George Mason University

Department of Bioengineering: Tenured Faculty Position

The George Mason University Department of Bioengineering, within the College of Engineering and Computing (CEC), invites applications for a faculty position beginning Fall 2022 as part of a new cluster hiring initiative with the theme of Computational Systems Biomedicine.

Senior candidates with established records of outstanding research and excellent teaching will be eligible for tenured Associate Professor or Professor positions. Candidates may be considered for joint appointments with other departments within the School of Computing and the College of Science, especially with either the Department of Computer Science or Statistics.

George Mason University has a strong institutional commitment to the achievement of excellence and diversity among its faculty and staff, and strongly encourages candidates to apply who will enrich Mason’s academic and culturally inclusive environment.  We encourage applications from talented scholars with diverse backgrounds, particularly those who identity as members of an historically or systemically minoritized group who are committed to being part of and contributing to a nationally and internationally recognized university community.

Responsibilities 

We are seeking a candidate to lead the new Computational Systems Biomedicine research initiative at Mason. The initiative aims to improve health outcomes by utilizing computational methods across multiple scales to develop improved diagnostic, therapeutic, prognostic and prevention strategies. The successful candidate will develop the vision for this research initiative by synergistically leveraging existing areas of expertise at Mason and in collaboration with external partner institutions and will be expected to develop a nationally-recognized and externally-funded research program.  Successful candidates will be expected to teach at the undergraduate and graduate levels; advise students; participate in all aspects of the University’s mission; serve the profession; and embrace and help advance the University’s strong commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.

Required Qualifications 

Successful candidates typically will have a PhD in Bioengineering, Biology, Biochemistry, Computer Science, Statistics or a related field; candidates with a PhD in other fields should have a strong publication record in computational methods with applications in biomedicine. All candidates should have a demonstrated record of excellence and productivity in research, and a commitment to high-quality teaching. 

Preferred Qualifications 

We are particularly interested in candidates with a demonstrated track record of interdisciplinary research, integrating knowledge of cellular or molecular mechanisms of disease with clinical and epidemiological factors, including social determinants of health. Candidates who can build collaborations with other departments within the College and across the University will benefit from the strong support and encouragement for interdisciplinary collaboration at Mason. Candidates with demonstrated experience collaborating with external partners/universities and leading interdisciplinary teams will be given preference. Mason places a high value on engaging students from traditionally underrepresented groups, and candidates from these groups are especially encouraged to apply.  

About the Departments

The proposed Computational Systems Biomedicine cluster is a joint initiative between five departments: Bioengineering, Computer Science, Statistics, Systems Biology, and Chemistry and Biochemistry. The cluster will leverage the rich ecosystem formed by the participating departments and their research and training programs. The cluster will also be able to leverage a number of collaborations in the broader Mason ecosystem including College of Health and Human Services and the College of Science, as well as existing centers and core facilities, such as the Center for Adaptive Systems of Brain Body Interactions (a university-level transdisciplinary center that is the home for an NSF National Research Traineeship program), Center for Applied Proteomics and Molecular Medicine (a CAP/CLIA compliant facility for translational research in personalized medicine), Institute for Advanced Biomedical Research (a state of the art facility for experimental biomedical research), Biomedical Research Laboratory (a high-security facility with BSL-2 and BSL-3 laboratories for infectious disease research) and a research-dedicated 3T MRI core facility.

