Karolinska Institutet, Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics

The Department of Medical Epidemiology and Biostatistics conducts research in epidemiology and biostatistics across a broad range of areas within biomedical science. The department is among the largest of its type in Europe and has especially strong research profiles in psychiatric, cancer, reproductive, pediatric, pharmaco, genetic, and geriatric epidemiology, eating disorders, precision medicine, and biostatistics.

Part of the success of our department is due to our collaborative spirit where one factor is that researchers at the Department share and co-finance common resources (e.g., IT and an applied biostatistics group). The department is situated at campus Solna. Further information can be found at http://ki.se/en/meb

We are recruiting a doctoral (PhD) student. For more information regarding doctoral education at Karolinska Institutet (KI), see:
http://ki.se/en/phd/about-doctoral-education-at-ki

Research group
The predictive medicine group is focused on development and application of predictive models for biomedical applications, with a particular interest in precision medicine and cancer research. Our research is based on large and high-dimensional datasets across multiple modalities, including molecular, clinical and medical imaging data.

The doctoral education project and the duties of the student
The overall objective of this thesis is to investigate how molecular profiling data together with histopathology image data and clinical data can be utilized to develop novel prognostic and predictive models for common cancer diseases, including prostate cancer, breast cancer and colorectal cancer. In the project, machine learning and artificial intelligence (deep-learning) methodologies will be developed and applied for patient stratification models based on histopathology imaging data together with molecular data and clinical data. Under supervision, the PhD student will be responsible for literature review, model implementation, data analysis, result interpretation, scientific article writing and data presentation.

Entry requirements for doctoral education at KI
In order to participate in the selection for a doctoral position at Karolinska Institutet, the following requirements have to be met:

General entry requirements

A person meets the general entry requirements for doctoral/third-cycle/PhD education (according to

Higher Education Ordinance Chapt 7, section 39) if he/she:

  1. has been awarded advanced/second-cycle/master qualification (i.e. master degree) or
  2. has satisfied the requirements for courses comprising at least 240 credits of which at least 60 credits were awarded in the second-cycle/master level, or
  3. has acquired substantially equivalent konwledge in some other way in Sweden or abroad.

Specific entry requirements

Applicants must have a degree in an area relevant for the position, including, for example, signal-processing/image analysis, health informatics, epidemiology, statistics or machine learning.

The application must have previous experience from computational/statistical analysis and modeling of biomedical data. It is desirable that the applicant has prior experience from analysis of medical imaging data.

It is desirable that the applicant has experience from the application of deep-learning for medical image analysis and histopathology image analysis in particular.
Proficiency in English equivalent to the course English B/English 6 at Swedish upper secondary school is an entry requirement for doctoral education at KI. Applicants who meet the general entry requirements (1 or 2 above) from a university in one of the Nordic countries has met the requirements in English.

Follow the link below for information on how other applicants can certify their English proficiency (such as through IELTS or TOEFL, previous upper secondary or university level studies).

For more information regarding general and specific entry requirements, please see: http://ki.se/en/phd/entry-requirements-eligibility-for-doctoral-education

Skills and personal qualities
The applicant should be eager to learn new skills, willing to collaborate, be focused, dedicated, and enthusiastic about their research. Attention to detail and dedication to excellence are required.

Assessment criteria
A selection will be made among qualified applicants on the basis of the ability to benefit from doctoral education. Karolinska Institutet uses the following bases of assessment:

- Documented subject knowledge of relevance to the area of research

- Analytical skill

- Other documented knowledge or experience that may be relevant to doctoral studies in the subject. The qualifications of the applicants will be evaluated on an overall basis.

The selection process will include several steps. The most suitable applicants will proceed to the next step which includes personal interviews. All applicants will be informed when the recruitment is done

Terms and conditions
All doctoral students at KI receive financial support during their doctoral education and employment on a doctoral studentship is the most common sort of support.

Application process
The application and supporting documents are to be submitted through the Varbi recruitment system.

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

  • A personal letter and a curriculum vitae
  • Documents certifying the entry requirements*: Academic degree diplomas, transcripts of records, and if applicable, authorised translations
  • Copies of degree projects and any previous publications
  • Proof of English proficiency
  • Any other documentation showing the desirable skills and personal qualities described above

*All documents certifying the entry requirements must be scans of originals (scans of copies or certified copies will not be accepted). The scanned documents must be in color and both the front and the back of the documents must be scanned. Please note that there are specific documentation requirements for a number countries, please read the instructions at: http://ki.se/en/phd/entry-requirements-eligibility-for-doctoral-education

If an applicant claims equivalent konwledge (point 3 under general entry requirements above) for the eligibility assessment, a form has to be filled in and submitted. Please find more information here: https://ki.se/en/phd/assessing-equivalent-knowledge-for-general-eligibility-for-doctoral-education

Type of employment PhD placement
Contract type Full time
First day of employment according to agreement
Salary Monthly
Reference number 2-88/2019
Contact
  • Sara Tiste, sara.tiste@ki.se
  • Mattias Rantalainen, mattias.rantalainen@ki.se
Union representative
  • Ulrika Zagai, SACO, ulrika.zagai@ki.se
  • Ann Almqvist, OFR, ann.almqvist@ki.se
  • Henry Wölling, SEKO, henry.wolling@ki.se
Published 16.Jan.2019
Last application date 06.Feb.2019 11:59 PM CET

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