Postbac Fellowship: Biomolecular Structure Prediction and Design

The Rosetta Commons Research and Mentoring for Postbaccalureates (RaMP) is a one-year fellowship program intended for students from groups underrepresented in STEM, first generation college students, and students at under-resourced institutions to gain research experience to succeed in PhD programs.

Trainees in this geographically-distributed RaMP program participate in research using the Rosetta Commons software. The Rosetta Commons software library includes physics-based and deep learning algorithms for bio-molecular modeling and design. It has enabled notable scientific advances in computational biology, including de novo protein design, enzyme design, ligand docking, and structure prediction of biological macromolecules and macromolecular complexes.

The RaMP Provides:

• Rosetta Code School: where trainees will learn the inner details of the Rosetta Python code and community coding environment, so you are fully prepared to research using the software.
• Research experience: Trainees conduct hypothesis-driven research in their mentor’s lab, with day-to-day guidance by an experienced PhD student or postdoc. Scholars participate fully in weekly lab meetings, attend weekly research seminars in their department, attend a vibrant PhD program retreat and a national conference of their choice.
• Participation: in the Winter Rosetta Conference, where you will connect with Rosetta developers from around the world.
• Compensation: Salary, health benefits, and funding for conference travel are included.
• Preparation: for graduate school applications and interviews.
• Community: Trainees come together each month for ‘Journal Club’ events to present and discuss their research with peers and faculty mentors. These meetings include professional development mini-lessons on topics like the NSF-GRFP, graduate school applications, research posters, and more.
• Project meetings: Trainees gain confidence by organizing, preparing for, and convening monthly project meetings with the program's PI, Dr. Jeff Gray and Co-PI Dr. Matthew O'Meara.
• Specialized mentoring: Mentors will participate in a four-part Culturally Responsive Mentoring Workshop series.
   

ELIGIBILITY:

• Individuals from groups underrepresented in STEM, first generation college students, and students at under-resourced institutions.
• U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals, or permanent residents of the United States are eligible. 
• Participants must have a baccalaureate college degree before participating in the program (applicants must apply to the program before or within four years of graduation, with extensions allowed for family, medical leave, or military service). Individuals currently enrolled or accepted into a graduate program are not eligible.
• Undergraduate major in computer science, engineering, mathematics, chemistry, biology, and/or biophysics.
• While not required, we seek candidates with some combination of experiences in scientific or academic research, C++/Python/*nix/databases, software engineering, object-oriented programming, and/or collaborative development.