepreneurs, artists and managers who are aware of their social responsibility, both individual and collective.
With 2,900 researchers, 17,000 students, 140 laboratories and 10 incubators, fab labs and co-working spaces, PSL is a human-scale university. It ranks among the world’s top 50 universities according to the THE (Times Higher Education) and QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) rankings.
HOSTING STRUCTURE
General Context
PSL Assistant Professor in experimental statistical physics of living systems, Qbio center for Quantitative Biology, Ecole normale supérieure – PSL (ENS-PSL), PSL University, Paris, France.
PSL University seeks candidates for a tenure-track Assistant Professor in experimental statistical physics of living systems, for its Center for Quantitative Biology (QBio, https://qbio.ens.psl.eu/). The position is open to all researchers wishing to open their independent experimental lab in quantitative life sciences and physics of living systems. The position includes an internationally competitive salary and start-up as well as independent laboratory space.
The proposed position is a joint initiative between the ENS-PSL Center for Quantitative Biology (QBio) and the Laboratory of Physics of École Normale Supérieure-PSL (LPENS, https://www.lpens.ens.psl.eu/?lang=en) in Paris. The QBio Center for Quantitative Biology is one of PSL university’s flagship projects. Launched in 2019, and supported by a major sponsorship fundraiser, this transdisciplinary center brings together researchers in biology, physics, chemistry, cognitive sciences, around a common project: understanding and modeling living systems. École Normale Supérieure-PSL houses a big and thematically diverse physics departement, with a lively international undergraduate and graduate teaching program (https://www.phys.ens.fr/spip.php?rubrique259). Within the departement, the ‘biophysics’ axis (https://www.lpens.ens.psl.eu/research/biophys/?lang=en) groups together theoreticians and experimentalists, enabling rich scientific interactions.
Priority is given to the recruitment of a colleague performing experimental research on themes including but not limited to evolution, ecology, neuroscience, behaviour, signalling, development (compatible with a BSL-1 lab).
Teaching mission
Teaching Project
The hired researcher will teach interdisciplinary courses organized by Qbio aimed at the PSL undergraduate and graduate population, as well as courses in the Master program of the International Center of Fundamental Physics (ICFP – https://www.phys.ens.fr/spip.php?rubrique284&lang=en). Both ICFP and QBio offer high-level experimental courses, which give students the opportunity to discover living systems. In particular, the Quantitative Biology Fablab (QLab) is an interdisciplinary teaching initiative with a range of measurement tools and experimental facilities that allows researchers and students to discover and learn about the challenges of living systems, promoting interdisciplinary integration and innovation. Within ICFP, the course ‘Advanced Methods in Biological Physics and Soft Matter’ offers physics students the chance to construct their own experimental setups. In both cases, the courses are centred around a research question. The hired professor will propose their own themes and projects. They will also be expected to participate in the creation of new courses for the community, strengthening the unique educational experience offered by ICFP and Qbio.
cpj@psl.eu
Research mission
Research Project
The spectacular successes of molecular biology have revolutionized the scientific landscape, creating the possibility of experimentally manipulating and interrogating the complex aspects of living systems. This transformation has raised the need for quantitative approaches to predict and decipher the fundamental mechanisms that emerge from the strong couplings and multiple scales involved. This is the purpose of our quantitative biology program, which has chosen to rely on strong axes of this research at ENS-PSL: quantitative immunology, neurosciences, developmental biology, big data in biology.
To address this major scientific challenge, and increase the thematic and methodological diversity at PSL, we are looking to hire an independent experimental group in the area of experimental physics of living systems. The candidate is expected to build an experimental laboratory in an unshared new space and promote multidisciplinary research activities. All areas of the physics of living systems that can be studied without access to mammalian animal facilities will be considered, however preference will be given to quantitative areas not currently studied experimentally in the ENS physics department, including but not limited to evolution, ecology, neuroscience, behaviour, signalling, development. A strong will to build interactions with other, especially theoretical members of the physics department and the Qbio community is welcome, but pre-existing contacts are not expected at the time of application. The position comes with a dedicated laboratory space for the new hire to build their research team, as well as a comfortable seed funding start-up. The new hire will have full access to the state-of-the-art technology platforms available in all of the Qbio member departments. The goal of this position is to develop new scientific research directions using cutting-edge quantitative experiments, exposing students at one of France’s elite undergraduate institutions to novel themes.
cpj@psl.eu
Hiring process
Selection procedure, interviews :
The evaluation will be carried out by a commission composed of internal and external experts. The composition of the committee will be made public before its work.
Candidates shortlisted by the committee (on the basis of the applications) will be invited to give:
- A public seminar, open to all members of the QBio community, during which they will present their research and projects. They will also meet with various members of the community to discuss their research and teaching projects.
- An interview with the selection committee, during which the candidate will present their CV and previous research and teaching activities, their research and teaching projects for the open position, followed by a discussion with the committee.
Evaluation criteria:
– Excellence of the candidate, motivation, ability to supervise students
– Quality and originality of the research and teaching projects
– Integration of the project within the laboratory
– Capacity to establish collaborative networks.
– Adequacy of the means to the proposed project and capacity to raise additional funding.
Application process
HOW TO APPLY:
Candidates must prepare the following documents:
- passport
- PhD diploma
- Application file including teaching statement and research statement, to be filled using the ‘Fiche de candidature CPJ_ENG’
- 3 letters of recommendation to be sent to cpj@psl.eu (include your name in the subject of the e-mail).
Once your documents are ready, they must be uploaded on the French-only Galaxie website: https://galaxie.enseignementsup-recherche.gouv.fr/antares/can/astree/index.jsp
A tutorial will shortly be available here, help with the upload process can be found at cpj@psl.eu.
For questions about the position, please contact Massimo.vergassola@ens.psl.eu
For questions specific to the recruitment procedure, please contact cpj@psl.eu
Contact
Nacéra BOUJNANE
Directrice des ressources humaines
cpj@psl.eu
07 50 15 93 16
Other information
Financial Support
The junior professor will benefit from a 350k€ start-up package (including a PhD student and money for equipment and operating costs).
Corresponding CNU section(s): 28 – 30
Keywords: Quantitative biology, biophysics, evolution, microbial populations, development.