Simons Empire Faculty Fellowship

Position Summary

The Simons Foundation (SF) and the Simons Foundation International (SFI) have created the Simons Empire Faculty Fellowship program to stimulate faculty hiring across the state of New York.

With support from the , the at the University at Buffalo (UB) is recruiting for a strategically aligned faculty cluster to accelerate human-centered neuroscience, translational discovery, and neurotechnology innovation. These hires directly respond to emerging NIH priorities, SUNY’s strategic emphasis on translational and AI-integrated research, and UB’s institutional strengths in foundational neuroscience, engineering, and drug development. Anchored in the basic and clinical neurosciences, these positions will insert expertise into high-value translational nodes, bridging laboratory discovery with clinical relevance, and catalyze integrative collaboration across departments, cores, and academic units, including the School of Pharmacy, the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Data Science.

The Jacobs School is recruiting for two tenure-track faculty positions:

Assistant Professor – AI-Guided Organoid-Based Neuroscience
The Jacobs School seeks a tenure-track Assistant Professor with expertise in organoid neuroscience and high-content phenotyping. The successful candidate will establish a research program focused on human iPSC-derived cerebral organoids or assembloids to model brain development, neural circuit formation, or disease pathophysiology. A major emphasis will be on the development of scalable imaging pipelines that leverage artificial intelligence to extract structural and functional data from live and fixed organoid systems. The faculty member will collaborate with the Cell Phenotyping Core to implement shared workflows and imaging services and will participate in shaping institutional infrastructure for human model systems. As UB builds its capacity to link biospecimens to clinical data, this hire will be positioned to engage with patient-derived lines and phenotype-linked experimental modeling. Additional responsibilities include mentoring graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, teaching one course per year, and participating in collaborative neuroscience and translational science initiatives across UB and the SUNY Brain Network. A formal mentoring committee and mid-career review in Year 3 will support the candidate’s progress toward tenure.

Assistant Professor – Neuroengineer (Lab-on-a-Chip Platforms for Brain Discovery)
The Jacobs School seeks a tenure-track Assistant Professor with expertise in neuroengineering and the development of experimental platforms to model human neural systems. The successful candidate will design and apply microphysiological systems, such as lab-on-a-chip or biosensor-integrated constructs, to study neural network dynamics, disease mechanisms, or drug response using in vitro or ex vivo systems. The candidate will collaborate with neuroscientists, stem cell researchers, and pharmacologists to integrate their devices into biological discovery workflows. Their research program will contribute to the development of closed-loop experimental systems that enable high-resolution control and monitoring of neural function. In addition to research responsibilities, the faculty member will support the advancement of UB’s core facilities by co-developing shared device platforms and contributing to core training and instrumentation strategies. They will mentor graduate students and postdoctoral fellows and teach one course per year aligned with their area of expertise. The faculty member will receive mentorship from an interdisciplinary team across neuroscience and engineering and will undergo a formal mid-career review in Year 3 to ensure progress toward tenure.

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University at Buffalo is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer and, in keeping with our commitment, welcomes all to apply including veterans and individuals with disabilities. Minimum Qualifications PhD or equivalent degree. Preferred Qualifications Physical Demands Salary Range Competitive Additional Salary Information Job Type Full-Time Campus As Assigned Posting Alerts Special Instructions Summary Additional Information Is a background check required for this posting? No Background Check Notification