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PhD Positions in Machine Learning and AI for Biology — Kobak Lab at VIB
Multiple fully-funded PhD positions in self-supervised learning and ML for biology. Deadline June 7, 2026.
Week of May 19–25: 5 Labs Recruiting PhD and Postdoc Candidates
Five labs that published at NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, and ACL have active openings this week — CUHK Multimedia Lab (embodied AI), SEAL at CU Boulder (multilingual NLP), NDS Lab at Vanderbilt (graph ML), Kobak Lab at VIB.AI Ghent (ML for biology, deadline June 7), and MAGIC Lab at NUS Singapore (robotics). Includes research focus, stipend info, and lab culture notes for each.
Week of May 19–25, 2026: 5 Labs Recruiting PhD and Postdoc Candidates
Five labs that published at NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, and ACL have active openings this week — spanning embodied AI in Hong Kong, multilingual NLP in Colorado, graph learning at Vanderbilt, ML for biology in Belgium, and robotics at NUS Singapore. Deadlines range from open-ended to June 7.
The openings
Hongsheng Li Lab — CUHK Multimedia Lab
Research focus: Embodied AI, robotic manipulation, and multimodal large language models.
Prof. Hongsheng Li at the Chinese University of Hong Kong is recruiting PhD students for the 2027 intake across three directions: embodied AI, robotic manipulation, and multimodal models. Li was promoted to Full Professor in May 2026 1 and his lab published 27 papers at ICML, CVPR, ICLR, and AAAI 2026 combined, plus 13 at NeurIPS 2025.
The lab sits inside CUHK's Multimedia Laboratory — one of the most active computer vision groups in Asia. Research this cycle covers physics-aware image editing, video tokenization, diffusion models with reinforcement learning, and autonomous driving perception.
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Position type | PhD student |
| Intake | 2027 |
| Research areas | Embodied AI, robotic manipulation, multimodal models |
| Stipend | Not disclosed |
| Location | Hong Kong SAR, China |
| Apply | hsli@ee.cuhk.edu.hk |
| Application deadline | Not specified — contact directly |
Lab culture note: The group publishes at high volume across CVPR/ICML/ICLR/NeurIPS simultaneously. Expect a large, fast-paced group; Li's citation count and awards list (World's Top 2% Scientists 2022–2025, CUHK Research Excellence 2025) signal a competitive environment with strong publication support.
SEAL — Secure and Ethical AI Lab, CU Boulder
Research focus: Multilingual NLP, low-resource AI, AI safety and robustness.
Jason S. Lucas is joining the University of Colorado Boulder's Department of Information Science as a tenure-track assistant professor in August 2026 and is recruiting PhD students for Fall 2026 and Spring 2027 2. Lucas completed his PhD at Penn State (PIKE Research Lab, advised by Dongwon Lee) and has published at ACL, EMNLP, NAACL, ICML, and KDD.
SEAL's four directions are: multilingual NLP and low-resource AI (with particular depth in Caribbean and African diaspora language varieties), trustworthy AI and information integrity, ethical and human-centered AI, and AI safety and robustness. Lucas's dissertation work spans 70+ languages.
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Position type | PhD student, postdoc, undergraduate researcher |
| Intake | Fall 2026 / Spring 2027 |
| Research areas | Multilingual NLP, low-resource AI, AI safety, information integrity |
| Stipend | Not disclosed |
| Location | Boulder, CO, USA |
| Apply | Via jasonslucas.com — contact directly |
| Application deadline | Not specified — rolling |
Lab culture note: This is a brand-new lab, which means early students will help set its research agenda. Lucas mentions mentoring 5+ interns and teaching applied generative AI, and emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration. The lab is housed in a media and communication school, not a CS department — the cross-disciplinary angle is intentional.
NDS Lab — Network and Data Science Lab, Vanderbilt University
Research focus: Graph machine learning, LLMs and AI agents, data-centric AI, trustworthy AI.
Tyler Derr (Assistant Professor of CS at Vanderbilt, EECS Department) is recruiting PhD students with interests in data mining, graph neural networks, social network analysis, LLMs, retrieval-augmented generation, and AI for social good 3. Derr has published at top venues including KDD, WSDM, NeurIPS, AAAI, and WWW, and his Google Scholar profile lists ~3,300+ citations.
Application areas include computational drug discovery, computational social science, education research, and autism research. The lab is affiliated with both the Vanderbilt Data Science Institute and the Frist Center for Autism and Innovation.
