05 Postdoctoral Fellowship at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, United Kingdom

The Biomedical and Astronomical Signal Processing (BASP) laboratory at Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh (HWU), headed by Professor Yves Wiaux, is recruiting a postdoctoral researcher in computational imaging.

The BASP laboratory is developing cutting-edge research on all aspects of computational imaging, from theory and algorithms, to applications in astronomy and medicine. Dr Wiaux is a Professor in the School of Engineering and Physical Sciences at HWU. He is also Honorary fellow at the (UoE) School of Informatics, and Academic Guest at the (EPFL) Signal Processing Laboratories.

The position is open in the context of a large research project aiming to develop a new generation of computational imaging algorithms intended to deliver simultaneously precision, robustness, efficiency, and scalability of the image formation process. The algorithms will be developed leveraging cutting-edge deep learning and optimisation techniques, as well as high-performance computing implementations. They will be validated for applications in both radio astronomy and magnetic resonance imaging in medicine.

Led by Prof. Wiaux, the project is supported by a unique team of  international partners: Prof. Pesquet from the Digital Vision Centre at Université Paris-Saclay (CVN), Prof. Pock from the Institute of Computer Graphics and Vision at Graz University of Technology (ICG), Prof. Thiran from the EPFL Signal Processing Laboratories (LTS5), Mr Jackson at the UoE Parallel Computing Centre (EPCC), Prof. Smirnov from the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO), Dr Akiyama from MIT Haystack Observatory (Haystack), Dr van Heeswijk from the Radiology Department of Lausanne University hospital (CHUV).

We are seeking to appoint a (postdoctoral) Research Associate in Health Economics and Policy to work alongside the Adam Smith Chair in Sustainable Capitalism, Professor Adam Dixon, on a new project to develop and execute the “Panmure House Dialogues on Market Solutions for Untreatable Diseases: Policy, Pharma, Biotech, and Investors”. 

The rise of untreatable diseases, when antimicrobial drugs lose their effectiveness or do not yet exist, underscores the inadequacies of current market mechanisms in addressing this global health threat. The key question of the project is how can we create economic and regulatory environments that align long-term profitability with societal health needs? We will hold a series of five dialogues with diverse expert participation, which the research associate will assist and help coordinate. Participants will include biotechnology and healthcare companies, their investors, and other stakeholders in the health sector. As such, we will create a space for focused discussions on the economics of antimicrobial drug R&D innovation and understand the incentives for their production. This also includes considerations of health policy and infrastructure in high-income and low- to middle-income countries, thus ensuring that innovation and distribution is broad-based and equitable. 

The research associate will conduct background research (literature reviews; policy reviews) on each dialogue topic, which will be used to support the conversation, feed into post-dialogue recommendations, and academic publications. The research associate will also conduct (or support) semi-structured interviews with different stakeholders in private and public sectors. This may include international travel. 

ransiT is in a consortium of seven universities, supporting the formation of a new national research centred funded by a significant UKRI and stakeholder co-investment for a 5-year and £45M programme of challenge-led research into digital twinning for transport decarbonisation.  The research will build on highly successful consultation which explored transport decarbonisation and mode integration. This new national research hub will be responsible for delivering new knowledge, technical capabilities and policy advisement relating to UK digital twinning (or transport decarbonisation) priorities. This highly ambitious programme of research is supported by over 65 industrial, research and stakeholder organisations. 

The consortium behind this national hub represents a highly interdisciplinary network of experts, and includes a significant cohort of early career researchers, research associates and PhD students, who will work closely together in a multi-disciplinary collaborative environment to deliver this ground-breaking research. 

We are seeking a creative and motivated post-doctoral researcher to work as part of our international and multidisciplinary USorb-DAC (“Unlocking the scalable potential of sorbent-based DAC technologies”) team and with expertise to support our research activities in the project. The project’s aim is to discover adsorbents that can drastically reduce DAC’s energy intensity and cost so that DAC can scale rapidly and contribute to fighting climate change. By coupling basic science with engineering and environmental aspects, the team will develop an in-depth understanding of materials structure-property-performance relationships across different time scales and under relevant and realistic DAC operation conditions.   

To achieve this goal, USorb-DAC unites the efforts of world-leading research teams from Heriot-Watt University, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne and Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zurich in Switzerland, University of California Berkeley in the USA, and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France.