TomoGrav Postdoctoral Research Associate Call I: From Black Hole Tomography to Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Heriot-Watt University - The Biomedical and Astronomical Signal Processing (BASP) Laboratory

Contract: Full-time (35 hours per week), fixed term contract for 12 months

Role description

The Biomedical and Astronomical Signal Processing (BASP) laboratory at Heriot-Watt University Edinburgh is recruiting a large multi-disciplinary team of postdoctoral researchers for the development of advanced computational imaging techniques and their cutting-edge applications in radio astronomy, space geodesy, and medical imaging. The start date is October 1, 2026, or as soon as possible thereafter.

BASP’s ethos is to develop cutting-edge research on all aspects of computational imaging, from theory and algorithms, to applications in astronomy and medicine.

Multiple positions are open in the context of the £4M research Fellowship TomoGrav awarded by the Royal Society to Dr Kazunori Akiyama (moving from MIT in March 2026 as an Associate Professor at Heriot-Watt) in partnership with Professor Yves Wiaux (head of BASP).

TomoGrav ambitions leveraging cutting-edge AI to develop a computational imaging algorithm capable of an unprecedented regime of joint precision, robustness, efficiency, and scalability for image formation. The core application is dynamic black hole tomography with radio-interferometric telescope arrays such as the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) and its proposed space-based Black Hole Explorer (BHEX) extension. The algorithm will be transferred to extreme-scale radio-interferometric imaging applications with SKA, to space-geodetic imaging for Earth reference frame determination, and fast dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in medicine.

TomoGrav is supported by 10 world-renowned partners from across the world, whose combined expertise is second to none: Prof. Markoff (University of Cambridge), Dr Younsi (University College London), Prof. De Laurentis (University of Naples Federico II), and Dr Johnson (Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian) bring unique expertise in black hole science; Prof. Pesquet (Université Paris-Saclay), Prof. Schönlieb (University of Cambridge), and Prof. Steidl (Technische Universität Berlin) are leading experts at the interface of machine learning and imaging science; Dr Breen (SKA Observatory), Dr Elosegui (MIT Haystack Observatory), and Dr van Heeswijk (Lausanne University Hospital) will support TomoGrav’s planned technology transfers to, respectively, SKA, space geodesy, and MRI. The partners will actively participate to the research and host the postdoctoral researchers for secondments.

The TomoGrav award was recently covered by global media, see e.g. the Royal Society press release, the Heriot-Watt press release, the EHT blog, and our London evening Standard Interview.

Further details and application process

For required qualifications, key responsibilities, appointment details, further information about Heriot-Watt, and “how to apply”, please see full advert on the Heriot-Watt job portal.

Heriot-Watt University is committed to securing equality of opportunity in employment and to the creation of an environment in which individuals are selected, trained, promoted, appraised and otherwise treated on the sole basis of their relevant merits and abilities. Equality and diversity are all about maximising potential and creating a culture of inclusion for all.

Heriot-Watt University values diversity across our university community and welcomes applications from all sectors of society, particularly from underrepresented groups. For more information, please see our website www.hw.ac.uk/uk/services/equality-diversity.htm and our award-winning work in Disability Inclusive Science Careers disc.hw.ac.uk.