Postdoctoral Fellow – Natural Language Processing / Machine Learning in Healthcare

At Moffitt Cancer Center, we strive to be the leader in understanding the complexity of cancer and applying these insights to contribute to the prevention and cure of cancer. Our diverse team of over 9,000 are dedicated to serving our patients and creating a workspace where every individual is recognized and appreciated. For this reason, Moffitt has been recognized on the 2023 Forbes list of America’s Best Large Employers and America’s Best Employers for Women, Computerworld magazine’s list of 100 Best Places to Work in Information Technology, DiversityInc Top Hospitals & Health Systems and continually named one of the Tampa Bay Time’s Top Workplace. Additionally, Moffitt is proud to have earned the prestigious Magnet® designation in recognition of its nursing excellence. Moffitt is a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center based in Florida, and the leading cancer hospital in both Florida and the Southeast. We are a top 10 nationally ranked cancer center by Newsweek and have been nationally ranked by U.S. News & World Report since 1999.
Working at Moffitt is both a career and a mission: to contribute to the prevention and cure of cancer. Join our committed team and help shape the future we envision.

Summary

Dr. Thanh Thieu seeks to find a Postdoc Fellow to join the Language and Intelligence Laboratory (LAILab) at the Machine Learning Department at Moffitt. LAILab is a multidisciplinary research group that translates advances in natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning (ML) to solve low-resourced language understanding, language generation, and predictive medicine tasks in oncology and healthcare informatics. Our work involves 1) identification and standardization of functional status information in clinical notes of adult and senior cancer patients; 2) information extraction and knowledge graph construction from clinical notes to assist cancer registry and evidence-based predictive modeling; 3) linking aging, comorbidities, and drugs to prostate cancer relapse and survival; 4) predicting unplanned hospital readmission in the adult patients with gastrointestinal cancers initiating surgery; and other interdisciplinary projects as we expand our internal and external collaboration networks. To accomplish multidimensional and multidisciplinary goals, we transfer and customize cutting edge methodologies in NLP and ML such as large language modeling, in-context inference, data augmentation, domain adaptation, etc. Our daily activities include utilization of forefront deep neural network ecosystem and architectures on our Nvidia DGX server.

Link to our lab page: https://lab.moffitt.org/THIEU/

Position Highlights:

• This position will bring impact beyond scholastic publication to the bedside in a hospital setting with real patients and real stories.
• The successful candidate will immerse in a vibrant and interactive work environment comprised of quantitative science researchers and faculty that foster innovation and professional growth.
• Moffitt integrates excellent patient care with cutting-edge clinical and basic research. Having a cancer hospital on-site provides unique opportunities for translational research.
• Outstanding mentorship from expert faculty with wide-ranging funded research programs including T32 Training Grants.
• You will be encouraged and supported to apply for training grants.

The Ideal Candidate:

• High motivation and desire to be part of multidisciplinary group, good work ethic.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (written and verbal).
• Documented experience with NLP and ML concepts, tools, and applications.
• High proficiency with the deep learning and machine learning ecosystem including Python, Pytorch, Tensorflow, Keras, etc.
• Deep knowledge of contemporary NLP architectures such as BERT, Transformers, LSTM, RNN, CRF, etc.
• Some understanding about cancer biology.          
• Experience with extraction, handling, and processing of large data sets.

Responsibilities:

• Data preparation, organization, and analysis.
• Development of new and tuning of existing NLP and ML models.
• Presentation of data and results in a clear and concise manner.
• Active participation in the group meetings and meetings with the collaborating teams.
• Ability to join team work as well as work independently.
• Supervision of undergraduate and graduate students.
• Preparation of grant applications, publications, and presentations.
• Meet project goals.

Credentials and Qualifications:

• Ph.D. (or soon to be Ph.D.) degree in Computer Science or related fields.
• Research experience in NLP and ML, preferably with application in healthcare and biomedicine.
• Should have at least one first Author publication.

You will be eligible for benefits offered to our Team Members – Moffitt Postdocs are provided free employee-only Medical and eligible for Dental, Vision, Paid Time Off, Retirement, Parental Leave, and more. With a move to Tampa, you may be eligible for relocation allowance. Reason to relocate, aside from the sunshine, beaches and year-round outdoor recreation associated with the Gulf Coast of Florida, Tampa is a thriving metropolitan city with unique cultural attractions, low cost of living and a high quality of life. We strive for work/life balance.

If you have the vision, passion, and dedication to contribute to our mission,

then we have a place for you.

Send CV and inquiry to Dr. Thieu at thanh.thieu@moffitt.org