Dr. Rachel E. Baker, the John and Elizabeth Irving Family Assistant Professor of Climate Health is seeking a Postdoctoral Research Associate to work on several projects related to understanding the implications of climate change for infectious disease outbreaks. The Postdoctoral Research Associate will work within both the Department of Epidemiology at the School of Public Health, and the Institute at Brown for Environment and Society, and will have the opportunity to participate in activities at Brown University’s Pandemic Center.

The World Health Organization lists climate change as one the leading public health threats of our time. The Baker Lab at Brown University aims to understand the implications of climate change for infectious disease in order to inform public health adaptation planning. The lab uses cutting edge computational techniques including machine learning, econometrics and mechanistic modeling to understand the environmental drivers of disease transmission and to develop scenario-based projections for the impact of climate change on a range of human pathogens.

The Postdoctoral Research Associate will be involved in developing projects to understand the impact of climate change on several pathogens. Key duties include:

● Developing statistical models to test for a relationship between climate and disease transmission.

● Sourcing and assembling datasets of both climate and disease variables for model fitting.

● Developing mechanistic disease models to project future impacts of climate change across both tropical and temperate locations.

● Drafting manuscripts for publication and developing visualizations of results.

● Mentoring undergraduate and PhD students in the lab group.

The start date is 09/2024, although this is negotiable, and the initial term of employment will be two years, with extensions available depending on funding availability.

Qualifications
Position Requirements: PhD in disease ecology, computational biology, epidemiology, atmospheric science or a related field. Strong candidates are expected to have prior experience in developing infectious disease models or experience developing applied models of other dynamical systems. Candidates with a strong quantitative and computational background without prior public health experience are also encouraged to apply. Programming experience in either R or another open source language is required.

Salary: Salary is highly competitive with a pay band of $69,000 - $72,000 commensurate with experience. A full-time benefits package is included.

Application Instructions
How to Apply: Candidates should apply with a cover letter (summarizing research experience, qualifications, and career goals, as well as addressing the reasons for their interest in the position), curriculum vitae, and sample publication or equivalent. Candidates should apply online through Interfolio. Please indicate in your letter of application the search number (PH-325). Candidates should also provide the names and email addresses for three individuals familiar with their work who can be contacted for recommendations. Only those applicants who are selected for interviews will be directly contacted.

Application Deadline: This position will remain open until a qualified applicant is found.