Applications are invited for a Postdoc position in the laboratory of Dr. Siavash Mirarab in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, at University of California, San Diego. The research focus of this position is HIV evolution in transmission networks and their relationship to HIV evolution.

HIV transmits and evolves in social/sexual networks. Reconstructing HIV transmission networks from molecular data can greatly enhance intervention efforts aimed at controlling epidemics; however, limitations of inferring HIV transmission networks from genetic data are poorly characterized. This project, funded by an award from the Center for AIDS Research, will build a framework to simulate the HIV evolution and transmission on a network.

The successful candidate will be expected to develop new methods for generating synthetic data and to perform detailed and rigorous studies of challenges and opportunities in reconstructing transmission networks. Building this system requires designing new statistical generative models that capture biologically relevant aspects of HIV transmission and evolution. The project, therefore, is interdisciplinary and requires statistics, immunology, social networks, and graph theory among other topics. Expertise in statistics, computer science, and stochastic networks, in addition to familiarity with bioinformatics in general and phylogenetics, in particular, will be desired. Strong candidates with a background in some but not all of these areas are encouraged to apply.

In addition to the PI and graduate students, the postdoc will interact with HIV experts at the UCSD CFAR center and faculty members at the school of medicine so that the models and methods built are of immediate relevance to the medical community. Mentorship from senior members of the CFAR group helps the postdoc develop a diverse research portfolio that combines computational and medical elements.

The position will be for a maximum of two years, with the second year contingent on satisfactory progress.

Required qualifications are

Applications: Email a CV, a short summary of research interests and experience, and contact information for two references to smirarab@ucsd.edu. Include [Postdoc-CNIHR] in the subject.