Archive for recommendation

postdoctoral research positions at PariSanté

Posted in pictures, Statistics, Travel, University life with tags , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on March 7, 2024 by xi'an

Thanks to the 2023-2029 ERC Synergy grant OCEAN (On intelligenCE And Networks: Synergistic research in Bayesian Statistics, Microeconomics and Computer Sciences), I am seeking one or two postdoctoral researchers with an interest in Bayesian federated learning, distributed MCMC, approximate Bayesian inference and computing, and data privacy.

The project is based at Université Paris Dauphine, on the new PariSanté Campus.  The postdocs will join the OCEAN teams of researchers directed by Éric Moulines and myself (Christian P Robert) to work on the above themes with multiple possibilities of focus from statistical theory, to Bayesian methodology, to decision theory, to algorithms, to medical applications. Collaborations with the OCEAN teams of researchers directed by Michael Jordan (Berkeley) and Gareth Roberts (Warwick) will further be encouraged and related travel will be supported.

Qualifications

The candidates should hold a doctorate in applied maths, statistics or machine learning, with demonstrated skills in Bayesian analysis, game theory, Monte Carlo methodology or numerical probability, an excellent record of publications in these domains, and an interest in working as part of an interdisciplinary international team. Scientific maturity and research autonomy are a must for applying. There is no deadline for the positions, which will be filled when a suitable candidate is selected.

Funding

Besides a 2 year postdoctoral contract at Université Paris Dauphine (with possible extension for another year), at a salary of 31K€ per year, the project will fund travel to OCEAN partners’ institutions (University of Warwick or University of Berkeley) and participation to yearly summer schools and conferences. Standard French university benefits are attached to the position and no teaching duty is involved, as per ERC rules.

The starting date of the postdoctoral positions is negotiable depending on the applicants’ availability.

Application Procedure

  • To apply, please send the following entries in one pdf file to Christian Robert (bayesianstatistics@gmail.com).
  • a letter of application,
  • a CV,

Letters of recommendation are to be sent directly by their author.

recommendation letters

Posted in Kids, pictures, University life with tags , , , , , on January 14, 2023 by xi'an

Another spam from China [hence an opportunity to repost this 2012 shot of the Huangpu River from the Bund!] worth mentioning:

It’s Jesse from XXX. XXX mainly provides services for students need apply universities. We wish to get your recommendation letter for our students. We will give you about 10,000 USD as reward per month for your recommendation. The content of the recommendation letters can be further discussed with you.

While it is tempting (!!) to considerably increase my salary (!), the spirit of this proposal is most appalling, either because it is genuine or because it is a scam capitalising on the greed of its victims.

recommendation week

Posted in Kids, University life with tags , , , , on April 2, 2012 by xi'an

This week, as the deadlines for next year applications get close, I had to write a dozen of recommendation letters for some of my students. Some of those students I knew well as they were in my english R class or in my graduate courses, but others were unknown to me. The most frustrating emails are those of the kind

Je suis so-and-so et j’ai suivi votre cours de Statistique exploratoire et numérique au premier semestre. Je vous écris ce mail car je souhaiterais postuler l’année prochaine there-and-there. Il m’est demandé de fournir dans mon dossier deux lettres de recommandations, c’est donc pour cela que je vous demande si vous pouvez m’écrire une lettre de recommandation.

(I am so-and-so and I took your course Exploratory and numerical Statistics during the first semester. I am writing this mail because I plan to apply next year to there-and-there. I am required to include two recommendation letters in my application file, this is why I would like to ask you to write a recommendation letter.)

composed as if writing a recommendation letter did not require any information about the recommended student! Or maybe they think I know every one of the 180 of them…