PhD / Post-doc position in Natural Language Processing at the University of Mannheim

The Data and Web Science Research Group at the University of Mannheim invite applications for

ONE PHD / POSTDOC POSITION IN TEXT ANALYSIS

The researcher is expected to contribute to the C4 project on "Measuring a common space and the dynamics of reform positions" within the DFG-funded Collaborative Research Centre (SFB) 884 "Political Economy of Reforms" (http://reforms.uni-mannheim.de) at the University of Mannheim. The topic of the PhD will focus on exploiting computational methods for analysing discourse phenomena like, e.g., uncertainty, vagueness and bias in political texts. This is a joint collaboration between the Natural Language Processing and Information Retrieval group (Prof. Simone Paolo Ponzetto) and the Chair of Artificial Intelligence (Prof. Heiner Stuckenschmidt), which will also involve close collaboration with project partners at the Department of Political Science (Prof. Dr. Nicole Rae Baerg, Prof. Dr. Thomas Gschwend), ranked as the best Political Science Department in Germany in different national and international university rankings. The student will be located at the Data and Web Science Group (DWS) of the University of Mannheim, one of leading centers for Data Science in Germany.

We are particularly interested in candidates with a background in one or several of the following areas:

        • statistical semantics and discourse processing
        • machine learning and natural language processing
        • discourse analysis
        • automated text-based scaling

Applicants should have a Masters or PhD degree (or obtain it in the near future) in Computer Science, Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning or Social Science and have previous experience in applying human language technology.

Duration: initially one year (starting in Fall 2015) with possible extension to 3-5 years.
Salary range: according to German public scale TV-L 13 100% (full time, ranging between 3200,- and 4.600,- Euro before taxes depending on qualification).

Applications can be made per e-mail (sfb884@informatik.uni-mannheim.de) and should include a short research statement, CV, copy of university degrees and transcripts and - if available - a copy of the master thesis, as well as list of publications and published software. Further information about the groups can be found at http://dws.informatik.uni-mannheim.de/. All documents should be e-mailed as a single PDF. All applications sent before September, 15 2015 will receive full consideration. The positions remain open until filled.

The University of Mannheim is committed to increase the percentage of female scientists and encourages female applicants to apply. Among candidates of equal aptitude and qualifications, a person with disabilities will be given preference.

Please contact Simone Paolo Ponzetto (simone(At)informatik(DoT)uni-mannheim(DoT)de) and Heiner Stuckenschmidt (heiner(At)informatik(DoT)uni-mannheim(DoT)de) for informal enquiries.

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Simone Paolo Ponzetto
Research Group Data and Web Science
Universität Mannheim
68131 Mannheim, Germany
http://dws.informatik.uni-mannheim.de
Tel: +49 621 181 2647