Phd Scholarship – Integrating Data Science With Pandemic Modelling

PhD Scholarship – Integrating Data Science with Pandemic Modelling

Job No.:  650121

Location:  553 St Kilda Road, Melbourne

Employment Type: Full-time

Duration:  3-year fixed-term appointment

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The School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine are offering a fully funded PhD scholarship in mechanistic modelling to a highly motivated candidate with pre-existing high-level skills in programming. The scholarship is linked to Associate Professor James Trauer’s successful Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) from the Australian Research Council. The DECRA is entitled “Strategies to minimise the societal impacts of zoonotic pandemics” and will further develop the team’s established code libraries to address problems in pandemic control. Using our existing platforms, the successful applicant will develop, calibrate and interpret models of emerging pathogens of importance to Australia and the Asia-Pacific Region. Our modelling platform (“summer”, documentation here) supports the rapid and robust construction of compartmental mechanistic models of infectious disease transmission, along with a limited range of calibration and optimisation techniques. The successful applicant will extend the range of techniques offered by our platforms to create policy-relevant models for infectious disease responses.

Pre-existing skills that would be beneficial and that will be substantially enhanced through undertaking the PhD include:

Python programming

Collaborative coding and online version control (git)

Mechanistic modelling

Infectious disease epidemiology

Scientific writing

Evidence synthesis

Eligibility requirements

Candidates will need to fulfil the Monash University minimum requirements for admission to a PhD detailed here.

The project is based in Melbourne, Australia, and is available for immediate start.

How to apply

For general instructions on how to apply for roles at Monash, please refer to ‘How to apply for Monash Jobs’. 

To express your interest in this scholarship and PhD research opportunity, please send an email to and provide:

A cover letter describing your research interests and why you would like to undertake a PhD (maximum one page)

A CV including qualifications, academic achievements, list of publications, work history and references

A copy of your academic transcript(s)

Enquiries

Dr James Trauer, Head – Epidemiological Modelling Unit, , +61 3 9903 0798

Note that James will be on leave until April 22nd. Please communicate by email prior to this date.

Closing date

Wednesday 31 May 2023, 11:55pm AEST

At Monash University, the health, safety and wellbeing of our staff, students and visitors is our top priority. In accordance with the Pandemic Orders issued by the Victorian Government Health Minister, we require all staff working or placed in healthcare facilities to be fully vaccinated (boosted) against COVID-19 or have an approved medical exemption from receiving a COVID-19 vaccine in order to attend these locations.

For the latest information on COVID-19 at Monash, please visit our website

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