Research Scientist, postdoc, computational plant genomics

Would you like to develop and apply cutting-edge methods in plant genomics? We are seeking a motivated postdoctoral researcher to join the Business Finland-funded Q-GEN project, which explores quantum-computing applications in biological data analysis.

The postdoctoral researcher will contribute to Q-GEN (Quantum Computing Applications for Future Genomes and Biomaterials), a project funded by Business Finland.

Rapid advances in sequencing generate vast, complex omics datasets that challenge traditional computational methods but are becoming essential across many biological domains. Quantum computing for bioinformatics aims to address key bottlenecks in high-dimensional optimization and structured learning through quantum and quantum-inspired approaches that are compatible with noisy intermediate-scale quantum (NISQ) constraints.

The successful candidate will join the Plant Genetics and Genomics team at Natural Resources Institute Finland (Luke). The postdoctoral researcher will identify bioinformatics problems suitable for quantum and hybrid computational approaches, develop new algorithms in collaboration with quantum physicists at Aalto University, and apply the resulting methods in simulated and real quantum-computing environments.

The research will primarily focus on genomic and multi-omics analyses in plant species. Potential applications include (but are not limited to) gene-network estimation and multi-omics modelling.

The postdoctoral researcher will be supervised by Dr Tuomas Hämälä and Dr Daniel Fischer at Luke and will collaborate closely with Professor Ilkka Tittonen's group at Aalto University. The position will be based at a Luke office in either Jokioinen or Helsinki. The work will also include research visits to international collaborators.

a recently completed doctoral degree (typically no more than 5 years ago) in a relevant field, such as bioinformatics, genetics, machine learning, or data science

experience in analysing large genom