Careers
Careers / Research Area
Cryo-EM facility manager
Deadline: 30 August 2025Ref: DA/25/21
Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste is an international multidisciplinary research center offering international users access to synchrotron and free-electron laser radiation for the characterization and processing of matter. The extremely high quality of the light sources and beamlines has set new performance records and has been producing results of great scientific and technological interest. In order to allow the laboratory to remain competitive in the next 20 years, an entirely new synchrotron radiation source - Elettra 2.0 - belonging to the new generation of storage rings (DLSR or Diffraction Limited Storage Ring) is being installed and will join the already operating free-electron facility FERMI in the second half of 2026. The new source will exhibit a major increase in the brilliance and coherence fraction of the photon beams, boosting the spatial, energy and temporal resolution of all imaging, scattering and spectroscopic techniques, opening new opportunities in many fields of science. In particular, a new μXRD macromolecolar crystallography beamline and two new High-Flux and High Brighness SAXS beamlines will be offered to the structural biology community and will be complemented by a new cryogenic electron microscopy facility (cryo-EM). See http://www.elettra.eu for more information.
The new cryo-EM facility is being established on the premises of Elettra Sincrotrone Trieste as a result of a collaboration with the Italian National Research Council (CNR) and Area Science Park. For more details see https://www.pathogen-ri.eu/. The facility includes a Glacios 2 200kV transmission electron microscope equipped with a Falcon 3EC direct electron detector for single particle, cryo-ET and MicroED, an Aquilos 2 FIB-SEM with integrated fluorescence capabilities, both by Thermo Fisher, and a Stellaris 5 cryo-confocal microscope by Leica, along with standard equipment for sample preparation. An interconnected network of on-site support laboratories for both MX and cryo-EM sample preparation, from protein expression and purification to pre-characterization and biophysical analysis, further complement and widen the offer.
The successful candidate will manage the new cryo-EM facility and coordinate the technical and human resources made available by the collaborating partner institutions. Initially, he/she will focus his/her activities on the commissioning of the facility. When the facility will be opened to internal and external users, he/she will be responsible for the operation of the facility, including sample preparation, user support (data collection and data analysis), user training, as well as experiment scheduling. For the latter, he/she will interact with the Microscopy Advisory Panel in assessing the feasibility and potential scientific impact of external research proposals. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to collaborate with internal and external users in cryo-EM-focused collaborative research projects, devote 30% of his/her time to in-house research, and will be encouraged to establish an international collaboration network to develop grant applications to contribute to the financial sustainability of the facility.
A PhD degree in Engineering, Physics, Biological Sciences, Materials Science or a related field of science is required, with specific expertise in the area of biomolecular sciences.
Experience and an appropriate publication record in the main topics and methodologies of electron microscopy in the field of structural biology, including biological sample preparation methods, cryogenic techniques micro-electron diffraction (micro-ED), cyo-electron tomography (cryo-ET), and sample preparation for cryo-EM analysis via cryo-FIB is expected, as is experience in drafting research proposals, briefing documents and reports. Knowledge of the research infrastructure ecosystem would be considere a plus.
Good oral and written communication skills in English are essential.
The successful candidate should possess strong interpersonal skills favoring collaborative research programs in a team-oriented environment. Good time management skills and ability to prioritize are expected, together with the ability to interact with the facility staff and international users at all levels, and to work as part of a multi-disciplinary team.
