Openings: 

PostDoc openings

New Postdoc position in Reinforcement Learning for Automatic Optimal Control of Synthetic Biology Systems (deadline for applications: 15 March 2012)

Briefly:

• PostDoctoral Research Associate in the Department of Bioengineering on the EPSRC funded project EP/J014214/1: "Data-based optimal control of synthetic biology gene circuits"
• 14 months position, starting as soon as possible
• Basic starting salary: GBP 31,300 - 36,770 per annum

More information about this position can be obtained by following this link.

The official advert and online application can be accessed by following this link. If this link does not work please visit http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/employment, select “Job Search”, and then enter the job title "Data-based optimal control of synthetic biology gene circuits" or vacancy reference number EN20120027FH into “Keywords”.

PhD openings

Interested in working with me in synthetic/systems biology at Imperial College London? Ph.D. studentships in the Department of Bioengineering are advertised here. For general information on the tuition fees and cost of living in London, please read this link. For other sources of funding you can also look here (BioEngineering funding), here (for UK and EU studenships), here (for overseas studentships) and here (fees and financial help).

Please check the College entry requirements carefully before applying.

Our group: Control Engineering for Synthetic Biology group

Want to download my papers? This can be done from my research webpage.

Dr Guy-Bart Stan obtained a PhD in Applied Sciences (Nonlinear Dynamical Systems and Control) from the University of Liege, Belgium under the supervision of Rodolphe Sepulchre. His thesis dealt with the global analysis and synthesis of limit cycle oscillations in networks of interconnected nonlinear dynamical systems, and with the global synchronisation of oscillations in such networks. The obtained results are based upon a generalisation of dissipativity theory to the global asymptotic stability analysis of limit cycles, both in isolated and interconnected nonlinear dynamical systems. The proposed approach allows a generalisation of the feedback oscilation mechanisms observed in the Van der Pol and Fitzhugh-Nagumo oscillator to higher dimensional systems.

From July to September 2008, he was an invited visiting scientist at the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA (invited by Professor Munther Dahleh). From June to August 2004, he was an invited visiting Ph.D. researcher at the "Laboratoire d'Automatique de Grenoble", INPG-ENSIEG, Grenoble, France (invited by Dr Carlos Canudas-de-Wit).

From January 2006 until December 2009, Dr Stan worked as a Research Associate in the Control Group of the University of Cambridge (U.K.) with support from EPSRC (EP/E02761X/1) (previously support from a European Commission FP6 Marie-Curie Intra-European Fellowship (EIF-FP6 025509 GASO)). From June to December 2005, he worked as Senior DSP Engineer at Philips Applied Technologies, Leuven, Belgium. Until May 2005, he worked in the Nonlinear Systems and Control group at the Systems and Modeling department of the University of Liège with F.N.R.S. (Belgian National Fund for Scientific Research) support.

A more detailed C.V. can be downloaded from here.

Research interests: Dr Stan main research interests are in the areas of Nonlinear Systems Analysis and Control, Systems and Synthetic Biology, and Bioinformatics.

Recently, he investigated the application of reinforcement learning algorithms to the design of "optimal drug scheduling" treatments for chronic diseases like cancers and HIV, and the global synchronisation and phase-locking of oscillations in networks of interconnected oscillators.

More details about these research topics and the related publications can be found on my research webpage.