Academic

Applications are invited for PhD and Postdoctoral positions in Machine Learning for Natural Language Processing at the newly established research group headed by Dr. Ivan Titov. The research will be focused on developing new machine learning methods for structure processing minimizing feature engineering, exploiting available abundant but indirect supervision and as well as on studying methods for inducing and integrating various types of prior knowledge.

Saarland University is a European leader in Computer Science research and teaching, and is especially renowned for its research in Computational Linguistics and Natural Language Processing. The newly established group is a part of the interdisciplinary MMCI Cluster of Excellence formed in partnership with top-ranked research institutions located on the Saarland University campus: Max Planck Institute for Computer Science, Max Planck Institute for Software Systems and German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI). Researchers come from all over the world and the research language is English.

The ideal candidate for the PhD position should have a masters degree in computer science, mathematics or a related field with a strong background in mathematics, statistics and algorithms. A strong academic record, excellent analytical skills and a clear aptitude for autonomous, creative research will be priority selection criteria. Background in machine learning and computational linguistics is desirable but not required.

A candidate for the PostDoc position should have (or be about to finish) a PhD in machine learning, computational linguistics or a related discipline, as well as an excellent publication record. Experience with machine learning and probabilistic modeling is essential.

Candidates for both PostDoc and PhD positions should have strong programming skills as well as excellent verbal and written communication skills in English.

The salary and social benefits are according to Germany's public sector TVL E13 scale, approximately 4,000 Euro per month (before taxes), depending on qualifications and professional experience. PhD researchers will be employed part-time, and will have the opportunity of pursuing a doctoral degree at Saarland University.

The applications should include:

• CV
• brief statement of research interests
• 2-3 references (with email and phone number)
• academic transcript (for PhD applicants)
• list of publications (if any)
• a sample of 2-3 strongest publications (master thesis or a term project is sufficient for PhD candidates)

The position is open until filled. Applications received before July 10 will receive full consideration. The starting date is Oct 1, 2009 (a later starting date is negotiable).

Saarland University wishes to increase the proportion of women in research and strongly encourages qualified female candidates to apply. Priority will be given to handicapped candidates with equivalent qualifications.

Relevant links:

• Ivan Titov http://flake.cs.uiuc.edu/~titov/

• MMCI Cluster of Excellence http://www.mmci.uni-saarland.de/

• Computer Science at Saarland University http://cs.uni-sb.de/

• Max Planck Institute for Computer Science http://www.mpi-inf.mpg.de/

• German Research Centre for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI) http://www.dfki.de

• Max Planck Institute for Software Systems http://www.mpi-sws.org

• Computational Linguistics and Phonetics ?at Saarland University http://www.coli.uni-saarland.de/

• Language Technology Lab at DFKI http://www.dfki.de/lt/

• Saarbruecken http://www.saarbruecken.de/en/home