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The Biophysics Collaborative Access Team (BioCAT) is an x-ray facility located at the Advanced Photon Source (APS) at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). It is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the structure and dynamics of partially ordered biological systems.

BioCAT is a member of Illinois Institute of Technology's (IIT) Center for Synchrotron Radiation Research and Instrumentation (CSSRI).

BioCAT currently has the following positions available:

Please submit CV/resume and a list of three references to:

Ms. Clareen Krolik
APS/435B/Sector 18
Argonne National Laboratory
9700 South Cass Avenue
Argonne, IL 60439-4860

Illinois Institute of Technology adheres to Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity policies and strongly encourages applications from minority group members and women.
Position:SAXS Post-Doc
Effort:Full-time (40 hrs/wk)

The Illinois Institute of Technology's Biophysics Collaborative Access Team (BioCAT) at the Advanced Photon Source seeks a post-doctoral fellow with a Ph.D. in biophysics, physics, chemistry, or biology. The successful candidate will be a recent Ph.D. graduate with research interests in low angle x-ray solution scattering of biological systems. Primary responsibilities will include experimental support for visiting scientists and assistance with instrumentation development.

Experience with data analysis, detectors, and hardware/software interfacing is beneficial. The successful candidate will be encouraged to develop an active collaborative research program with access to beamtime for these studies.

Position:Staff Programmer
Effort:Full-time (40 hrs/wk)
  • Description

    • The BioCAT Staff Programmer will be responsible for creation, maintenance, and upgrades to new and existing code utilized for day-to-day running of experiments at the beam-line. This code will include large scale programs designed to operate many facets of the beam-line autonomously, medium scale programs designed to manipulate specific pieces of hardware, and smaller "glue" programs designed on-the-fly for quick-and-dirty operation of new hardware or new modes of old hardware.

    The BioCAT Staff Programmer will not only need to take input from other BioCAT staff members and visiting experimenters, but also develop a "global" view of synchrotron beam-line controls from the synchrotron community at large as new code is developed internationally to handle data acquisition and analysis.

  • Desirables

    • Although much of the beam-line controls are implemented on machines running a Linux operating system, the BioCAT Staff Programmer should be comfortable with Microsoft environments as well and able to write code for both Linux and Microsoft platforms.

    Familiarity with administration of both Microsoft and Linux (Red Hat and Debian) networks is desirable.

    MacOSX is used for administration/clerical purposes and occasional assistance with purchased software may be requested.

  • Specific Knowledge Required

    • Operating systems:
      • Linux (RedHat and Debian flavors), Microsoft Windows XP
    • Programming Languages:
      • Python (wxPython), Java, C, PERL, tcl/tk, and must be willing to learn the EPICS C API as well as imported libraries for Python and Java.

  • Specific Projects Under Consideration

    • Upgrade and Maintenance of Java-based beam-line control system.
    • Upgrade and Maintenance of Python-based fast-scanning code.
    • Construction of new code designed to scan a motor at varying rates for a user-specified number of cycles. Code also needs to provide TTL and EPICS outputs for triggering external equipment. Code further needs to collect data via EPICS Process Variables during scan.
    • Aid in construction of XML data from FileMaker database conforming to NIH guidelines.
    • Evaluation of existing open-source integrated user environments for experimental control and analysis (e.g. GDA, Blu-Ice) for consideration for adoption and subsequent implementation (SAXS automation, Scanning microfiber diffraction).