The University of Oulu is an international scientific community, with approximately 15 000 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 Faculties of Science and Medicine at the University of Oulu are announcing a joined postdoctoral position, which will be shared between the Research Unit of Mathematical Sciences (http://www.oulu.fi/mathematics/) and the Center for Life Course Health Research (https://www.oulu.fi/medicine/elite) both having internationally strong position at the forefront of research in their focus areas.

This position will strengthen cross-disciplinary research on statistical genetics and clinical studies on longitudinal cohorts at the University of Oulu, and will be co-funded by two competitive funding bodies:

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.

The H2020-EarlyCause project – A research and innovation project funded by the European commission to analyse the causative factors pertaining the early origins of co-morbidities between mental (e.g. depression, anxiety, schizophrenia) and cardio-metabolic (e.g. type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, obesity) diseases.

The postdoctoral position is for 3 years and is aimed to start on August 2020 or as soon as possible thereafter.

Description of the position

The research project “Identification of the genetic predispositions of physical and mental (longitudinal) co-morbidities” aims to combine methods of quantitative genetics and life-course epidemiology to elucidate the genetic basis of co-morbid patterns observed between mental and cardiometabolic diseases in human.

The successful candidate will join a multidisciplinary and multicultural team working on the genetics and environmental determinants of life-long health and supervised by a collaborative research group: Sylvain Sebert (lifecourse epidemiology), Jouko Miettunen (clinical epidemiology), Katri Pylkäs (cancer genetics), Minna Ruddock (genetic epidemiology/molecular genetics) and Mikko Sillanpää (quantitative genetics).

Requirements

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

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

The candidate is expected to have computational orientation and knowledge in at least one of the related fields of the project. This includes quantitative genetics methods, GWAS, Bayesian statistics, longitudinal analysis, linear mixed models. Knowledge in human epidemiology, is considered as an asset. The Candidate will work in an international team. We therefore request excellent communication skills in English (oral and written).

Special emphasis will be given to research expertise within the subject field, demonstrated by an international publications 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.

How to apply

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 the peer reviewed publications are clearly indicated.

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).

Applications, together with all relevant enclosures, should be submitted using the electronic application form by 7^th of June 2020.

Contacts

Professors Mikko Sillanpää, mikko.sillanpaa (at) oulu.fi, tel. 00358 (0)406 734 474 and Sylvain Sebert (at) oulu.fi, tel. 00358 (0)503 440 842

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.