Simons Empire Faculty Fellow - Biological Sciences; Assistant Professor

Location: Albany, NY Category: Faculty Posted On: Mon Sep 22 2025

The Department of Biological Sciences within the College of Arts and Sciences at the University at Albany invites applications for a full-time, tenure-track position—a Simons Empire Faculty Fellow— at the rank of Assistant Professor in Quantitative Systems Neuroscience
. The candidate will pursue excellence in research, teaching, and service at a Carnegie R1 institution that serves a broad community and mentors the next generation of scientists. They will contribute to robust undergraduate and graduate programs, enhance collaboration within the Department and across university centers, promote multidisciplinary research, increase extramural funding, and perform community outreach and service to the University, College, and Department.

Research: Scholarship and the creation of new knowledge through scholarly or creative activities. Conduct innovative research, publish in peer‑reviewed journals, present at professional meetings and conferences, and secure external funding to support programmatic research.

Teaching: Educate students, mentor them, and foster intellectual development, which includes teaching undergraduate and graduate courses and preparing and developing courses.

Service: Contribute to governance and functioning of the university, college, and department, including admissions, advising, mentoring graduate students, and chairing and serving on doctoral dissertation committees.

• Reports to:
  
  Department Chair
• Supervises graduate and undergraduate students as well as laboratory personnel (e.g., postdoctoral researchers, research scientists, technicians, etc.).

Large‑scale datasets are foundational resources in modern neuroscience, offering unprecedented opportunities to explore the brain at multiple scales. These datasets include recordings from thousands of neurons and genes across varied brain regions, captured simultaneously with detailed behavioral tracking and sensory stimuli presentation. The integration of multi‑region neural activity with rich contextual information enables researchers to dissect brain function in a highly quantitative and systematic manner, bridging levels of analysis from microcircuits to large‑scale neural networks.

As neuroscience becomes increasingly data‑driven, expertise in collecting high‑dimensional neural recordings alongside gene expression and metabolomic data, and the quantitative tools to analyze them, is essential.

Successful candidates will have a strong foundation in applying quantitative methodologies to systems neuroscience or related fields, develop an active, extramurally funded research program focused on neural computation and population dynamics, and explore decision‑making, sensory‑motor integration, neuromodulatory systems, real‑time motor control, and quantum computing approaches. They will commit to generating publicly accessible datasets, using innovative tools, and fostering interdisciplinary collaborations across Biology, Psychology, Mathematics, Computer Science, Nanoscale Science & Engineering, and The RNA Institute.

High‑performance computing, including AI supercomputing clusters, will support data‑intensive research.

In addition to research excellence, the candidate will contribute to cross‑disciplinary undergraduate and graduate training, offering courses in neuroscience and its integration with quantitative disciplines such as artificial intelligence and neural data processing.

• A terminal doctoral degree (PhD or equivalent) in neuroscience, biological sciences, or a related field from a college or university accredited by the U.S. Department of Education or an internationally recognized accrediting organization.
• A record of research and scholarly activity in systems neuroscience or directly related fields, demonstrated by peer‑reviewed publications, preprint manuscripts, books, or conference proceedings.
• The ability and plan to effectively teach undergraduate and graduate level courses.
• Experience working with interdisciplinary teams.
• Demonstrated ability to develop…