TENURE-TRACK FACULTY POSITION

The Department of Pharmacology, Addiction Science, and Toxicology (PHAST) in the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) invites applications for a tenure-track faculty position available immediately to conduct research in the areas of substance use disorders, neurotoxicology, or pharmacology of neurodegenerative diseases.

With its strong nucleus of Faculty devoted to neuropharmacology research, the PHAST Department at UTHSC has continuously increased its level of extramural funding within the last decade. The Department is located in the state-of-the-art UTHSC Translational Science Research Building (http://www.uthsc.edu/pharmacology), which also houses researchers from the Departments of Physiology, and of Genetics, Genomics and Informatics. The candidates will join a very strong core of PHAST scientists devoted to investigating varied aspects of substance use disorders, neurotoxicology, and neurodegenerative disease, including: genetics and genomics bases of alcohol/nicotine/opioid use disorders; mitochondrial stress contribution to FASD; alcohol-induced disruption of fetal brain circulation and developmental consequences; neurocircuitry and neurotransmission involved in compulsive drug-seeking; neurobiological and neuropeptide transmission in the extended amygdala underlying escalated drug self-administration and its relation to stress-susceptibility; subcellular mechanisms underlying alcohol-caffeine, alcohol-lipid, and alcohol-neurosteroid cerebrovascular effects; ionic mechanisms underlying brain hypoperfusion induced by inhalants; cellular and molecular bases of neurodegenerative conditions, including AD, Parkinson’s, vascular dementias, and retinal neurodegeneration. Strong, collaborative research opportunities exist with the UTHSC Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology and the UTHSC inter-departmental Neuroscience Institute, both under new leadership, as well as the Knoxville campus of the University of Tennessee, the University of Memphis, and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.

The UTHSC College of Medicine offers a generous start up package, and the Institution includes several core facilities, such as the Lab Animal Care Unit, the Regional Biocontainment Laboratory, the Molecular Resource Center, the Flow Cytometry and Flow Sorting core, the Molecular Bioinformatics Core, the Proteomics and Metabolomics Core, the Imaging Core, which houses a super-resolution microscopy unit, the Research Histology Core, a new Structural Biology core with access to several outside core facilities and national labs, and free access to the ISAAC-NG high-performance computing clusters at the University of Tennessee. Furthermore, the PHAST Department sustains common facilities in laser confocal microscopy, laser capture microscopy, high-resolution fluorescence microscopy, and high-throughput robotic electrophysiology.

Applicants should submit a one-page cover letter, Curriculum Vitae, a summary of research interests and future plans (up to 3 pages), and names of three references as a single PDF file to the Chair of the search committee, Professor Anna N. Bukiya, Ph.D, by email to abukiya@uthsc.edu. Please include the phrase PHAST26 in the subject line and fill out the following short form https://forms.gle/G66rhGhqQWq9aGnD7.

All qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment and admissions regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, physical or mental disability, or covered veteran status. Eligibility and other terms and conditions of employment benefits at The University of Tennessee are governed by laws and regulations of the State of Tennessee, and this non-discrimination statement is intended to be consistent with those laws and regulations. In accordance with the requirements of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, The University of Tennessee affirmatively states that it does not discriminate on the basis of race, sex, or disability in its education programs and activities, and this policy extends to employment by the University. Inquiries and charges of violation of Title VI (race, color, national origin), Title IX (sex), Section 504 (disability), ADA (disability), Age Discrimination in Employment Act (age), sexual orientation, or veteran status should be directed to the Office of Access and Compliance, 910 Madison Avenue, Suite 826, Memphis, Tennessee 38163, telephone 901-448-7382 (VITTY available). Requests for accommodation of a disability should be directed to the ADA Coordinator at the Office of Access and Compliance.

Candidates will be considered at the rank of ASSISTANT PROFESSOR. All applicants should have a Ph.D. or equivalent degree, relevant postdoctoral experience, and a strong record of research productivity, optimal record of publications, and other academic accomplishments. Applicants should demonstrate their ability to secure external (extrainstitutional) funding for their research program (e.g., NIH K99/R00). Candidates employing innovative methodologies in their research program are especially encouraged to apply, e.g., microfluidics and organoids, in vivo (e.g., miniscopes) or high-resolution imaging, AFM, computational neuroscience, large-scale neuronal ensemble electrophysiological recording, novel viral and genetic strategies for targeting and manipulating cells of the nervous system.