"Postdoctoral Research Associate"

Posted: 14-Jan-26

Location: Omaha, Nebraska

Categories: Academic/Faculty, Medical - Research

Internal Number: 95260

Requisition Number: 2025 - 414

Business Unit: College of Medicine

Department: Radiation Oncology 50000653

Reg-Temp: Full-Time Regular

Position Summary:

Postdoctoral Research Associate – Computational Medical Physics / Adaptive Radiotherapy

The Department of Radiation Oncology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) is seeking applications for a Postdoctoral Research Associate position. The research group at UNMC focuses on developing advanced computational and AI-enabled tools for radiation biology and medical physics, with strong emphasis on clinical translation in radiotherapy.

The successful candidate will contribute to an institutionally supported project aimed at developing a dynamic, real-time treatment planning system for ultrasound-guided high-dose-rate (HDR) prostate brachytherapy. This project seeks to overcome key workflow and precision limitations in HDR brachytherapy by enabling real-time adaptive optimization during needle insertion, integrating live ultrasound imaging with GPU-accelerated dose calculation and optimization.

The Postdoctoral Research Associate will join a multidisciplinary team of medical physicists, engineers, and clinicians, and will have unique opportunities to develop and translate advanced computational tools that directly impact patient care in a clinical environment.

Responsibilities:

• Develop GPU-accelerated dose calculation and optimization algorithms for adaptive HDR brachytherapy.
• Integrate real-time adaptive planning capabilities into an in-house treatment planning system.
• Implement and evaluate image-guided adaptive workflows using live ultrasound data.
• Validate system performance using prostate and pelvic phantoms as well as retrospective clinical datasets.
• Collaborate closely with clinical medical physicists and radiation oncologists to support translational research.
• Write, debug, and maintain high-quality research code.
• Present research findings at scientific conferences and publish results in peer-reviewed journals.

Specific questions can be directed to:

Ruirui Liu, PhD
Assistant Professor, Radiation Oncology
ruliu@unmc.edu

Interested candidates may apply with cover letter describing research interests, a current curriculum vitae, and contact information for three references – https://unmc.peopleadmin.com/postings/95260.

Required Qualifications:

• Ph.D. or equivalent degree in Medical Physics, Physics, Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, or a related quantitative discipline.
• Strong programming skills in C++, Python, MATLAB, or similar languages; experience with GPU programming (e.g., CUDA) is highly desirable.
• Background in optimization, image-guided radiotherapy, medical imaging, or computational modeling.
• Experience with treatment planning systems, ultrasound imaging, or brachytherapy is preferred but not required.
• Demonstrated research productivity, including at least one first-author peer-reviewed publication.
• Strong written and oral communication skills.
• Highly motivated, independent, and able to work effectively in interdisciplinary research environments.

Supplemental Qualifications:

NA

Salary Range: Salary Commensurate with Experience