Research Fellow in Infectious Disease Modelling
Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Salary: £40,011 to £45,437 per annum, inclusive.
Closing Date: Friday 28 February 2020
Reference: EPH-IDE-2020-04

Applications are invited for an infectious disease modeller to join the Department Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM). The post-holder will be funded through a research grant awarded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for a pneumococcal vaccine reduced dosing cluster randomized clinical trial currently taking place in Nha Trang, Vietnam.

The project aims to assess optimal dosing strategies for pneumococcal conjugate vaccine use in infancy. Pneumococci are the number one infectious disease child killer worldwide and this project will help to generate evidence for making pneumococcal vaccines more affordable. The trial is run and overseen by Nagasaki University with the laboratory work being carried out by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute in Melbourne. The successful candidate will have unique access to a wealth of data including large scale annual cross-sectional asymptomatic infection surveys including the sequencing of a large number of those samples, contact surveys and active hospital surveillance for acute respiratory illnesses. Being one of the flagship scheduling trials for pneumococcal vaccines, the work will be closely linked to international vaccination policy. Among other things the post will (further) develop a dynamic meta-population model of pneumococcal transmission in the trial site with a particular focus on how the different clusters in the trial interact and how to account for such in the model.

The successful applicant will have a postgraduate degree (ideally a doctoral degree) in statistics, mathematical modelling, epidemiology or another relevant discipline with a strong quantitative component. Candidates should also demonstrate experience in mathematical modelling, preferably on infectious diseases. Further particulars are included in the job description.

The post is full time and fixed-term until at least 31 July 2021. The salary will be on the Academic pathways Grade 6 in the range £40,011- £45,437 per annum (inclusive of London Weighting). The post will be subject to the LSHTM terms and conditions of service. Annual leave entitlement is 30 working days per year, pro rata for part time staff. In addition to this there are discretionary “Director’s Days”. Membership of the Pension Scheme is available. The post is based in London.

The candidate will join a lively and collaborative group of expert modelers at CMMID / LSHTM with also close interaction with our partners in Vietnam, Japan and Australia as well as the BMGF.

Any questions, please reach out to Stefan.Flasche@lshtm.ac.uk