-----Original Message-----
From: Kalfatovic, Martin [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Thursday, November 29, 2007 9:39 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [lita-l] Position Available: Scientific Informatics Project
Leader: Literature Informatics

Please excuse cross-posting:

Scientific Informatics Project Leader: Literature Informatics [EOL LI]
http://www.mbl.edu/hr/job_search.php?func=detail&par=job_id=605

Description:   
The Marine Biological Laboratory seeks highly motivated applicants for a
full-time position as a Scientific Informatics Project Leader within the
Encyclopedia of Life (EOL) project, http://www.eol.org. This person will
be responsible for the integration of digital copies of scientific
literature within EOL. The project will use name-based databases, tools,
services and web-based applications that incorporate taxonomic
principles and practices in the management of information about
organisms on the internet and aggregation technology (mashups). EOL will
actively develop Web 2.0 applications to serve the needs of the
Encyclopedia and of professional biologists. This position addresses the
informatics needs of the scanning and digitization that embraces the
Biodiversity Heritage Library (http://biodiversitylibrary.org/), a
multi-institutional initiative to digitize out of copyright biodiversity
literature. The Literature Informatics Project Leader will be
responsible for the development of the extension of existing automated
taxonomic indexing tools.

Duties:        
The successful applicant will be responsible for the continued
development of prototype taxonomic name recognition software that will
create a cumulative taxonomic index of the Biodiversity Heritage Library
and other digital documents. In anticipation of the varying quality of
the performance of Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for older
documents, the software will need improvements to accommodate "dirty"
OCR results; to recognize vernacular names to work with documents in
many languages, and to provide mechanisms of feedback and correction of
erroneous OCR results. Algorithms using third party or in-house
statistical solutions, latent indexing, and other devices that exploit
context to improve the proportion of names that are found and minimize
the number of incorrect identities may need to be developed. The
successful applicant may be required to take on additional duties. The
successful applicant will take leadership of this element of the
Encyclopedia of Life informatics infrastructure, and will report to the
EOL Biodiversity Informatics PI. S/he may be responsible for the
assignment of tasks and the management of developers. The person will be
imaginative, able to work within teams, flexible to accommodate changing
priorities, show leadership and have good verbal, written and
interpersonal skills. He/she will openly share knowledge with the team
and collaborators, will participate actively in on-line discussions and
team meetings, and will represent this aspect of EOL at national and
international meetings.

Conditions:    
The position is full-time, and available immediately. Funding is
available for two years with continuation conditional upon satisfactory
performance and project needs.

Education:     
The successful candidate will have a PhD, or a Masters degree with
appropriate relevant coursework or at least three years of experience in
web-based biodiversity informatics. Appropriate computing skills for
applicants include, but may not be limited to, expertise with popular
database systems (e.g. mySQL, Oracle), web-based programming languages
(e.g. PHP, Ruby, AJAX), structured schema development in XML and
including RDF, in addition to experience with standard programming
languages (C/C++ and Java). Familiarity with ontology development and
digital literature projects will be an advantage.

Instructions:  
The position is based in the Biodiversity Informatics Group at the
Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, Massachusetts, USA. Applicants
should submit a cover letter, curriculum vitae, and a list of three
references, including telephone number and email address to: Marine
Biological Laboratory, Human Resources, reference code [EOL LI], 7 MBL
Street, Woods Hole, MA 02543 or [log in to unmask] The MBL is an Equal
Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer

Deadline:      
Initial review of applications will begin immediately and will continue
until appropriate candidates are identified.

David J Patterson
Encyclopedia of Life
Marine Biological Laboratory
Woods Hole
Massachusetts 02543
USA