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Position type | PhD student, possible postdoc, master's/UG within VU, visiting scholars |
| Intake | Open |
| Research areas | Graph ML, LLMs, RAG, AI agents, data-centric AI, responsible AI |
| Stipend | Standard Vanderbilt PhD funding |
| Location | Nashville, TN, USA |
| Apply | tyler.derr@vanderbilt.edu — subject: "NDS Lab Open Position {YourName}" |
| Application deadline | Open — contact directly |
Lab culture note: The openings page explicitly encourages applicants from underrepresented groups, including those who identify as neurodivergent. Derr links to the SRG "Advice for Prospective Research Students" guide — reading it before emailing is recommended.
Kobak Lab — VIB Center for AI & Computational Biology (VIB.AI), Ghent University
Research focus: Self-supervised learning, dimensionality reduction, ML for biology (genomics, single-cell RNA-seq).
Dmitry Kobak joined VIB.AI and Ghent University's Department of Mathematics, Computer Science, and Statistics in April 2026 as a group leader 4. His previous work at Tübingen (7,000+ citations on Google Scholar) covers t-SNE/UMAP-style visualization, contrastive learning, and single-cell genomics.
Multiple funded PhD positions and one postdoc are open now, with a June 7, 2026 application deadline. The lab is housed at a new center, giving early joiners direct input into building lab infrastructure. VIB.AI provides rotation opportunities across other VIB labs and a dedicated PhD training program.
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Position type | Multiple PhD positions; one postdoc position |
| Intake | ASAP |
| Research areas | Self-supervised/unsupervised learning, low-dimensional embeddings, ML for genomics, AI for biology |
| Stipend | Fully funded PhD scholarships + support for national fellowship applications (FWO) |
| Location | Ghent, Belgium |
| Apply | jobs.vib.be/apply/134355 |
| Application deadline | June 7, 2026 |
Lab culture note: Kobak is explicit that he will reject LLM-generated motivation letters — the posting asks candidates to attach a GitHub repo instead. The lab promises a hands-on role in building a new research group and GPU infrastructure from scratch. Non-traditional backgrounds are welcome.
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MAGIC Lab — NUS School of Computing, Singapore
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Research focus: Embodied AI, robotics, multimodal LLM reasoning, 3D vision, dexterous manipulation.
Jiafei Duan is joining NUS School of Computing as an incoming Presidential Young Professor (starting 2026) and has opened the MAGIC Lab (Manipulation and General Intelligence Control) 5. Representative recent work includes SAM2Act (ICML 2025) for robotic manipulation and Selective Visual Representations (ICLR 2024 Spotlight).
Positions are open for PhD students, postdocs, research assistants, and master's/undergrad students. Fully funded slots for PhD, postdoc, and RA. The NUS CS PhD program provides full scholarship covering tuition and living stipend.
| Field | Detail |
|---|---|
| Position type | PhD student, postdoc, RA, master's/UG |
| Intake | 2026 (rolling) |
| Research areas | Embodied AI, robotic learning, MLLM reasoning, 3D vision, dexterous manipulation |
| Stipend | Full scholarship (PhD/Postdoc/RA) |
| Location | Singapore |
| Apply | Via MAGIC Lab website interest form |
| Application deadline | Open — rolling |
Lab culture note: The lab is brand new; the founding team comes from Stanford, UW, Penn, and CMU. Duan's public framing emphasizes bridging academic research and real-world robot deployment, and the lab has industry ties through Singapore's AI Singapore initiative and the NUS Advanced Robotics Centre (ARC).
Quick decision guide
Before reaching out, match your current profile to each lab's likely fit:
- Strong NLP/multilingual background, US-based applicants: SEAL at CU Boulder is an exceptionally good match for students who work across languages or at the AI safety/NLP intersection. The new-lab structure means more direct access to the PI.
- Graph ML, social computing, or AI for social good: NDS Lab at Vanderbilt. Derr's lab is mid-stage (not brand new), so there is existing group infrastructure while positions remain open.
- Robotics and embodied AI, Asia-Pacific: Both CUHK's Li Lab (2027 intake, high volume) and NUS MAGIC Lab (rolling, brand new) are active this week. Li Lab has a longer track record; MAGIC Lab offers more founding-member access.
- ML methods with biological application: Kobak Lab in Ghent is the only opening with a hard deadline this week (June 7). Strong CS/ML background is required; biology background is a bonus, not required.
- Embodied AI with broad multimodal scope: CUHK covers the widest range of topics across the five entries — 27+ top-venue papers in 2026 alone signals a very large group with diverse subproject options.
This digest covers openings publicly posted between May 19–25, 2026. Positions listed as open-ended may close without notice; verify directly with the lab before applying.
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