Three year post doc Manchester, UK

[Gina Conti-ramsden]

Generator Microsoft Word 11 (filtered medium)
Dear Colleagues,

Please note and circulate the information for this three year postdoctoral research associate position in Manchester for someone with a strong quantitative data analysis and statistical background. We welcome applications from postdoctoral candidates from the UK and Internationally.  The deadline is July 6th.

Many thanks,
Gina Conti-Ramsden
The University of Manchester

Quote ref: MHS/117/07

Internal ref: LR/JE

THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER 

PARTICULARS OF APPOINTMENT

FACULTY OF MEDICAL AND HUMAN SCIENCES

SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Human Communication and Deafness
and
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

RESEARCH ASSOCIATE (Ref:MHS/117/07)

1 The University invites applications for the above post which is tenable for a period of 36 months in the first instance.
2 Applications are invited from a highly motivated postdoctoral individual with a demonstrated interest and excellent skills on data analysis to work on a programme of studies involving children with specific language impairment (SLI) and other developmental disorders including autism. Applicants must have a strong quantitative background with a statistics, psychology or related discipline degree. 

The postholder will be involved in data analysis of large longitudinal and cross-sectional databases,
including complex surveys. Expertise on STATA and SPSS is required. The postholder will have the
opportunity to train on advanced statistical methods relevant to particular studies and to become
familiar with developmental psychopathology, in particular SLI and Autism. The postholder will also
be involved in writing up of results, preparation of manuscript for publication and other research-
related and dissemination activities.

3 Salary will be within the range £25,889 - £28,289 per annum according to relevant experience and qualifications. 

4 Informal inquiries may be made to Professor Gina Conti-Ramsden (Tel: +44 (0)161 275 3514, Secretary, Jacqueline O' Brien Tel: +44 (0)161 275 3366; Email: gina.conti-ramsden at manchester.ac.uk) and Professor Andrew Pickles (tel. +44 (0) 161 275 5204, email andrew.pickles at manchester.ac.uk )

5 Applications should be returned by midday July 6th, 2007 to

Jacqueline O' Brien
Human Communication and Deafness
School of Psychological Sciences
The University of Manchester
Humanities Devas Street Building
Oxford Road
Manchester
M13 9PL

Email: Jackie.o' brien at manchester.ac.uk

6 Interviews will be held on Wednesday 18 July 2007. Starting date 1 October 2007

7 If you have not been contacted by the interview date you should assume that, on this occasion, your application has not been successful. We would, however, like to take this opportunity to thank you for your interest in The University of Manchester.

WITH THE COMPLIMENTS OF THE DIRECTORATE OF HUMAN RESOURCES
THE UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER 

FACULTY OF MEDICAL AND HUMAN SCIENCES

SCHOOL OF PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCES
Human Communication and Deafness
and
SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

POST DOCTORAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATE (REF:MHS/117/07)


FURTHER PARTICULARS


Job Title:  Post Doctoral Research Associate

Contract Status: Fixed-term contract for a period of 36 months

Hours of Work: Full time (37 hours per week)

Salary: £25,889 - £28,290 per annum 

Location: Human Communication and Deafness, School of Psychological Sciences, and School of Medicine, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester

Responsible to: Programme Management Team; day-to-day will report to Professors Gina Conti-Ramsden and Andrew Pickles

The University of Manchester:
On 1 October 2004, a new chartered university came into being in Manchester. Bringing together two long-established institutions, UMIST and the Victoria University of Manchester, the new University of Manchester has a unified structure and the size and resources to compete on a global scale. It has an annual turnover of nearly £500 million, a staff of over 9,000 and a student population of some 30,000, of whom a quarter will be postgraduates. World-class teaching and research is undertaken with the aim of equalling the handful of leading UK universities which are truly globally competitive, which are at the forefront of invention and the generation of ' intellectual capital' , and which have the capacity to address some of the most important problems that afflict individuals and communities. The President and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alan Gilbert (formerly Vice-Chancellor of the University of Melbourne), took up his post in February 2004.

Although UMIST and the Victoria University of Manchester have distinct origins, the two institutions have a long history of co-operation with one another. They began working together almost 100 years ago, and for many years students from UMIST were awarded Victoria University of Manchester degrees. The universities are contiguous and their proximity has enabled them to develop a number of joint services, academic programmes and departments. Students from both universities have benefited from shared services for counselling, careers and residential accommodation, while Manchester Materials Science Centre and the Federal School of Business & Management are examples of longstanding academic collaboration.

The new institution has a spread of academic disciplines that is unsurpassed in the UK, covering 50 separate research units (as assessed by the Higher Education Funding Councils in the UK). Its learning resources are unrivalled, with the largest non-legal-deposit academic library in the country, more electronic periodicals, databases and reference works than any other library in the UK, and one of the most significant rare book and manuscript collections in the world, housed in the magnificent John Rylands Library, Deansgate. Other exceptional facilities include the Jodrell Bank Observatory, The Manchester Museum and the Whitworth Art Gallery. Learning, teaching and research is further supported by the premier university computer service in Europe.

