THE OPENING: a NIH-funded opening is available for a research staff member to join our pulmonary physiology research group. THE PROBLEM: In the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS), edema reduces pulmonary gas exchange. Mechanical ventilation assists gas exchange but causes ventilation induced lung injury (VILI) and impedes recovery. OUR APPROACH AND FINDINGS: A unique method of determining surface tension in edematous alveoli of isolated rat lungs led us to (i) find that VILI is attributable to heterogeneous lung mechanics, and proportional to surface tension, and (ii) discover that a fluorescent dye has the ability to lower surface tension, improve oxygenation and reduce VILI. THE POSITION: The position will comprise performing experiments and analyzing data