The Position
The Max Planck Research Group “Biosocial – Biology, Social Disparities, and Development” takes an interdisciplinary approach to studying the effects of social inequality on human development at multiple biological and psychological levels led by principal investigator Dr. Laurel Raffington. Biosocial research provides an important avenue of inquiry for understanding how the social environment intersects with biological processes to shape differential outcomes of education, health, and well-being across the lifespan.
The successful candidate will work with genomic and behavioral genetic methods to examine the effects of childhood environments on physical and cognitive health across the lifespan. They will leverage data from several cohorts, including analysis of genome-wide DNA-methylation in a randomized-controlled cash gift study.
Our Offer
This postdoctoral position is available from October 1, 2023 onwards (until July 31, 2027), but later start dates are possible. The Max Planck Institute for Human Development (www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de) offers an excellent research infrastructure, including support staff and equipment. It provides an international research environment, with English as the working language. The research group fosters a collaborative and inclusive work environment both within the group and in international collaborations.
Your Profile
Applicants should have a strong interest to work with novel genomic methods (e.g., genomewide DNA-methylation) in association with environmental contexts and developmental psychology. Applicants should hold a PhD (or be close to completion) in bioinformatics, genomics, biological psychology, computational social science or similar. Experience in the following areas is an advantage, but we do not expect you to meet them all:
- Experience working with multiple cohort studies
- Multivariate, longitudinal and/or meta-analytic data analysis
- Epigenetics, particularly genome-wide DNA-methylation
- Human genetics and genomics
- Structural equation modeling
- R programming
Your Application
The Max Planck Society strives for gender and diversity equality. We welcome applications from all backgrounds.
The Max Planck Society is committed to increasing the number of individuals with disabilities in its workforce and therefore encourages applications from such qualified individuals.
Applicants should submit 1) a cover letter describing research interests and their alignment to our group’s goals, research experience (including data analytic skills), 2) curriculum vitae without a photo, including 2 referees we may contact, 3) transcripts, and 4) a writing sample (e.g., abstract of planned research or first-author publication or abstract of PhD thesis). We kindly ask you to submit your application
as a single-file pdf to
raffington@mpib-berlin.mpg.de. Review of applications will begin on July 31, 2023, and continue until the position is filled.
Weblink:
https://www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/1679862/2023-06-16-biosocial-postdoctoral-position-mfd?c=219557