Causal Inference Postdoctoral Researchers - Center for Causal Inference

About the role

The Center for Causal Inference (CCI) is a research center in the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Informatics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine, with close collaboration with the Wharton Statistics and Data Science Department. CCI is a multidisciplinary center that includes faculty, postdocs, and graduate students from Biostatistics, Statistics, Epidemiology, Computer Science, Criminology, Philosophy, and other disciplines. Its mission is to be the leading center for research and training in the development and application of causal inference theory and methods, with far‑ranging applications in Health and Social Sciences.

The department is Biostatistics and there are 2 open positions. Applications are welcome from U.S. citizens and foreign nationals.

The CCI is seeking two Postdoctoral Researchers in Causal Inference. The positions offer considerable flexibility in research focus and opportunities to collaborate with faculty affiliated with the CCI on methodological and applied research.

Position 1 will be jointly mentored by Drs. Ashkan Ertefaie and Dylan Small. Potential research areas include:

• Developing methods to evaluate the effects of antidiabetic treatments on recurrent hospitalizations for T2DM‑related complications.
• Developing methods for constructing just‑in‑time adaptive interventions using mobile health (mHealth) data.
• Developing novel causal inference methods to reconcile potentially conflicting findings across randomized trials and observational studies, particularly in pregnancy research.

Position 2 is a joint position with CCI and the Center for Health Innovations in Reproductive and Perinatal Population Research (CHIRP) and will be mentored by Drs. Enrique Schisterman, Aimin Chen, and Eric Tchetgen Tchetgen. Potential research areas include developing methods for measuring exposures below the limit of detection, with applications in reproductive and environmental epidemiology.

Both researchers will receive professional development mentorship from CCI Co‑Directors Nandita Mitra and Eric Tchetgen Tchetgen, as well as project‑specific mentorship designed to support their career development.

Start date and term are negotiable.

Responsibilities

• Develop new theory and methods in causal inference
• Develop software
• Potentially collaborate on applied projects in Health and Social Sciences
• Participate in the weekly working group meeting and the annual Causal Inference Summer Institute as an active member of the CCI

Requirements

• Doctoral degree in biostatistics, statistics, or a related field
• Strong computational skills (preferred)
• Expertise in causal inference (preferred but not required)