PhD Research Fellowship in statistics University of Oslo, Department of Mathematics

A PhD research fellowship in statistics is available at the Statistics Section of the Department of Mathematics of the University of Oslo, Norway.

 

The fellowship is for a period of 3 years, with starting date to be agreed upon and as soon as possible.

 

This is an opportunity to join one of Europe's most active statistics communities at an exciting time. Currently, the department includes 10 tenured faculty members in statistics and several PhD students, making up a group of about 25. Statistics at the University of Oslo is internationally recognized, with interests spanning a broad range of areas (including space-time data, model selection, mathematical statistics, time-to-event models, data integration, copula and dependence models, statistical genomics, Bayesian inference, stochastic models, high dimensional data and models) and numerous collaborations with leading research groups nationally and internationally. In the 2012 national research evaluation, the Statistics section was judged as excellent by an international committee. In total the statistics research community in Oslo includes around 100 members.

 

The PhD position is part of the recently funded centre for research-based innovation Big Insight, a consortium of academic, industrial and public partners, with a funding of about 4 million Euro annually for eight years starting from 2015. Big Insight develops original statistical and machine learning methodologies and analytical and computational tools to extract knowledge from complex and big data. Big Insight is a leading international centre in model-based statistics for complex, high dimensional data, addressed towards innovation. Big Insight is a consortium of 13 partners: The Norwegian Computing Centre, the University of Oslo (Department of Mathematics and Department of Biostatistics), the Oslo University Hospital (Cancer Registry, Department of Tumour Biology, Oslo Centre for Biostatistics and Epidemiology), the University of Bergen (Department of Mathematics), and industrial, public and business partners: ABB, DNB, DNV-GL, Gjensidige, Norsk Hydro, NAV, the Norwegian Tax Administration, Telenor and Statistics Norway.

 

The fellowships will be part of a larger program on personalised fraud detection. The successful PhD candidate will develop new statistical methodology for detecting different types of fraud, including insurance, social security and tax fraud, as well as for anti-money laudering. The increasing incidence of fraud may have serious financial implications for many organisations, and fraud detection is therefore highly prioritised. As the total number of cases to consider typically is much too high for all of them to be thoroughly investigated and such investigations in addition are costly, good methods for predicting whether an actual case is fraudulent or not are required. The project will involve among others development of statistical and machine-learning techniques for prediction, classification, anomaly detection and dimension reduction.

 

The PhD studies at the University of Oslo are characterized by a strong research profile: the PhD thesis usually includes several papers which are published in leading scientific journals, while the candidates are required to take a small number of advanced courses as part of the training component of their degree.

 

Big Insight and the University of Oslo offer a lively and socially rewarding environment, with many common activities, like the organization of an international Junior Research Lab and a broad visitor program, with guests from the best universities. Funding for travelling to conferences and summer schools is available.

 

The PhD candidate will be employed by the University of Oslo, thus enjoying all legal benefits in such a position, including health insurance, pension contributions and family welfare benefits.

 

Requirements/qualifications:

 

The University of Oslo has a strategic ambition of being a leading research university. Candidates for these fellowships will be selected accordingly, and expected to be among the best students of their class with respect to academic credentials.

 

Applicants must have a Master of Science degree in statistics, mathematics, computer science, or a related quantitative subject with proven competence in statistics. Excellent results in the MSc studies are required.

 

Candidates without a Master’s degree have time until June 30th, 2018 to complete the final exam.

 

The ideal candidate has some experience in methodological statistics, and an outstanding potential and genuine interest to develop statistical methodology that solves key applied problems within the present project themes. Proven experience in programming is required. We seek highly motivated and skilled persons, able to work effectively as part of a team, who are eager to both gain and share insight while being focused on publishing papers in leading international journals.

 

The working language is English and excellent knowledge of spoken and written English is required.

 

The purpose of the fellowship is research training leading to the successful completion of a PhD degree.

 

The fellowship requires admission to the PhD programme at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. The applications to the PhD programme must be submitted to the department no later than two months after taking up the positions. For more information see Doctroral degree an PhD and PhD in Mathematics and Natural Sciences.

 

Salary:

Position code 1017, pay grade NOK 436 900– 490 900 per year

 

The application must include:

• Application letter, explaining why you are interested in this particular position and project (1 page)
• CV (summarizing education, positions and academic work - scientific publications)
• Copies of educational certificates, transcript of records from both the bachelor and the master degree
• Documentation of English proficiency, if required (see link).
• List of own publications and academic work that the applicant wishes to be considered by the evaluation committee, including a copy of the master thesis, if available
• Names and contact details of 2-3 references (name, relation to candidate, e-mail and telephone number)

 

Foreign applicants are advised to attach an explanation of their University's grading system. Please remember that all documents should be in English or a Scandinavian language.

 

In accordance with the University of Oslo's equal opportunities policy, we invite applications from all interested individuals regardless of gender or ethnicity.

 

UiO has an agreement for all employees, aiming to secure rights to research results a.o.

 

For further information regarding the position, please contact:

Associate Professor Ingrid Hobek Haff, mailto: ingrihaf@math.uio.no Telephone: +47 22856024

Questions regarding Job Norway, contact HR Officer Ørjan Pretorius, orjan.pretorius@mn.uio.no