Working environment:
The post-doctorate will be hosted in the Laboratoire d’Ingénierie pour les Systèmes Complexes (LISC) at Irstea (http://www.irstea.fr/en/accuei l) Center of Clermont-Ferrand (France). Researchers of LISC are specialized in computer sciences and applied mathematics, with a solid experience of interdisciplinary projects. They develop individual based models of ecological and social dynamics.

The post-doctorate is funded by the FuturICT 2.0 project (http://futurict2.eu/) which involves research teams from several European countries and focuses on developing new synergies between ICT and social sciences. The post-doctorate will be supervised by Guillaume Deffuant and will collaborate with the researchers from other FuturICT2.0 teams, in particular in LAPSCO (http://lapsco.univ-bpclermont.fr/ ) and ISC-PIF (https://iscpif.fr/ ).

Research topic:
The objective of the research is to improve and further develop dynamical models of individual and group perception, together with individual and group identity dynamics. The context of application will be related to the perception of various threats (particularly related to global changes) and the potential antagonisms taking place between groups, in particular between ones trusting scientific experts and ones distrusting them. The approach will mix studies of simplified computer models exhibiting stylized facts, the analysis of large data sets from the web and potentially lab experiments organized with specialized collaborators from FuturICT2.0.

Requested Qualifications:
• PhD or equivalent in social modelling;
• Skills in individual based model programming and testing;
• Experience in multi-disciplinary collaboration between computer scientists and social scientists;
• English fluently spoken and written;
• Experience in web data set (Twitter, blogs,…) analysis appreciated.

Practical conditions:
The position is one year with possible extension to a second year.
Salary: 2 582 € (before taxes)
Starting: September or October 2017

Application Procedure:
Applications should be made by email to guillaume.deffuant@irstea.fr and must include:
• A motivation letter (at most 2 pages),
• CV, with scan of important diplomas,
• Selected publications (at most 5)
• Reference contacts.

Deadline for applications: 30 June 2016.
Contact: guillaume.deffuant@irstea.fr – Tel: (33) 4 73 44 06 14
A shortlist of applicants will be interviewed by video-conference in the first two weeks of July.