As we close out the 2017-18 academic year, we’re excited to recognize the achievements of CSDE Fellows and Trainees. Learn more about their accomplishments below, and celebrate another successful year with us at the End of Year Reception on 6/1/18 from 12:30-1:30 in the Peterson Room.
- CSDE Fellow Hilary Bethancourt successfully defended her dissertation, and has a Postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Biobehavioral Health at Penn State.
- CSDE Fellow Michael Esposito will become a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Social Research’s Survey Research Center, University of Michigan in September.
- CSDE Fellow Michelle O’Brien will start as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies, Ohio State University this September.
- CSDE Fellow Tiffany Pan received a Wenner-Gren doctoral field work grant and an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (DDRIG).
- CSDE Trainee Erin Carll received a “James McCann Graduate Student Research Endowed Fund Award.
- CSDE Trainee Baishakhi Basu received an NSF SBE Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant (DDRIG).
- CSDE Trainee María Vignau Loria has been accepted into UC Berkeley’s Summer Institute in Migration Research Methods.
- CSDE Trainee Yuan Hsiao received a Fellowship at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research this summer.
Paulina Oliva, Department of Economics, UC Irvine
In this seminar, Oliva looks at the effects of air pollution on migration in China using changes in the average strength of thermal inversions over five-year periods as a source of exogenous variation for medium-run air pollution levels. Her results are robust to different specifications, including simple counts of inversions as instruments, different weather controls, and different forms of error variance.
The chosen candidate will develop climate-mortality models to generate a prototype of prediction scheme of temperature-related mortality for a very large ensemble of regions in Europe, based on (i) the climate forecasting tools developed by other partners in the project, and (ii) a pan-European daily dataset of regional mortality. This new dataset is the updated version of the one used for example in Ballester et al. 2016 (doi:10.1038/NCLIMATE3070).
The final aim is to evaluate how the skill in climate forecasts is transferred to the predictability of mortality risk, and to generate a tool in the area of climate impacts and human health that can increase human adaptation in the context of global warming.
The position will be paid with funding from the H2020 project Blue-Action (www.blue-action.eu), and research will be carried out in parallel with the work done by other members of the group for the H2020 projects ACCLIM and PUCS, both on the same area of research.
The research aim of ISGlobal’s Climate and Health Program is to address the effects that environmental conditions and climate change have on human health. The research record of scientists in the Program include several high-quality articles in high-impact journals such as Nature, Science, The Lancet, PNAS, Nature Climate Change and Nature Communications. The lines of research include extreme temperatures and precipitation, heat waves and cold spells, the impact of climate change on the spread of infectious (e.g. malaria, dengue, leishmaniosis, chikungunya, Zika) and non-infectious (Kawasaki Syndrome) diseases, the El Niño phenomenon and other environmental and climate factors.
Abstract
Over the past decade, we have witnessed an unprecedented explosion in data and in the way that analytics is being used to generate insights from such data. For example, in agriculture we used to rely mainly on subjective interpretation of weather or the farmer’s almanac to support farmer’s productivity. Now, we rely on remote sensing and predictive analytics to forecast yield, crop health, when or what to plant, etc. In healthcare, our polio eradication campaigns used to be targeted uniformly across geographies causing supply chain and coverage estimation nightmares. Now, we rely on analytics to help predict and smartly focus our interventions. This transition from diagnostic to predictive problem solving is happening across research, academic, commercial and non-governmental global development efforts, albeit with different incentives and underlying assumptions about the Data Value Chain (DVC).
I’ll describe my journey from a commercial global innovation lab to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, starting with our work in Africa (Nairobi, Kenya) to set up the first commercial research lab on the continent that is focused on applied and far-reaching exploratory research. I will describe how data and its usage have emerged as one of the most important global public goods at Gates Foundation; in particular, how we are using innovative technologies across the DVC to shape/influence our program strategy teams and the engagement with our partners in pursuit of our core belief that all lives have equal value. In light of these, I will motivate a unifying DVC and global data architecture that will enable data scientists and others from the research, academic, and commercial communities to contribute toward global public good (data science for social good) and help to make tomorrow better than today for billions of people.
Bio
Dr. Uyi Stewart is the director of Global Development Strategy, Data and Analytics at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. His team is responsible for applying innovative technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, etc. to optimize the use of data for decision-making and for delivery effectiveness, as well as leveraging the foundation’s data investments to create global public goods.
Prior to joining the Gates foundation in March 2017, Uyi previously spent 13 years with IBM Research where he was promoted to distinguished engineer (one of the firm’s highest technical honors) in 2014, and he was also the co-founder and chief scientist of IBM Research – Africa from 2012 – 2016 (the first lab on the continent for conducting applied and far-reaching exploratory research into Africa’s grand challenges). Before IBM Research, Uyi held technical leadership positions with AT&T Labs, Call Sciences and Nuance Communications. He was also a lecturer at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver. Uyi holds a PhD in Linguistics with specialization in generative syntax and language/speech interfaces from McGill University, a Master of Philosophy from Cambridge and a Bachelor of Arts (first class honors) from the University of Benin, Nigeria.
