Postdoctoral Researcher position in Data Science: Multi-task learning in bioinformatics

The University of Oulu is an international scientific community, with approximately 16 000 students and 3 000 employees. The strengths of the University are wide multidisciplinary study and research interests, modern research and study environment and extensive cooperation with international educational and research institutes.

The Faculty of Science at the University of Oulu is announcing an open

Postdoctoral researcher position,

which will be located at the Research Unit of Mathematical Sciences (http://www.oulu.fi/mathematics/ ) which has an internationally strong position at the forefront of research in its focus areas. The Research Unit is a partner in one Finnish Centre of Excellence in Inverse Modelling and Imaging (https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/centre-of-excellence-of-inverse-modelling-and-imaging ).

This position is aimed at strengthening the participating research units as well as the HiDyn program funded by the Academy of Finland PROFI5. Data Insight for High-Dimensional Dynamics (HiDyn) is a program devoted to multidisciplinary data science and artificial intelligence. It will offer mathematical and methodological expertise to understand high-dimensional dynamic systems.

Description of the position

The research project “Multi-task learning for high-dimensional prediction” aims to combine expertise in bioinformatics methodology with statistics and machine learning. Multi-task learning is a versatile and very flexible framework for prediction of large multivariate input and output data. The research will concentrate on developing and applying new methodologies of data science and artificial intelligence to tackle research problems related to bio marker analysis and prediction. New approaches for data fusion will also be considered.

The new Postdoc researcher is expected to write and publish scientific articles in international peer-reviewed journals documenting the achievements of the work. Some participation in teaching is required.

The work will be supervised by the collaborative research group (Mikko Sillanpää and Patrik Waldmann).

Requirements

A doctoral degree (or equivalent) in Computational or Applied Mathematics, Statistics, Data Science, or a related field is required. Some post-doctoral experience is of advantage, but the applicant should have attained a doctoral degree no more than 10 years before the end of the application period.

The candidate is expected to have a computational orientation and excellent knowledge of data science. This includes machine learning, mathematical optimization, data mining and Bayesian statistics. Experience from work with large bioinformatic data sets is considered as an advantage, but is not neccessary.

Special emphasis will be given to research expertise within the subject field, demonstrated by an international publication record. Work abroad and other international experience will be regarded as an asset.

Salary

The salary of a Postdoc will be based on levels 5 – 6, of the requirement level chart for teaching and research personnel in the salary system of Finnish universities. In addition to the basic salary, the appointee will be paid a salary component based on personal work performance with a maximum of 50% of the basic salary. The full salary is approximately 3,400 – 4,300 euros per month. The postdoctoral position is for 24 months and is aimed to start in summer 2022 or as soon as possible thereafter. The trial period of 6 months is applied to the position.

How to apply

Applications, together with all relevant enclosures, should be submitted using the electronic application form by 25th of May 2022 at 23:59 (Finnish local time). Applications must be accompanied by the following English-language documents:

1) Brief curriculum vitae (Max. size limit of the attachment: 5 Mbytes and 4 pages)

2) List of publications where it is clearly indicated which publications are peer reviewed

3) Brief motivation letter summarizing applicant’s professional experience and expertise and describing why applicant is interested in about this position. Also, information on personal research interests and career plans are valuable to provide here (max 2 pages).

4) Full name and e-mail addresses for at least two persons who are willing to give reference letters (if separately asked).

Contact

Associate Professor Patrik Waldmann, Patrik.Waldmann(at) oulu.fi

About the City of Oulu

The City of Oulu is Northern Finland’s largest and oldest city, with a population of over 200,000. Located in the Gulf of Bothnia in the Oulu River delta, the city has good access from anywhere. Oulu is a very safe and family friendly community with one of the highest qualities of life in all of Nordic countries. As the world’s northernmost  tech hub, Oulu has a highly educated and innovative workforce and the University has a strong role in the community.