Stochastic Biophysics Physicist (PhD)

What you'll do

This is the narrowest CritPt panel Mercor has posted: one research area, stochastic autocatalytic growth. If your papers are on exactly that, there are very few people who can do this work, and the listing reads accordingly.

The work is for CritPt, a public benchmark of research-level physics problems built to test whether frontier AI models can reason like a working physicist rather than solve textbook exercises. The benchmark paper is arXiv:2509.26574, and Mercor suggests reading it before you apply. Depending on where your publications fit, you create problems, solve them, review finished work or audit it; Mercor agrees the exact assignment once you are matched to an area. Everything you hand in has to be complete enough for another specialist to follow and verify independently, so written reasoning is part of every task.

Who qualifies

One area: stochastic autocatalytic growth, covering the chemical master equation and the stochastic Hinshelwood cycle, multi-type branching processes and circulant matrix spectra, moment hierarchies for reaction networks and generating-function methods. Mercor says the most common reason it declines strong researchers is that they know the methods but have not published on the phenomenon itself.

If you also work on long-range dispersal, heavy-tailed jump processes or front propagation in range expansions, the listing asks you to say so: a related area sits in Mercor's statistical physics panel.

A PhD in biophysics, statistical physics, applied mathematics or a closely related field is a hard requirement. Postdocs, research scientists and junior faculty are the strongest fit, and senior PhD students with a strong first-author record may apply. Mercor asks for three to five representative papers with arXiv IDs or DOIs, ideally from the last five years and first-authored, and checks every one against the public record. You work in LaTeX, Python, SymPy and Jupyter, and need English at B2 or above. Applied mathematicians are eligible.

What it pays

$80–110 per hour, Mercor's published figure and the same band across its CritPt physics panels. The listing does not state weekly hours or payment terms.

Worth knowing

Good:

• Very few people qualify, so a matching record stands out
• Applied mathematicians are eligible
• No country restriction published

Less good:

• A single research area, so most biophysicists will not match
• Every listed paper is checked
• Hours and payment schedule not on the listing

About this listing

Posted by Mercor as a remote hourly contract, confirmed open on 27 September 2026 and flagged as a new opportunity. Another CritPt panel: Condensed Matter Physicist (PhD). See Mercor.