Date Posted: 03/05/2025
Req ID: 42001
Faculty/Division: UofT Scarborough
Department: UTSC:Dept-Physical & Environmental Sci
Campus: University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC)

Description:

Your Opportunity:

The Environmental NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) Centre and the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences at the University of Toronto Scarborough are seeking a Senior Research Associate to oversee the daily operation, training, and management of the Environmental NMR Centre. The position has a very large research and development component and the candidate is expected to work closely with the facility’s Directors to maintain the centre at the cutting-edge of Environmental NMR globally and be central to pioneering new developments in NMR in general. The Directors are working to upgrade the facility to a National Centre for the Environmental NMR development and the candidate will play a vital role in running of the upgraded facility.

The Environmental NMR Centre currently houses three unique, Bruker BioSpin High Field NMR systems. The first is a fully hyphenated 2D-HPLC-SPE-NMR-MS, and is novel both in Canada and Environmental Research in general. The second system has unique capabilities to perform in situ multiphase NMR analyses of heterogeneous samples that contain solid, gel and solution phase samples, the hardware (Comprehensive Multiphase NMR) is globally unique and has been co-developed directly with Bruker BioSpin. The third system is fitted with cryoprobes and is geared towards 2D NMR of 13C/15N in vivo organisms to understand molecular environmental processes such as adaptation to environmental stressor and pollutants. Combined the centre has ~40 NMR probes with ~50% being unique, and number of lower field benchtop, mobile and DNP-NMR spectrometers.

The Centre focuses on the development and application of NMR techniques to study a range of environmental processes. The current topics of research include: environmental metabolomics, LC-SPE-NMR-MS applications to complex environmental mixtures, in vivo NMR spectroscopy, imaging, hyperpolarization, DNP, development of multiphase NMR methods (solids, HR-MAS, solutions NMR as a single technique) and miniature NMR. In addition, the Centre focuses on the development and application of novel NMR approaches to complex systems (including soils, ocean sediments, atmospheric deposits (particles, rain, snow, glacial ice), cells, tissues, small organisms and other environmental matrices) to better understand structure and environmental reactivity.

This opportunity of a Senior Research Associate is a full-time continuing appointment and the anticipated start date is May 1, 2025.

This search aligns with the University’s commitment to strategically and proactively promote diversity among our community members (Statement on Equity, Diversity & Excellence). Recognizing that Black, Indigenous, and other Racialized communities have experienced inequities that have developed historically and are ongoing, we strongly welcome and encourage candidates from those communities to apply

Job Duties:

The Senior Research Associate will report to and work closely with the Director and Associate Director of the Environmental NMR Centre. The candidate will be responsible for ordering cryogens and accepting cryogen deliveries, instrument maintenance, training of graduate students/postdoctoral fellows/visiting scientists, assist in writing grant applications to upgrade the centre and co-publication of research with the facility’s principal investigators and collaborators. The candidate will also be expected to lead research projects publishing both as a primary and secondary author. The successful candidate will take an active role in all aspects of the research of the NMR Centre and will strive to ensure that they become recognized as a leader in the field of Environmental NMR spectroscopy. It is important to understand the candidate will have the implement cutting edge approaches and data analysis require but communicate the results and work with environmental users that may have little or no NMR experience. One of the key missions of the centre is to make cutting edge NMR more accessible for environmental research, and the candidate will need to enjoy teaching and training users on NMR methodologies, recognize varying degrees of experience, and be willing to work with users at all levels.

The Centre actively develops a lot of its own technology including coil arrays, micro-coils, probes, as-well as software approaches. The senior research associate is expected to take a lead role and work on development in house with many of the top global companies in NMR. The centre houses, 5 axis multi-material 3D printing, 5-axis milling, 5-axis laser machining. The candidate must be willing to learn these technologies and teach future graduate students. This includes making standard operation procedures for all the instrumentation and approaches in the facility and ensuring they are in compliance with safety guidelines. The candidate must be able to pass the required course and maintain certification for the use of class 4 lasers.

The candidate must be an active member of the department and serve on committees if asked by the Chair or Directors. The candidate will also act as the Departmental Expert on NMR. While there is a dedicated team of staff that oversee the daily operation of the departmental teaching/walk-up spectrometer. The candidate will help implement advanced experiments when needed, and will oversee the Helium fills of the walk-up instrument (4 times per year), in addition to all cryogen services for the Environmental NMR Centre. The candidate will also be involved in undergraduate thesis supervision in the Department’s chemistry program and will be encouraged to apply to instruct one course in the undergraduate chemistry program on a yearly basis.

Qualifications:

(Minimum Qualifications)

Applicants must have a Ph.D. in NMR spectroscopy development (awarded before the start date) and a track record demonstrating excellence, including publications in top journals and awards. In addition, experience with metabolomics, chromatography, mass spectrometry and working with complex biological and/or environmental systems are strong assets. Experience with pulse programming, custom processing of NMR data (MATLAB, ACD, MNova, Python etc.) and webpage design is also beneficial. Candidates must we willing to develop and publish new approaches and chemometric methods to quickly extract key information from complex data such as in-vivo metabolic data. Advanced experience with Bruker BioSpin instruments is critical and the ideal candidate will have experience in (or be enthusiastic to learn) all areas of NMR including solutions, HR-MAS, solids and imaging. Candidates with experience in the development or applications of CMOS NMR sensors, microcoils, and probe development are preferred.

In addition, the Environmental NMR Centre is dedicated to working with individuals with physical accessibility needs as-well as making NMR accessible to everyone and actively publishes in this area. Candidates with publications in these areas will be highly sort after. A future push will be to develop economical, mobile NMR spectrometers, to make NMR more accessible to those in the global south (where cryogens may not be available) as-well as open up Environmental NMR for in-field analysis. Candidates should be willing to play a leading role in this development including building hardware and software.

Travel:

Limited travel will be required including, trips to perform research and development at collaborating companies and institutions. The Senior Research Associate will be expected to present research at academic conferences. On occasion the Senior Research Associate will have to present webinars to show case collaborative developments with Industrial Partners.

Notes:

Starting salary will be commensurate with the candidate’s qualifications and experience within the range of $61,510 to $107,439 annually. The optional teaching of one undergraduate course is separate from this position and comes with a separate contract and stipend.

This will be a continuing full-time appointment with an anticipated start date of May 1, 2025. All individuals interested in this position must arrange for the following items to be submitted:

1. Cover Letter, describing suitability for the position.

2. Curriculum Vitae

3. Statement of Achievements, as to how they envisage their expertise align with the role

4. Three (3) letters of references

Any questions regarding this position should be directed to Prof. Andre Simpson at andre.simpson@utoronto.ca.

Unfortunately, applications that are not accompanied by at least three references cannot be considered. The Environmental NMR Centre is dedicated to working with individuals with physical accessibility needs as-well as making NMR accessible to all around the world, and actively publishes in this area. Candidates with publications in these areas will be highly sort after.

Closing Date: 03/24/2025, 11:59PM ET
Employee Group: Research Associate
Appointment Type: Budget - Continuing
Schedule: Full-Time
Pay Scale Group & Hiring Zone: R02 -- Sr. Research Associates $61,510 - $107,439 - $124,864 (open)
Job Category: Research Administration & Teaching