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Position Summary:
A 1-year postdoc position (with the possibility of renewal for an additional year) is available in the area of causal learning and automated scientific discovery. The successful applicant will explore the formal connections between causal learning in the graphical causal modeling tradition and the algorithmic determination of natural kinds (classes of causal structures that support law-like generalizations useful for prediction and control). This work is part of a larger project to develop methods for learning natural kinds and for discovering novel features (or variables) of scientific relevance. This project offers the opportunity to participate in active collaborations with ecologists, climate scientists, bioengineers, and cognitive scientists. The mentor for this position is Dr. Benjamin Jantzen, Assistant Professor of Philosophy and Assistant Professor of Computer Science (by courtesy) at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA. The position start date is August 1, 2017.

Required Qualifications:
Candidates must have a Ph.D. in computer science, formal philosophy, applied math, statistics, or other related field at the time of appointment and a strong background in machine learning or graphical causal modeling. Candidates must have a rank-appropriate record of scholarship and collaboration in research on computational approaches to empirical learning, broadly construed.

Preferred Qualifications:
Programming proficiency (especially in Python) is desirable.



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