Open Position at ETH Zurich, in the Team of Prof. Dirk Helbing

SOMS (www.soms.ethz.ch) hosts a young, multidisciplinary, diverse international research team, investigating techno-socio-economic systems from the point of view of complexity science, with a particular focus on social cooperation, norms, conflict, and collective behavior, combining the following methods: stochastic mathematical modeling, multi-agent simulation (spatial evolutionary games), behavioral lab and web experiments, and data mining (e.g. web and citation data). Further relevant keywords are: network theory, coordination, self-organization, emergence, collective intelligence, wisdom of crowds, herding behavior, artificial societies, financial market models, systemic risks, cascade disaster spreading, and crisis management.

Description of position:
PhD or postdoc position with good payment (Swiss ETH standard), considering the personal qualification

As a member of the SOMS team within the QLectives project (www.qlectives.eu), his/her work will primarily focus on: 1) developing agent-based models to study the efficiency and resilience of complex techno-social systems; 2) collecting and mining massive empirical datasets from various information platforms. Project reporting is part of the job. The research should be oriented at fundamental questions and at developing an integrated theoretical framework jointly with other team members and guests at the Chair of Sociology, in particular Modeling and Simulation at ETH Zurich.

We are looking for an outstanding researcher (among the top 10%), who is highly skilled and very committed, with good mathematical and/or computer skills and/or experience with massive data evaluation, web experiments, or massive multi-player online environments. Solid foundations or strong interest in the social sciences are required. We expect highest scientific standards and efficiency, creativity and technically thorough work. Interdisciplinary and international experience as well as successful publications in peer-reviewed journals would be favorable.

Please send your application as one pdf file to Dr. Sergi Lozano <slozano@ethz.ch> by January 15, 2011. This file should contain: A letter of motivation, your CV, your publication list, your exam documents, and letters of recommendation, if available.

P.S.: Further positions may become available towards summer 2011 in the context of organizing the FuturICT project (see www.futurict.eu).