With newspapers — and news magazine — cutting staff on
an almost weekly basis, some of us in journalism are going to have to
reinvent ourselves. One of our tenents of Analytic Journalism is
simulation modeling, a methodology and analytic tool we believe will be
to the social sciences in the 21st century (and journalism IS a social
science) what quantum physics was to the hard sciences in the
20th. So here's an interesting opportunity for someone.
“> The Department of Mathematics as the University of California, Los
> Angeles is soliciting applications for a postdoctoral fellowship
> position in Mathematical and Computational Social Science. The
> qualified applicant will work in the UC Mathematical and Simulation
> Modeling of Crime Group (UCMaSC), a collaboration between the UCLA
> Department of Mathematics, UCLA Department of Anthropology, UC
> Irvine Department of Criminology, Law and Society and the Los
> Angeles Police Department to study the dynamics of crime hot spot
> formation. The research will center on (1) development of formal
> models applicable to the study of interacting particle systems, or
> multi-agent systems, (2) simulation of these systems and (3)
> directed empirical testing of models using contemporary crime data
> from Los Angeles and other Southern Californian cities.
>
> The initial appointment is for one year, with possible renewal for
> up to three years. For information regarding the UCMaSC Group visit
>
> http://paleo.sscnet.ucla.edu/ucmasc.htm
>
> DUTIES: Work closely with an interdisciplinary team of
> mathematicians, social scientists and law enforcement officials to
> develop new mathematical and computational methodologies for
> understanding crime hot spot formation, diffusion and dissipation.
> Responsibilities include teaching one course in the Department of
> Mathematics per year, publication and presentation of research
> results.
>
> REQUIRED: A recent Ph.D. in Mathematics, Physics or a related
> field. The qualified applicant is expected to have research
> experience in one or more areas that would be relevant to the study
> of interacting particle/multi-agent systems including, but not
> limited to, mathematical and statistical physics, complex systems,
> and partial differential equations modeling. The applicant is also
> required to have advanced competency in one or more programming
> languages/environments (e.g., C++, Java, Matlab).
>
> Qualified candidates should e-mail a cover let, CV and the phone
> numbers, e-mail addresses, and postal addresses of three
> individuals who can provide recommendation to:
>
> Dr. P. Jeffrey Brantingham
> Department of Anthropology
> 341 Haines Hall
> University of California, Los Angeles
> Los Angeles, CA 90095″