Archive for postdoctoral position
congrats, Doctor Luciano!
Posted in Books, Kids, Statistics, University life with tags ABC, Bayesian computation, Gibbs sampling, insufficient statistic, mad, Paris, permABC, PhD thesis, postdoctoral position, Université Paris Dauphine, University of California Berkeley on January 23, 2026 by xi'an
Fondation Sciences Mathématiques de Paris fundings
Posted in Kids, Travel, University life with tags chair, Fondation des Sciences Mathématiques de Paris, France, FSMP, Paris, PhD scholarship, postdoctoral position on October 14, 2025 by xi'an
The Fondation Sciences Mathématiques de Paris supports research and training in Mathematics and in fundamental Computer Science through its various programs: chairs of excellence, postdoctoral positions, master scholarships. The positions are located in the (Greater) Paris area. For academic year 2026-2027, see schedule of deadlines below (at 11:59 p.m., Paris time).Research Chairs of excellence:
from Thursday October 2nd to Monday December 1st 2025
Offer description: https://sciencesmaths-paris.fr/en/nos-programmes-en/les-chaires-fsmp
from Thursday October 2nd to Monday December 1st 2025
Offer description: https://sciencesmaths-paris.fr/en/nos-programmes-en/les-chaires-fsmp
FSMP Postdoctoral program:
from Thursday October 2nd to Monday December 1st 2025
Offer description: https://www.sciencesmaths-paris.fr/en/postdoc-fsmp
from Thursday October 2nd to Monday December 1st 2025
Offer description: https://www.sciencesmaths-paris.fr/en/postdoc-fsmp
Application form: https://applications.sciencesmaths-paris.fr/en/2012-2013-postdoctoral-positions-380.htm
Paris Graduate School for Mathematical Sciences (master scholarships):
First call (open to international students): from Monday November 3rd 2025 to Tuesday February 3rd 2026
Second call (open to students of the FSMP network): from Monday February 23rd to Monday April 20th 2026
Offer description: https://sciencesmaths-paris.fr/en/pgsm-master
First call (open to international students): from Monday November 3rd 2025 to Tuesday February 3rd 2026
Second call (open to students of the FSMP network): from Monday February 23rd to Monday April 20th 2026
Offer description: https://sciencesmaths-paris.fr/en/pgsm-master
ERC postdoc position on scalable experimental design, in Oxford, UK
Posted in Statistics, Travel, University life with tags Bayesian deep learning, Britain, data-driven algorithms, ERC, ERC Starting Grant, European Research Council, experimental design, Horizon Europe, LLM, machine learning, postdoctoral position, scalable MCMC, simulation-based inference, UK, UKRI, uncertainty quantification, University of Oxford on August 8, 2025 by xi'an
Nature snapshots
Posted in Books, Mountains, pictures, Travel with tags Andrei Kolmogorov, antibiotics, ban whaling, COVID-19, French universities, Greenland, Harold Jeffreys, Iceland, International Whaling Commission, IWC, Japan, Montréal Protocol, moratorium, Nature, Neolithic, NIH, Norway, Orkney Islands, plate tectonics, postdoctoral position, pyramids, Scotland, Stonehenge, transhumanism, US academia, whaling on September 15, 2024 by xi'an
- the incredible discovery that the massive slabs of Stonehenge were transported from Scotland, 800km North. Reuniting with the Round Table legend that Merlin brought them from Ireland. (Through a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (!) not rejecting the null that the age distributions of the altar stones and those of the Orcadian Bassin are identical. And kernel density estimates.) With their transportation 4,500 years ago remaining a mystery but like carried out by sea from Northern Scotland or even the Orkney Islands.
- a debate on whether or not to cap US postdoctoral positions to five years, as considered by the NIH. The intention is to prevent lengthy short-term positions in academia and to force institutions to hire into more permanent jobs. However, if the only proactive step from the NIH is this cap, institutions can proceed by rotating within the perpetually renewed pool of fresh PhD laureates. Leaving the older postdocs no other choice than switching to non-academic jobs when they cannot secure a tenure-track position. (In France, after 6 years on short-term contracts, a scientist’s most recent employer is legally obligated to offer stable employment, which leads to the preventive decision by labs of not hiring postdocs beyond 5 years.)
- a more precise history of plate tectonics, which our own Jeffreys opposed all his life.
- the several attempts at overcoming the antibiotic diminishing return in fighting microbial infections. That include generative AI.
- a shocking call to close the International Whaling Convention (formerly chaired by one of the authors) and let countries run their whaling, at a time when Japan launched a massive commercial whaling ship and when Peter Watson has been jailed in Greenland! With terrible three point graph “demonstrating” a comeback for most whale species.
- a novel theory behind the construction of Saqqara pyramids, involving hydraulics as put forward by a Paris institute called Paleotechnic (!)
- and a scathing book review of Kurzweil’s The Singularity is Nearer (when we merge with AI) [!], which concludes with ” Kurzweil’s understanding of humanity and nature is so bizarrely deficient that his augury is more of a curse than a blessing. His spiritual quest is devoid of spirit. The singularity betrays what is singularly human.” With the reviewer hoping “that we would have reached bullshit escape velocity by” the 2030 horizon predicted by Kurzwel for transhumanist heaven.
Nature snapshots
Posted in Books with tags Arctic, brain cells, Canadian politics, China, COVID-19, de-exctinction, Ecuador, Erasmus, frogs, Hubei, Labour, Nature, postdoctoral position, seafood, Siberia, Taiwan, Tasmania, thyalacine, UK elections 2024, UK politics, UK universities, University of Melbourne, woolly mammoth, Wuhan on September 5, 2024 by xi'an
Some quick breakfast reads from the 11 July issue of Nature (the one with the frog cover!),
- A tribune on the Canadian example of advocating for graduate and postdoc pay raises, with a success last April. It would prove difficult to achieve in a French academic landscape when postdocs here earn about as much as starting lecturers, whose salary is notoriously low.
- A news article on the UK elections Labour landslide impact on national scientific landscape, with the former Conservatives’ government Chief Adviser and former Head of Research at GlaxoSmithKline and governmental speaker during the COVID crisis appointed as science minister (how many countries enjoy a science ministry?!) But Labour has shown no inclination to back up (from the former stance) on EU collaborations (no Erasmus!), restrictions on students visa that induced a 40% drop in overseas enrolments, or funding of UK universities (whose finances are in a terrible state). Followed by a call from five UK researchers to “give UK science the overhaul it urgently needs¨.
- A paper about identifying brain cells attached to a word’s meaning (with an example opposing son and Sun that reminded me of the confusion I had with the Taïwanese movie A Sun!)
- An another paper on an analysis of January 2020 data collected in the Huanan seafood market in Wuhan, with three virus identified. But inconclusive about the origin of the virus.
- A work column on the challenges of conservation ecology, with trade-offs between intervention and inaction for endangered species (with the nugget of information that Ecuador gives nature constitutional rights).
- And a back page on the TIGRR lab [great acronym!] in Melbourne attempt at resurrecting the extinct thyalacine (or Tasmanian tiger) from historical specimens, not mentioning the involvement of a biotech company, Colossal Biosciences, also involved in recreating mammoths. Which sounds counterproductive beyond the bioengineering feat, esp. with regard to the mammoths, which would be woolly (!) unsuited to the current World (except in some remote corner of Siberia?!) and its climate. When considering how challenging protecting the few remaining African elephants is, imaging free roaming mammoths that would not come to clash with human activities beggars belief.
