NPL is seeking an NMR specialist or an MRI specialist with experience in NMR to join its MRI team. The position would suit someone with experience in NMR characterisation of materials or biological samples materials (solid, liquid, solution, gaseous state experience is all relevant) and experience in time domain analysis. The vacancy is for a Higher Scientist position in the MRI team at NPL Teddington. We are looking for someone to help develop NPL’s new NMR spectrometer lab, including helping oversee the build as well as helping design and deliver future experimental work in the team. The job also involves close collaboration with NPL’s Data Science department developing new analysis methods and codes. The facility has a rampable main field and will be able to perform experiments across various field strengths up to a maximum of 300MHz, extending through all clinical MRI field strength and into the low- and ultra-low field regimes.
The successful candidate will hold or be about to submit a PhD in an MR-related discipline and have hands-on experience of NMR spectroscopy. MRI specialists with experience in NMR are also very welcome to apply. The position includes working on the design and build of the NMR facility, leading into performing experimental and analysis work once the facility is up and running, and close collaboration with MRI specialists in the team across a variety of experimental and analytical projects, and also involve working closely with our academic, commercial, and metrological partners nationally and internationally. This full-time research scientist position is permanent, with a well-defined career path to more senior scientific roles and comes with a competitive salary and benefits package.
This post requires expertise in working with small molecules in solution, and it is part of a project to build a system capable of making measurements of time-domain quantities relevant to MRI such as relaxivities and diffusion coefficients as well as measurements of fat and iron content of solutions via multiple methods, all with a firm grounding in metrological traceability and rigor. It’s a little different from standard analytical spectroscopy, but if you’re up for a unique challenge and want to do work that makes a big impact, then this is for you!
The successful candidate will input to the design and installation of a new NMR facility at NPL Teddington, bringing NMR expertise to the MRI team, contributing to technical discussions and design decisions, and working with other team members and contractors to deliver the new facility. As the facility comes online, the role will transition into pulse sequence implementation, materials characterisation, ongoing research, and the delivery of measurement services. A solid working knowledge of the physics of echo formation and quantitative parameter estimation is advantageous, as is experience with pulse programming.
MRI is a growth area at NPL, and the team is part of a world-class Medical Physics department and the MEMPHYS centre for metrology in medical physics, providing measurement expertise and services across the NHS and internationally. The work and challenges are dynamic and there is significant potential to contribute to its direction and priorities with your own strengths and ideas. We are developing new measurement expertise in several MR-based modalities to improve reproducibility, quantify confidence and uncertainty, and develop improved harmonisation and guidance for quantitative MRI in clinical and research applications. We collaborate closely with academic researchers at leading universities, clinical MR physicists, and companies developing MR test objects and hardware across the UK and internationally.
Primary responsibilities include:
- Assisting with the design and build of a new, variable field NMR facility
- Acquiring and analysing MR data to support materials characterisation in multiple MR contrasts (quantitative T1, T2, diffusion, fat fraction, and iron content are current priorities, but this will change and expand with time)
- Designing and performing sets of experiments characterising materials across a range of main field strengths
- Working with collaborators and partners nationally and internationally, and with MR physicists in the NPL team and at our partner sites
- Investigating the uncertainties and biases associated with NMR acquisitions and analysis, and performing detailed numerical calculations
- Writing and publishing scientific research papers and giving presentations internally and externally
- Formulating and contributing to research proposals
- Contributing to the development and delivery of new measurement services
- Building and extending an internal and external network of collaborators and partners, working closely with scientists who are generating high-quality experimental data
- Assisting in PhD student supervision
The MRI team at NPL is committed to providing a metrological foundation for quantitative MRI with a strong and specific focus on methods for the clinic. We are supporting the application and rollout of quantitative methods in our own projects, in collaborations with other groups and institutions, and through participation in national and international efforts such as QIBA and NCITA, helping support the health and quality of life of the UK population.