The participating departments have a number of faculty with expertise in computational modeling and experimental biomedical research. The Bioengineering department has experts in computational hemodynamics, biomechanics, neuroscience and neuroinformatics. The department has collaborative relationships with several medical centers in the area, including INOVA, Childrens’ National, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, National Rehabilitation Hospital, and national laboratories including the NIH, NIST, NRL, FDA as well as the Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Janelia Farms. The Bioengineering Alliance includes a number of industry and federal representatives. The School of Systems Biology (SSB) has expertise in translational medicine, molecular biology, bioinformatics, and computational biology. This includes experimental scientists covering genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics as well as experimental measurements in live cells with electrophysiological and imaging methods that span spatial and temporal scales. Bioinformaticians and biomolecular modeling experts in SSB are leveraging experimental data and working at different scales from the molecular to the organ levels including use of multiscale modeling to integrate information across scales. The Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry has expertise in the field of drug discovery including synthetic chemistry, biophysics, and bioanalytical chemistry and faculty are actively exploring drug targets in infectious diseases, COPD, and pulmonary fibrosis. The Statistics Department has extensive expertise in statistics and data science, including core areas such as biostatistics and bioinformatics; longitudinal, spatial, functional, and geometric data;  clinical trials and surveys; statistical computing, data mining, high-dimensional and Big data; measurement errors, selection biases, and mixtures; Bayesian and robust statistics; simultaneous inference, multiple comparisons, and extreme value theory; and emerging areas, such as crowdsourcing, statistical privacy, and security analytics, electronic health records, AI/ML, data compression, feature selection, statistical imaging, and causal inference, and interface of statistics and computer science. Statistics faculty has collaborated broadly with biomedical sciences, and many other natural and social sciences from astronomy to CS and law. It has a group collaboration with INOVA Health supported in part by a parent NIH U01 award.  The Department of Computer Science has strong research groups in and computational methods related to healthcare, systems and networks, machine learning, deep learning, and data mining, artificial intelligence, theory, databases, bioinformatics, human-computer interaction, and software engineering. The department has seen rapidly growing enrollment, with over 2000 undergraduates, 500 MS and 150 PhD students. The department has nearly $5 million in annual research expenditures, 17 recipients of the prestigious CAREER/Young Investigator Awards, four IEEE Fellows, three ACM Fellows, and one AIMBE Fellow.

A Force for Innovation in the Heart of Northern Virginia’s Technology Corridor

The College of Engineering and Computing at George Mason University is comprised of the Volgenau School of Engineering and a new School of Computing. The College is a fast-growing force for innovation in research and education, and ranked in the top 10 among public institutions in the nation in research expenditures in Computer and Information Sciences. Ranked nationally in the top 100 in both undergraduate and graduate education, the College boasts more than 9,100 students in 37 undergraduate, master’s, and doctoral degree programs, including several first-in-the-nation offerings. Of the 271 full-time faculty who comprise the College, 91 are tenured, 59 are tenure-track, 89 are instructional faculty, and 32 are research faculty. As part of a nationally ranked research university, its research teams expended more than $60 million in sponsored research awards last year and has projects with over $400 million in current and anticipated awards. The College stands out for its leading research in areas such as artificial intelligence, data analytics engineering, cybersecurity engineering, biomedical imaging and devices, community-based healthcare, autonomous systems, 5G/Next G communications, systems architectures, computational biomedicine, advanced materials and manufacturing, sustainable infrastructure, and more. The College encourages multidisciplinary research and provides ample opportunity for faculty to work with other disciplines.

George Mason University is the fastest growing public research university in the nation. It is the largest and most diverse public research university in Virginia, with an enrollment of over 39,000 students studying in over 200 degree programs.  It was classified as an R1 research institution in 2016 by the Carnegie Classifications of Institutes of Higher Education, and is the youngest R1 institution in the nation, and is ranked the best young university in the nation. Mason is an innovative, entrepreneurial institution with nation dal distinction in a range of academic fields. Mason has campuses in Fairfax, Arlington, Prince William and Incheon, South Korea. Its proximity to Washington, D.C. provides unmatched geographical access to a number of federal agencies and national laboratories. Northern Virginia is also home to one of the largest concentrations of high-tech firms in the nation, providing excellent opportunities for interaction with industry. The region is consistently rated as being among the best places to live in the country, and has an outstanding local public school system. In addition, the university has been highly effective in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, creating a safe environment for faculty, students and staff. 

In conjunction with Amazon’s decision to establish a second headquarters in Northern Virginia, the Commonwealth of Virginia announced a multi-year plan to invest in the growth of degree programs in computing. George Mason University has committed to accelerate its plans to grow its capacity in computing and high-tech fields.  Among the exciting initiatives being undertaken by the university are the launch of the Institute for Digital InnovAtion, a university think tank and incubator to serve the digital economy, and the expansion of its Arlington Campus with a planned 400,000 square foot building that will house the new Institute for Digital InnovAtion. These initiatives reflect hundreds of millions of dollars in new investment by Mason that will rapidly elevate the university’s already leading national position in computing and related areas.

Application

For full consideration, applicants must apply for position number F714AZ ; at https://jobs.gmu.edu/; complete and submit the online application; and upload a statement of professional goals including your perspective on teaching and research (to attach as ‘Other Doc’), a complete CV with publications, a statement on what diversity and inclusion means to you (to attach as ‘Other Doc’), and the names of three professional references. The review of applications will begin February 14, 2022 and continue until the position is filled.

George Mason University is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer, committed to promoting inclusion and equity in its community. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, or protected veteran status.