About the position

Position as Postdoctoral Research Fellow available at the Department of Informatics.

The appointment is a fulltime position and is made for a period of up to three years (10% of which is devoted to required duties, usually in the form of teaching activities). Starting date no later than 01.01.2021.

Job description / Project description / Development plan:

We are looking for researchers interested in the intersection of statistics, machine learning, decision theory and economics with fairness, privacy and beneficial artificial intelligence more generally. The students will have the opportunity to work with our reinforcement learning and decision making group at the University of Oslo, as well as international partners at Chalmers University, Harvard University and EPFL.

We expect to address research challenges including, but not limited to the following:

• Formalising, extending and employing privacy and fairness definitions in artificial intelligence
• Theoretical work on the effects of privacy and fairness guarantees on learning
• Practical work on developing efficient algorithms for fair and private decision making

To get a flavour of what the research area, here are some relevant papers from our group:

• Egalitarian learning in repeated games
• Calibrated fairness in bandits
• Bayesian fairness
• Achieving Privacy in the Adversarial Multi-Armed Bandit
• Bayesian Differential Privacy through Posterior Sampling

For further background, you can take a look at this book and talk about ethical algorithms: https://www.amazon.com/Ethical-Algorithm-Science-Socially-Design/dp/0190948205 and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0A5RAqs8DJY

Postdoctoral fellows who are appointed for a period of four years are expected to acquire basic pedagogical competency in the course of their fellowship period within the duty component of 25 %.

The main purpose of a postdoctoral fellowship is to provide the candidates with enhanced skills to pursue a scientific top position within or beyond academia. To promote a strategic career path, all postdoctoral research fellows are required to submit a professional development plan no later than one month after commencement of the postdoctoral period.

Qualification requirements

The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences has a strategic ambition is to be among Europe’s leading communities for research, education and innovation. Candidates for these fellowships will be selected in accordance with this, and expected to be in the upper segment of their class with respect to academic credentials.

• Applicants must hold a degree equivalent to a Norwegian doctoral degree in informatics, statistics, economics, or another relevant subject. Doctoral dissertation must be submitted for evaluation by the closing date. Only applicants with an approved doctoral thesis and public defence are eligible for appointment.
• Applicants must demonstrate research ability in decision theory, statistics, fairness, machine learning, reinforcement learning, differential privacy, or other related fields.
• Fluent oral and written communication skills in English

Personal skills

• Experience and interest in fairness, privacy and beneficial AI
• Good interpersonal skills and the ability to work in a complex, international project team.

We offer

• Salary NOK 523 200 – 605 500 per year depending on qualifications in position as Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (position code 1352)
• Attractive welfare benefits and a generous pension agreement
• Professionally stimulating working environment
• Vibrant international academic environment
• Postdoctoral development programmes
• Oslo’s family-friendly surroundings with their rich opportunities for culture and outdoor activities

How to apply

The application must include:

• Cover letter (statement of motivation, summarizing scientific work and research interest)
• CV (summarizing education, positions, pedagogical experience, administrative experience and other qualifying activity)
• Copies of educational certificates, academic transcript of records and letters of recommendation
• A complete list of publications and up to 5 academic works that the applicant wishes to be considered by the evaluation committee
• Names and contact details of 2-3 references (name, relation to candidate, e-mail and telephone number)

The application with attachments must be delivered in our electronic recruiting system. Foreign applicants are advised to attach an explanation of their University's grading system. Please note that all documents should be in English (or a Scandinavian language).

In assessing the applications, special emphasis will be placed on the documented, academic qualifications, the project description (whenever this is required in the call for applicants), and the quality of the project as well as the candidates motivation and personal suitability. Interviews with the best qualified candidates will be arranged.It is expected that the successful candidate will be able to complete the project in the course of the period of employment.

Formal regulations

Please see the guidelines and regulations for appointments to Postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Oslo.

No one can be appointed for more than one Postdoctoral Fellow period at the University of Oslo.

According to the Norwegian Freedom of Information Act (Offentleglova) information about the applicant may be included in the public applicant list, also in cases where the applicant has requested non-disclosure.

The University of Oslo has an agreement for all employees, aiming to secure rights to research results etc.

The University of Oslo aims to achieve a balanced gender composition in the workforce and to recruit people with ethnic minority backgrounds.

Contact information

For further information please contact:

• Professor Christos Dimitrakakis, e-mail: chridim@ifi.uio.no

For technical questions regarding the recruitment system, please contact HR Adviser Torunn Standal Guttormsen, e-mail: t.s.guttormsen@mn.uio.no

Apply for position