Director - International Institute for Biosensing

The Office of Vice President for Research (OVPR) at The University of Minnesota (UMN), Twin Cities, MN, seeks a distinguished scholar and educator with a strong record of collaboration, leadership and service to serve as the founding Director of the International Institute for Biosensing (IIB). Biosensors are critically needed in many applications such as food safety, agriculture, environment monitoring, national security, animal health monitoring, biomedical technologies, and water quality monitoring. Improving the safety and quality of food, air, and water will have an impact on every society, and thus there is a universal need for a collective global effort to identify and overcome technical barriers for advancing biosensing research. The Institute will serve as a leading research and development organization focused on science and engineering of biosensors. The IIB will have a presence in multiple countries and be headquartered at the UMN. The number of participating institutions and researchers will continue to grow within the IIB. With a global presence, the IIB will serve as a key biosensing professional network supporting shared learning opportunities, co-development of sensing modalities, and access to large and leading-edge research infrastructure. The IIB will emphasize that its researchers are deeply engaged with the global pool of rising, junior scientists from which future faculty recruitment, short-term visiting positions, and other collaborations will be drawn.

The successful candidate will hold an appointment as a research associate professor, in the Office of the Vice President for Research. The IIB Director will report to the Director of the Research Computing for day-to-day operations and all technical, educational and programmatic issues and will have a dotted-line reporting relationship with the AVP for Infrastructure to discuss university-wide activities, such as conducting seed funding competitions and engaging in new national and international partnerships.

Responsibilities

• Accelerate the advancement and innovation in state-of-the-art knowledge in biosensing. Enhance understanding at the interface between biology and engineering. Through large-team efforts, jointly develop technological solutions to address globally complex and pressing scientific challenges which heavily influence environment, human and animal health.
• Enable the deployment of novel sensing technologies.
• Build a global research community and establish a coordinated, distributed group of scientific researchers who cooperate across the field and share resources, knowledge, expertise, lifelong learning.
• Conduct computational research related to various topical areas within biosensing
• Assist students working within the institute in executing their research projects, networking among disciplines, and disseminating research results
• Organize international workshops; lab rotations for students; online tutorials and networking sessions
• Seek external funding to advance the mission and vision of the IIB. Establish industry – university partnership that leverages the internal investment within the institute.
• Develop biosensing-related standards, policy guidelines, ethical review standards, and analytical frameworks for accelerated cross-diffusion of technologies and personnel.
• Strengthen the partnership between system campuses related to biosensing research and education

Required Qualifications

• A doctoral degree in science, engineering, or related field
• At least three years of post-Baccalaureate experience in a field related to biosensing
• Demonstrated ability to attract human and financial resources for a successful research program
• A strong record of scholarly research in a biosensing related area
• Experience leading and supervising personnel in a research focused enterprise

*Additional details can be found at https://hr.myu.umn.edu/jobs/ext/353300