ALBA Synchrotron Radiation Facility
Barcelona, Spain
Description
ALBA is the Spanish Synchrotron Radiation Facility operated by the Consortium CELLS, which is equally funded by the Spanish Government (Ministerio de Economía y Competividad) and the Catalan Government (Generalitat de Catalunya, Departament d'Economia i Coneixement). ALBA consists of a complex of electron accelerators whose objective are to generate extremely brilliant synchrotron light beams with photon energies spanning from the infrared to the hard X-ray region. ALBA 3rd generation synchrotron has a circulating electron beam with an energy of 3 GeV since 2011. Out of the seven operating beamlines, BL13-XALOC is the only Macromolecular X-ray Crystallography (MX) beamline. It is equipped with an in-vacuum undulator, high-stability optical elements and a state-of-the-art end-station instrumentation including high accuracy diffractometer with a removable mini-kappa mount, automated mounting robot and a photon-counting 6-Mpixel detector with excellent dynamic range and a negligible dark current noise. The beamline started user operation in 2012. MX beamlines require a multi-layer control system to provide an efficient, flexible and user-friendly operation so that data collection can be optimized. The control system of ALBA, and in particular that of the XALOC beamline, is based on Sardana, a new powerful python-based environment which includes: (a) a comprehensive access to the hardware through TANGO (a CORBA-based control system framework), (b) macro definition and execution system, (c) a command line interface based on an ipython console, (d) and a graphical library (Taurus) based on Qt4 to create customGraphical User Interfaces. This framework is currently being used to perform high-quality X-ray crystallography data collections from macromolecular crystals. The successful candidate will:
- Specify, integrate and test functionalities for the XALOC control system oriented to improve the capabilities of the beamline, including the developent of new procedures such as new macros on beam alignment and focusing, or data acquisition strategies for MX experiments.
- Develop and integrate new Graphical User Interfaces to be used by beamline users using standard software tools provided by Computing Division.
- Provide Local Contact support in Macromolecular X-ray crystallography experiments to scientific groups using XALOC.
- Possibility to participate in macromolecular crystallography projects.
The candidate will be an integrating part of the XALOC beamline staff in the Experiments Division. However, to perform the tasks he/she will be in very close contact with Computing Division, especially with the Controls Engineer from this division assigned to the beamline.
Requirements
- Physicist, Biochemist, Structural Biologist or equivalent with strong basis in computing; or
Software Engineer, Telecommunications Engineer or equivalent.
- Experience in scientific instrumentation
- Knowledge of Python applied to scientific applications.
- Participation in Structural Biology projects for scientific profiles
- PhD is an important asset for scientific profiles
- Knowledge of linux, Qt, MatLab, Scipy, SciLab, C++, etc will also be an asset.
- The working language at ALBA is English. A good level of English both written and spoken is required.
- Good interpersonal skills and capabilities to work in a group, as well as to work independently for some periods of time.
More information and applications
Period: Fixed contract for three years.
Salary: Yearly gross salary in the range 28,000 to 35,000 Euros, according to qualification and experience. The contract includes a test period of 6 months.
Please apply online at: http://www.cells.es/Jobs/JobOffers/ViewJob?job_id=134
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