Assistant Professor of Complexity Science for Societal Good

2022-01-27
Professorship

We invite applications from qualified candidates for this tenure-track, full-time position until March 31, 2022. Estimated starting date September 1, 2022.

Assistant Professor of Complexity Science for Societal Good

About the Position

The Scope

While companies are often good at using customer data to increase their commercial success, governments and public administrations hardly ever use the data that they collect to its full potential for providing benefits to society. This full potential arises through understanding data not in isolation but taking the complexity of interdependencies and interconnections into account. Such benefits could include using insights obtained from the data to improve public services, or to better understand the impacts on society of changes in legislation or of external factors such as natural disasters. There is a large potential in using open data for this purpose, but the use of non-public data generally opens up more possibilities – commercial data is now also starting to be used for societal insights. As the data is often analysed for purposes for which it was not originally collected, it is necessary to compensate for potential biases in the results. The candidate will work at the interface of data science and complexity science together with governments and public administrations, and should therefore also pay attention to presenting results in a suitable way for use by decision makers. The Digital Humanism Initiative on ensuring that technology development remains centred on human interests should play a central role in this work (https://dighum.ec.tuwien.ac.at/).

Candidates should have a background and experience in building data science system prototypes that target a well-defined application area and analyse real-world data. The following non-exhaustive list highlights some potential research topics of a successful candidate:

Data models for big data management
Workflows for big data analysis
Methods of Artificial Intelligence
Network science
Social network analysis
Big data analytics
Data mining
Statistical models
Statistical data analysis
Data fusion
Experiment design and evaluation
Visualization
Privacy-aware analytics

Furthermore, a successful candidate should have an interest in:

Human-in-the-loop
Explainability and interpretability
Algorithm and data biases

The candidate should have experience in working with industry or public administrations, relevant postdoctoral experience, and a compelling research vision. We are particularly interested in candidates working in areas that will complement our existing expertise and lead to fruitful collaborations with other members of TU Wien Informatics, TU Wien in general, and the Complexity Science Hub Vienna.

Besides research, the duties of an Assistant Professor at TU Wien include graduate and undergraduate teaching (in English and German) as well as contributing to usual management and faculty service tasks.

Requirements

Your Profile

Essential

PhD or doctoral degree in Computer Science, Statistics, Applied Mathematics, or related subjects
Post-doctoral experience at a university or research institution
Outstanding research and publication record
Experience in inter-disciplinary research
Excellence in written and spoken English
Excellence in written and spoken German or willingness to quickly acquire German language skills
Excellent reputation as an active member of the international scientific community
Experience in raising research funds and managing scientific research projects
Experience in university teaching
Pedagogic and didactic skills
Administrative and organizational skills
Gender sensitivity and social skills

Desirable

Leadership skills

Salary and Benefits

Our Offer

The employment starts as University Assistant with a minimum salary of EUR 4,061.50 gross (14 x per year) according to the collective bargaining agreement for a PostDoc. After signing the qualification agreement, the employment continues as Assistant Professor with a minimum salary of EUR 4,782.30 gross (14 x per year).

Excellent working conditions in an attractive research environment
An attractive salary, including additional contributions to a pension fund
Support for relocating to Vienna (if required)
A position in a city with an exceptional quality of life
Central location of workplace with very good accessibility (U1/U2/U4 Karlsplatz)
Additional benefits for employees can be found in TU Wien’s Fringe-Benefit Catalogue

Application

How to apply

Submit your application online at TU Wien’s job platform, including the following information:

A detailed curriculum vitae
A letter of motivation
Certificates of doctoral and diploma degrees
A teaching statement: 2 pages maximum
A research statement: brief summary of past research activities, as well as a convincing outline of planned research activities, and an explanation of their contribution to the scientific profile of the Faculty of Informatics; 4-6 pages maximum; incl. abstract
A list of publications and copies of the applicant’s three most important publications related to the position together with an explanation of their relevance

TU Wien is committed to increasing the proportion of women in particular in leadership positions. Female applicants are explicitly encouraged to apply. Preference will be given to women when equally qualified, unless reasons specific to a male applicant tilt the balance in his favour. People with special needs are equally encouraged to apply. In case of any questions, please contact the confidant for disabled persons at the university, Gerhard Neustätter.

Contact

Further Information

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