Postdoc in Natural Language Processing

Department of Computer Science
Faculty of Science

University of Copenhagen

The Natural Language Processing Section at the Department of Computer Science invites applicants for a Postdoctoral Researcher in Natural Language Processing.

Project Description
The overall goal of the project is to develop a new family of language models that can process any written language by rendering text as images, which allows the models to learn from the visual similarities between written languages. Realizing this goal includes creating and implementing tokenization-free multilingual language models, the collection and curation of visually diverse language data, the training of small-scale and large-scale models, developing techniques for effective model quantization and compression, and creating models that jointly process natural images and rendered text using a single interface.

The position is funded by a VILLUM Young Investigator Grant held by the principal investigator, Desmond Elliott. The project team includes the principal investigator, a postdoctoral researcher, and two Ph.D students, as well as external collaborators.

Our Research
The Natural Language Processing Section provides a strong, international, and diverse environment for research within core as well as emerging topics in natural language processing, natural language understanding, computational linguistics and multimodal language processing. It is housed within the main Science Campus, which is located in central Copenhagen. Further information on the Department is available at https://di.ku.dk/english/ .

Job Description
The position is available for 18 months, with a starting position from 1 June 2023,or as soon as possible thereafter. The key tasks of a postdoctoral researcher are:

• Plan and carry out research with increasing autonomy
• Collaborate with researchers within the research group, and with external project partners
• Write scientific articles;
• Disseminate research nationally and internationally.

The University wishes our staff to reflect the diversity of society and thus welcomes applications from all qualified candidates regardless of personal background.

Formal requirements
Applicants should have or be about to receive a PhD degree in a subject relevant for the research area, and have good written and oral English skills. The assessment of your qualifications will also be made based on previous scientific publications (if any) and relevant work experience.

Inquiries about the position can be made at [email protected] .

Terms of employment
The position is covered by the Memorandum on Job Structure for Academic Staff. Terms of appointment and payment accord to the agreement between the Ministry of Finance and The Danish Confederation of Professional Associations on Academics in the State.

Negotiation for salary supplement is possible.

The application, in English, must be submitted electronically by clicking APPLY NOW below.

Please include:

• Cover Letter, detailing your motivation for applying for the position
• Curriculum vitae
• Diplomas (Master and PhD degree or equivalent)
• Research plan – description of your current and future research plans
• Complete publication list
• Separate reprints of 3 particularly relevant papers

The deadline for applications is 29 March 2023, 23:59 GMT +2.

After the expiry of the deadline for applications, the authorized recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the Interview Committee.

You can read about the recruitment process at https://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/ .

Part of the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU), and among Europe’s top-ranking universities, the University of Copenhagen promotes research and teaching of the highest international standard. Rich in tradition and modern in outlook, the University gives students and staff the opportunity to cultivate their talent in an ambitious and informal environment. An effective organisation – with good working conditions and a collaborative work culture – creates the ideal framework for a successful academic career.