Postdoctoral Position in Department of Public Health

The Department of Public Health at Aarhus University in Aarhus, Denmark, invites qualified individuals to apply for a Postdoctoral Associate position in the field of Epidemiology expected to start on 1 November 2024 or soon thereafter. The position is a fixed-term 24-month full-time position.

The Postdoctoral Associate position will be appointed in the Department of Public Health, an internationally recognized academic institution to promote public health through research to prevent, treat, and alleviate disease. The Department of Public Health is involved in broad collaborations with internal departments, labs, and research units, as well as with external institutions. Aarhus University shares collective knowledge with the community and its citizens, decision-makers, partners in business and industry, practitioners, and researchers in local municipalities, and other regions nationally and internationally. The Department of Public Health either contributes to or is responsible for teaching medicine, public health science, sport science, optometry, and nursing. In the Department of Public Health, there are approximately 200 colleagues, including ninety academic staff members and a number of PhD students. Members of the department work closely with each other focusing on interdisciplinary scientific fields of study. The Department emphasizes and prioritizes a healthy work environment for all. Additional information about the department and its faculty are available online at: Department of Public Health and Faculty of Health.

About the research project

This research project is a collaboration between Professor Cecilia Ramlau-Hansen at Aarhus University, Associate Professor Zeyan Liew at Yale University, and Professor Onyebuchi Arah at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) with funding from the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH). Professor Ramlau-Hansen is the PI of the Danish National Birth Cohort, Associate Professor Liew is the overall PI of this NIH-funded project, and Professor Arah is the c0-director of the Practical Causal Inference lab at UCLA.  The postdoctoral scholar appointed in this project will be working with a renowned international research team, and to develop projects investigating medication effects during pregnancy, including polypharmacy exposures, on child neurological development. The project will utilize the Danish National Birth Cohort and its linkages with several population-based registry data in Denmark. The position requires research stays at Associate Professor Zeyan Liew’s research lab at Yale University, Center for Perinatal, Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology (CPPEE). The arrangement of the research stays is flexible.

Responsibilities

The Postdoctoral Associate position will be primarily focused on research, including contributing to the development of the department through high-quality international research. Teaching is encouraged and as needed by the department and the university. The Postdoctoral Associate position is expected to contribute to research tasks on this and other related research projects, under the supervision and guidance of the Principal Investigators, or Co-Investigators responsible for managing the progress of the research conducted.

The main tasks for this position will consist of:

• Conducting independent research of high quality using various large-scale datasets.
• Obtain study permissions regulated by local laws in Denmark and oversee the database linkage and management.  
• Performing sophisticated statistical analyses using advanced epidemiological and causal inference methods.
• Writing of scientific manuscripts for publications to disseminate research findings in peer-reviewed journals.
• Contributing to international collaborations, attending scientific meetings, or conferences, and departmental seminars or presentations.
• Meeting regularly with Principal Investigators or Co-Investigators for scientific updates and progress toward the study’s aims.
• Assisting with the writing of scientific progress reports annually to provide to international collaborators.

The Postdoctoral associate will report to the Principal Investigators of the study and the Head of the Department of Public Health.

Qualifications

Candidates should possess a PhD, preferably in the following areas: public health, medicine, epidemiology or biostatistics. 
 
The person in the Postdoctoral Associate position is expected to have rigorous training and a strong background in perinatal, environmental, or pharmaco-epidemiology or biostatistics. Having an experience in maternal and child health research is preferred but not required.

The position will require extensive experience with programming languages and various statistical software packages for voluminous data analyses, such as SAS and R.

The Postdoctoral Associate position will require excellent interpersonal skills, a willingness to work in an inclusive team-oriented environment, and the ability to meaningfully contribute to rigorous scientific inquiries.  

The position will require a high level of competency in English, written and oral, for writing daily email communications, manuscript preparations, speaking at presentations and seminars, and participating in group meetings.

To be considered for the Postdoctoral Associate position, these academic criteria, must be met.

Shortlisting will be used.

Questions about the position

Any questions about the position may be directed to Professor Cecilia Høst Ramlau-Hansen tel.: (+45) 26295715.

The place of work for the Postdoctoral Associate will be in the Department of Public Health, Bartholins Allé 2, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.

Interviews for the position are expected to start on September 15, 2024 or soon after on an ongoing basis.
 

Terms of employment

• Appointment as a postdoc requires academic qualifications at PhD level.
• Further information on the appointment procedure can be found in the Ministerial Order on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities.
• The appointment is in accordance with the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations (Akademikerne).
• Remuneration is in accordance with the above, and the Salary agreement catalogue for staff at Health.
• The yearly base salary for a fulltime postdoc is between DKK 484.214,84 and DKK 538.720,20 depending on the years of working experience after achieved MSc degree. The base salary includes a position related supplement and pension (17.1 %). Additional supplement(s) for special qualifications can be negotiated. Authorisation supplemement(s) will be granted, if relevant for the position. Your local eligible trade union representative at Aarhus University negotiates your salary on your behalf.
• Researchers recruited from abroad are offered a special researcher tax scheme with a lower tax rate.
• Further information on qualification requirements and job description can be found in the Ministerial Order on Job Structure for Academic Staff

Application

Your application must include the following:

• Motivated application
• Curriculum Vitae
• Diploma
• Template for applicant - postdoc
• A list of publications
• A teaching portfolio. We refer to Guideline on the use of teaching portfolios
• A maximum of five of the publications of greatest relevance to the job may be submitted (optional)
• Research plan can be uploaded (optional)
• Coauthor statement(s) can be uploaded (optional)
• References/recommendations can be uploaded separately in the e-recruitment system (optional)

We refer to the faculty’s Guidelines for applicants.

Aarhus University’s ambition is to be an attractive and inspiring workplace for all and to foster a culture in which each individual has opportunities to thrive, achieve and develop. We view equality and diversity as assets, and we welcome all applicants.

Letter of reference

If you want a referee to upload a letter of reference on your behalf, please state the referee’s contact information when you submit your application. We strongly recommend that you make an agreement with the person in question before you enter the referee’s contact information, and that you ensure that the referee has enough time to write the letter of reference before the application deadline.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to ensure that letters of reference received after the application deadline will be taken into consideration.

International applicant?

Aarhus University offers a broad variety of services for international researchers and accompanying families, including assistance with relocation and career counselling to expat partners. Please find more information about the International Staff Office and the range of services here. Aarhus University also has a Junior Researcher Association and offers career development support. You can read more about these resources here.

The application must be submitted via Aarhus University’s recruitment system, which can be accessed under the job advertisement on Aarhus University's website.