Postdoctoral Researcher in Gastrointestinal Epidemiology - Hiring in process/Finished, not possible to apply

Do you want to contribute to top quality medical research?

The Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (MEB) is among the largest departments of epidemiology in Europe. Our department consists of researchers, doctoral students, biostatisticians, data collectors and database administrators as well as administrative personnel, in total some 280 staff. Further information can be found at https://ki.se/en/meb

The gastrointestinal epidemiology group at the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics (MEB) is now looking for a postdoc who wants to understand and prevent gastrointestinal disease. Our research group consists of epidemiologists, clinicians, and database administrators and provides a vibrant and stimulating working atmosphere.

Sweden is renowned for its world-class nationwide health registers. Based on these registers, Swedish researchers have produced outstanding papers and advanced our understanding in fields such as coeliac disease, oesophageal disease, IBD, hepatology but also colorectal cancer. Through linkage with the personal identity number, it is possible to combine information from e.g. the nationwide Swedish Medical Birth Register, the Patient Register, the Cause of Death Register, the Cancer Register, the Prescribed Drug Register and different quality registers. However, a limitation of these registers is the absence of histopathology data. Through a nationwide collection of computerised biopsy report data from all Swedish 28 pathology departments we have succeeded in creating a database of about 2.1 million individuals (with 6.1 million biopsy reports) who have undergone a biopsy of the gastrointestinal tract (intestine/liver/pancreas/gall bladder). This cohort includes for instance 49,000 unique individuals with celiac disease, 841,000 individuals with colorectal biopsies, and 179,000 individuals with liver biopsies. The cohort is known under its acronym ESPRESSO (Epidemiology Strengthened by histoPathology Reports in Sweden).

A description of the cohort can be found here.

Your mission

Your main responsibilities will be to perform research in gastrointestinal epidemiology, exploring risk factors and prognosis of diseases where histopathology is essential. The position requires a high level of statistical/mathematical competence, and to absorb necessary knowledge on gastrointestinal disease aetiology, epidemiology and register-based research.

For examples of our research, please see PubMed ”ludvigsson jf[author]” or watch this movie.

At our department, you will have vast opportunities to engage and participate in various research forums, outside as well as inside the department. MEB is an inclusive workplace, encouraging collaborative departmental and interdisciplinary research, and we have an infrastructure to support our approach.

The appointment will be for 2 years, with a possible extension after evaluation.

Your profile

Qualified to be employed as a postdoctor is one who has obtained a doctorate or has equivalent scientific competence. It is considered as an advantage if you have completed your doctoral degree within the last three years, if there are special reasons, your degree may have been completed earlier. Applicants who have not completed a doctorate at the end of the application period may also apply, provided that all requirements for a completed degree are met before the (intended) date of employment. This must be substantiated by the applicant's main supervisor, director or equivalent.

Applicants should have a PhD degree in epidemiology, biostatistics or equivalent, as well as substantial experience of standard statistical regression techniques.
 An in-depth knowledge of gastrointestinal disease is very important. The applicant should be fluent in R, SAS, STATA, SPSS or equivalent statistical software.

Having worked in gastrointestinal epidemiology is a merit.

The applicant should be highly collegial, skilled in team-work but also have the ability to work independently. Further, the applicant should possess organizational skills, know how to successfully multitask, and should be able to describe past examples of having solved unanticipated and complex research problems. Excellent oral and written communication skills in English are required, along with experience in writing and publishing research articles in English.

The applicant should have excellent analytical skills, and have capacity to take responsibility for specific research projects. Further, the applicant should have the skill set to be involved in supervision of PhD students, including the necessary communicational skills.

What do we offer?

Karolinska Institutet is one of the world's leading medical universities. Our vision is to pursue the development of knowledge about life and to promote better health for all. At Karolinska Institutet, we conduct innovative medical research and provide the largest range of biomedical education in Sweden. Karolinska Institutet is a state university, which entitles employees to several benefits such as extended holiday and a generous occupational pension. Employees also have free access to our modern gym and receive reimbursements for medical care. 

Since 1901 the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has selected the Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine.

Location: Solna

Application

An employment application must contain the following documents in English or Swedish:

• A complete resumé, including date of the thesis defence, title of the thesis, previous academic positions, academic title, current position, academic distinctions, and committee work
• A complete list of publications (with impact factors and number of citations according to Web of Science for each publication)
• A personal letter (no more than one page)
• A summary of current work (no more than one page)
• As part of your application we invite you submit your solution to a statistical problem.

Download the instructions for the statistical task from the below GitHub folder. Please name the document with your solution: ”celiac” and submit with all other requested documents. Do not upload any documents to the GitHub folder.

You will find the statistical files needed and further instructions for this exercise here: https://github.com/bjoroeKI/Celiac  

Welcome to send in your application!

The application is to be submitted through the Varbi recruitment system.

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