The starting point for the new university is that excellence in research and excellence in teaching are two sides of the same coin. The University of Manchester strives to produce research of international standing and is in an especially strong position to attract research funding. It aims to increase its share of that funding, to work closely with business, industry and the professions, and to bring intellectual, social and economic benefits to the city of Manchester and to the north west of England as a whole. The strength and breadth of the research base will lead to an increased range and flexibility of degree provision and will make it possible to enhance learning and teaching facilities and support services for students.


Job Outline: 

Applications are invited from a highly motivated postdoctoral individual with a demonstrated interest and excellent skills on data analysis to work on a programme of studies involving children with specific language impairment (SLI) and other developmental disorders including autism. Applicants must have a strong quantitative background with a statistics, psychology or related discipline degree. 

The postholder will be involved in data analysis of large longitudinal and cross-sectional databases, including complex surveys. Expertise on STATA and SPSS is required. The postholder will have opportunity to train on advanced statistical methods relevant to particular studies and to become familiar with developmental psychopathology, in particular SLI and Autism. The postholder will also be involved in writing up of results, preparation of manuscript for publication and other research-related and dissemination activities.

Programme of Studies outline

Recent work has suggested that children with specific language impairment (SLI) have an increased risk of autism. The magnitude of this risk is considerable, about 10 times what would be expected from the general population. In addition, within SLI there is a subgroup of children (a quarter of individuals) who have some features of the broader autism spectrum disorders (ASD) phenotype without having a full-blown profile of ASD. At present, the natural history of SLI is still poorly described, especially in terms of the distinctive developmental and social elements associated with SLI specifically. Generally, investigations have not taken into account different SLI subtypes and thus have failed to distinguish potential contributions to mean differences in children in the SLI sample who may have had in addition some of the features of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). 
A programme of inter-related research projects will be carried out. Compared to the main bulk of the literature, the proposed projects have the distinctiveness of going from an interest in SLI and examining the potential contribution of ASD comorbidity. For all projects the number of participants with SLI will be 100 or more (242 at 7 years, 234 at 8 years, 200 at 11 years, 113 at 14 years, 139 at 16 and 17 years). In addition, data from 124 typically developing comparison young people who were stratified according to household income to be representative of the population of England as a whole (based on the 2001-2002 Household Survey Census data) is available at 16 and 17 years. The SLI sample is large and heterogeneous and is representative of children attending language units in the UK in 1995. The study has used a wide ranging test battery at each assessment point including between 6-12 tests of differing psycholinguistic skills at each stage, family history data, diagnostic interview and video data, self, teacher and parent interview and opinion data, educational tests and achievement and varied measures of social-emotional functioning. This complex database is rich in information and has over 5,000 variables to date. A number of comparative databases will also be used involving children with special needs and children with autism. Together the series of studies to be carried out have a common focus on developmental psychopathology and language in particular.

Main Duties and Responsibilities: 

· To plan and carry out in-depth data analysis involving large, complex databases and use of sophisticated methodology.
· To carry out literature surveys on topics related to developmental psychopathology.
· To contribute to the writing of the project for publication in refereed Journals and for national and international dissemination.
· To contribute to the organization and delivery of a specialized conference as well as workshops, seminars.
· Any other duties appropriate to the grade and role of the post holder.

This job description may be subject to revision following discussion with the person appointed and forms part of the contract of employment.










Person Specifications:


Essential
Desirable
Qualifications/ Education



Minimum: A Ph.D. in relevant field

Experience on the areas of language and/or developmental psychopathology

Skills/Training




Excellent data analysis skills

Excellent general research skills

Excellent writing skills

Expertise on at least one general data analysis software package (e.g. STATA)
In-depth, advanced knowledge of quantitative research methodology; skills in the use of large databases and in complex analysis approaches (e.g. dealing with missing data, adjusting for non-independent observations)


Experience





Demonstrated experience on data analysis 

Experience with longitudinal data and complex surveys

Experience of writing up for publication and dissemination

Personal Attributes





Ability to work independently, show initiative and scientific curiosity

Ability to organise their own time and work to tight deadlines

Effective organisational skills

Good communication skills
working with Senior staff
to work at a very high standard
Other requirements 
None of note


This job description may be subject to revision following discussion with the person appointed and forms part of the contract of employment.





gina.conti-ramsden at manchester.ac.uk School of Psychological Sciences Human Communication and Deafness The University of Manchester Humanities Devas Street Building
Oxford Road Manchester M13 9PL Tel. 0161-275-3514 Tel. 0161-275-3965 Secretary, Jackie O'Brien, Tel.0161-275-3366/3932 htpp://www.psych-sci.manchester.ac.uk/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/info-childes/attachments/20070620/a5fbc44f/attachment.htm>