The Department of Sociology invites applications for Director of the Center for Social Science Instruction (CSSI). Successful candidates will excel at instruction and have a solid background in statistical computing and quantitative methods. You will not have research responsibilities; however, we seek candidates with interest or background in pursuing external research funding because the position may involve assisting faculty with grants. We encourage applications from candidates who are familiar with and committed to inclusively serving students from diverse backgrounds.
The Director is responsible for teaching three to four classes a year, with the primary purpose of providing courses required by students pursuing the Sociology Bachelor of Science degree. The Director is also responsible for maintaining two Sociology Department labs. The Director will also further the mission of the CSSI by supervising senior theses (one of the B.S. requirements) and by assisting Sociology Majors, other students, and faculty in their research projects. The Director is also responsible for a variety of other administrative roles that are elaborated below. This is a 10.5 month, non-tenure track and academic administrator appointment, based on a 4 year continuing contract.
The 2018-19 supplemental budget required and funded work at the Office of Financial Management
(OFM) to promote a complete count of Washingtonians in the 2020 census. Based on a Census Bureau
recommendation and experience in other states in 2010, OFM is assembling a “Complete Count
Committee” of key stakeholders and prominent individuals, particularly among hard to count
communities, to develop strategies, activities and documents to promote a complete count of Washington
residents. This position is located in OFM’s Forecasting and Research Division, which has been charged
with implementing the census work. This position is to focus on recruiting and staffing the Complete
Count Committee effort with a staff team that includes a general Census 2020 Coordinator who is project
manager for the overall effort. Some of the responsibilities include:
- Serving as the lead staff person interacting with the Complete Count Committee Chair. It is assumed
that the Chair is a highly visible public figure and the staff person will need to have high-level
professional and organizational skills to meet those demands.
- Coordinating and supporting the Complete Count Committee.
- Coordinating and supporting subcommittees of the Complete Count Committee. Most of the work of
the Committee will occur between meetings and be done by subcommittees.
- Communicating about Complete Count Committee efforts.
The Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health is recruiting two tenure-track faculty members at the rank of Assistant or Associate Professor. The successful applicants will apply a life course perspective in pursuing innovative research addressing an area of Population Science.
Scholarship will be evidenced by contributions to the scientific literature and increasing recognition in their field of interest. The selected individuals will be encouraged to build on the existing strength of the faculty within the Department, and as appropriate, work with faculty across the School and the University while building an independent research portfolio. New faculty members are expected to become fully integrated into the department’s graduate education and student mentoring activities. Departmental resources and faculty mentorship will support development of an externally funded research program. A doctoral degree in public health, biology, psychology, social science, medicine, demography, or related fields is required. Rank will be commensurate with experience.
The University of Minnesota invites applications for a full-time faculty member at the Associate or Full Professor level with interests in demography and population studies who can actively and innovatively advance the missions of the University, the Minnesota Population Center (MPC), and its affiliated colleges and academic units. This is an open-discipline/area search. The tenure home will be determined based on the candidate’s background/interests, in consultation with the appropriate colleges and academic units, and in accordance with University policy. One-half of teaching and service obligations will be fulfilled in MPC as part of the population studies program.
Housed in the University of Minnesota’s Institute for Social Research and Data Innovation (ISRDI), the MPC is a hub for interdisciplinary population research. Its members include more than 100 faculty, research staff, and student affiliates from two dozen academic units across ten colleges in the University. Established in 2000 and funded by the National Institutes of Health, MPC cultivates innovative population research by providing a stimulating environment for interdisciplinary exchange, a vibrant and growing population training program, and generous research support services designed to develop and nurture promising areas of new population research. Research and training at the MPC are characterized by a focus on four core substantive areas: population health and health systems; population mobility and spatial demography; reproductive and sexual health; and work, family, and time. Affiliates of the MPC benefit from co-location with the renowned IPUMS data infrastructure projects, the University of Minnesota’s Life Course Center, and the Minnesota Research Data Center (which is part of the Federal Statistical Research Data Center Network).
The University of Minnesota provides equal access and opportunity without regard to race, color, creed, religion, national origin, gender, age, marital status, disability, public assistance status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or gender expression. MPC and its affiliated units support the work-life balance of their faculty and staff, have a history of accommodating dual academic career couples, and encourage applications from women and members of under-represented groups. The University offers excellent and affordable health care and retirement benefits.
Applications are currently being accepted for a postdoctoral position in species distribution modeling and conservation at NIMBioS and in the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. The postdoctoral fellow will work with UT faculty (Paul Armsworth, Xingli Giam and Mona Papeş) as part of an interdisciplinary team researching how to account for the combined effects of land use change and climate change when designing conservation strategies for the Appalachian region. The postdoc will join a community of postdoctoral scholars at NIMBioS and UT Knoxville’s ecology program, one of the top 10 percent of ecology units in the U.S.
