Postdoctoral researcher in Computational Linguistics and Dialogue Modelling at ILLC

The Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) at the University of Amsterdam invites applications for a one-year research position at the postdoc level in the Dialogue Modelling Group led by Raquel Fernández. The mission of the group is to understand dialogical interaction by developing empirically-motivated formal and computational models that can be applied to various dialogue processing tasks and to human-machine interaction.

The ILLC is a research institute in which researchers from the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Humanities collaborate. It offers a very international English-speaking research environment. Research is interdisciplinary and aims at bringing together insights from various fields concerned with information and information processing, such as logic, mathematics, computer science, artificial intelligence, linguistics, computational linguistics, cognitive science, musicology, and philosophy. The institute is located in the beautiful city of Amsterdam, renowned for its historic canals, its cosmopolitan laid-back atmosphere, and its excellent connections to the rest of Europe and beyond.

The University of Amsterdam strives for a better gender balance in its staff. Women therefore are particularly strongly encouraged to apply for this position.

Project description

This position is part of a larger project on Asymmetry in Conversation, funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) under the VIDI scheme. The exact research topic to be pursued by the successful applicant is flexible, but it must fit the general research agenda of the group, which is centred around computational semantics and pragmatics, in particular in interactive linguistic settings, including dialogue systems. The group has a wide international network of collaborators, both in academia and in industry research labs.

The successful applicant will be expected to fulfil the following tasks:

• to present intermediate research results at international workshops and conferences, and publish them in proceedings and journals;
• to collaborate with the researchers in the Dialogue Modelling Group and other relevant parts of the ILLC;
• to participate in the organisation of research activities and events at the ILLC, such as seminars and workshops.

While this is primarily a research position, the successful applicant will be expected to also make a modest contribution to teaching at the ILLC in subjects relevant to the candidate's research profile.

Requirements

Prospective candidates should:

• hold or be about to obtain a PhD degree in computational linguistics, computational psycholinguistics, artificial intelligence, computer science, or a related field;
• have good programming skills;
• have a keen interest in problem solving and research, a drive to publish and the wish to learn new skills through working with or assisting in guiding PhD and MSc students;
• have good communication skills in English, both oral and written.

Further information

If you have any further questions, please contact:

• Dr Raquel Fernández.

Appointment

The successful candidate will be employed by the Faculty of Science at the University of Amsterdam on a fixed-term full-time position (38 hours per week) for a period of one year.

Depending on experience, the gross monthly salary will range from €2,588 to €4,084 (scale 10) and will be supplemented with an 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% end-of-year bonus.

The Collective Labour Agreement for Dutch Universities applies.

Starting date: 1 September 2018 or soon thereafter

Job application

Applications should include the following information (in one single PDF file, using your surname as the file name):

• a statement of research interests that motivates why you are applying for this position and what your research plans are (at most 2 pages);
• a CV, including details of research experience and a full list of publications;
• the names, affiliations, and email addresses of two or three people who can provide letters of reference for you.

Completed applications should be submitted by 1 June 2018 to application-science@uva.nl and should state your name and vacancy number 18-136 in the subject field. #LI-DNP