The Centre leader, Professor Robert G Gilbert, works in China under the 1000 Foreign Experts program. He has published two books and over 400 papers in the international literature, and has an h-index of 57. His Wuhan centre works in close collaboration with his research group at the University of Queensland, Australia. The groups’ research is on the relations between biosynthesis, structure and properties of polysaccharides of great importance to human health, especially diabetes, obesity and colorectal cancers. The work concentrates on hyperbranched glucose polymers, particularly starch (which supplies more than half the food energy in China and is also important in industrial products), and glycogen (which is the glucose storage polymer in humans, and whose biosynthesis and biodegradation are involved in the regulation of the level of blood sugar, which is impaired in diabetes). The centre has the best equipment in the world for experimental characterization of the structure of these polymers, especially multiple-detector size-exclusion chromatography, fluorophore-assisted capillary electrophoresis and asymmetric-flow field-flow fractionation. The group does extensive theory and simulation in this area, with publications in journals with very high impact factors in the field, such as Physical Review Letters, Biomacromolecules and PLoS One. The working language in the Centre is English. While most of the work would be performed in Wuhan, the successful applicant would visit the University of Queensland in Brisbane for 1 month each year.

Essential skills for theoretical postdoctoral fellow:

Knowledge of higher-level programming language (e.g. C, Fortran)

Good verbal and written communication in English

PhD in theoretical work involving large-scale simulation

Undergraduate or Masters degree in theoretical chemistry, physics, theoretical biology, applied mathematics or an appropriate branch of engineering.

Research direction: modeling the high-level molecular structure of complex branched polysaccharides (particularly starch and glycogen) based on the underlying biosynthetic processes. This includes using established codes (e.g. GROMACS ) for enzyme-substrate conformation, developing quantitative equations based on the biosynthetic processes and coding the numerical solution of these equations.

Recruitment conditions and living benefits:

Currently recruiting for 1-2 postdoctoral fellow(s). Must be Chinese citizen. Experience in theory and computer simulation with a background in any of applied mathematics, theoretical chemistry, polymer science, theoretical biology or an appropriate branch of engineering. Essential to be bilingual in English and Mandarin. The living benefits and other bonuses follow University rules, which will be between 80,000 to 120,000 RMB a year, based on performance.

Contacts:

Candidates should send their resumes, in English, to the following emails: b.gilbert@uq.edu.au, robertgilbert@hust.edu.cn. Any further explanation and clarification inquiry t o b.gilbert@uq.edu.au, or phone 027-87505266-603.

http://hr.hust.edu.cn/notice/2167.jhtml