This project will be focused on developing computational frameworks to understand malaria transmission. Questions of interest include how human travel impacts spatial disease transmission and how to identify optimal combinations of interventions that will reduce transmission. The ideal applicant will have both quantitative experience in epidemiology, statistics, and/or ecology and an interest in public health research related to disease prevention and control in global settings. In addition to analytic work, the position will include opportunities to engage with officials at Ministries of Health on matters related the control of malaria and the use of models to better identify strategies to achieve malaria control. The applicant will have the opportunity to work on a wide range of data types including epidemiological, genetic, and behavioral data sets primarily related to malaria. Applicants with, or nearing completion of, a doctoral degree in epidemiology, ecology, biostatistics, or a related field will be considered. Those with experience in malaria or technical expertise in spatial analyses will be given priority.

The successful applicant will work with Dr. Amy Wesolowski and colleagues primarily on a project funded by the National Institutes of Health that aims to improve our understanding of spatial disease dynamics through the integration of epidemiological, behavioral, and molecular data. This applicant will also work with the Southern and Central Africa International Centers of Excellence for Malaria Research (ICEMR) program based out of JHBSPH. The Southern and Central Africa ICEMR began in 2010 and has a large number of research projects in Zambia, Zimbabwe, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This interdisciplinary team consists of epidemiologists, biostatisticians, entomologists, and clinicians all working to better understand malaria transmission and epidemiology in these settings. There will be opportunities to lead analyses using genetic, epidemiologic, and behavioral data to understand the spatiotemporal patterns of malaria transmission.

The successful applicant be joining two highly collaborative groups including the ID Dynamics group (iddynamics.jhsph.edu) and the ICEMR who work on projects ranging from empirical data collection to theoretical modeling of disease dynamics, and there will be ample opportunities to work on cross-cutting projects focused on issues in infectious disease transmission and control.

The position will be for 1-2 years, depending on applicant interest and career plans.