Applications are invited for a Ph.D. position within the PhD Programme in Life Course Research at the University of Florence, funded by the University of Trento. The successful candidate will work on the project “Socioeconomic inequalities and the spread of infectious diseases” and will spend research and training periods at both the University of Florence and the University of Trento, in Italy.

The project investigates how socioeconomic inequalities shape exposure to, transmission of, and consequences of infectious diseases. It is situated at the intersection of social demography, computational epidemiology, population health, and quantitative social science. The Ph.D. candidate will examine how factors such as income, education, occupation, household structure, spatial segregation, and differential access to resources influence patterns of disease spread and vulnerability across populations and over the life course.

The position is particularly suited to candidates interested in empirical research using quantitative methods, longitudinal or administrative data, population registers, survey data, mobility data, or computational approaches to infectious-disease dynamics. Depending on the candidate’s background, the project may include the analysis of social gradients in infection risk, the role of networks and mobility in disease transmission, the unequal effects of public health measures, or the long-term social and demographic consequences of infectious disease outbreaks.

The Ph.D. student will be integrated into the interdisciplinary environment of the Life Course Research programme, which brings together socio-demographic, psychological, biomedical, and quantitative approaches to the study of life trajectories. The collaboration between the University of Florence and the University of Trento will provide access to complementary expertise in life-course analysis, population studies, inequality research, epidemiological modelling, and advanced statistical methods.

Essential criteria

• A master's degree in mathematics, statistics, epidemiology, computer science, sociology or demography with demonstrated quantitative skills
• Some experience in programming (e.g., R or Python).

Desirable criteria

• Demonstrated experience in the mathematical modelling of infectious diseases, or related methods (e.g. dynamical systems, stochastic processes, computational methods).
• Demonstrated experience with statistical modelling.

The project will be supervised by Prof. Michele Tizzoni (University of Trento).

Interested candidates who satisfy the essential criteria should apply through the portal: https://www.unifi.it/en/study-us/after-graduation/phd-programmes/phd-courses/cycle-42-call-applications
The deadline for applications is August 6, 2026, at noon.