Imperial College London s5

IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON JOB DESCRIPTION

Job Title: Research Associate (SM119-10)

School: School of Public Health

Department: Infectious Disease Epidemiology

Job Family/Level: Research and Education, Level B

Salary Range: £26,720 - £38,890 per annum

Responsible to: Dr Marie-Claude Boily (IC)

Working Relationships (internal) Dr Marie-Claude Boily, Dr Mike Pickles

Working Relationships (external) Dr Peter Vickerman (LSHTM), Michel Alary (Laval University)

Location: St Mary’s campus, Paddington

Contract: Full time for one year in the first instance

Research programme:

This is a research position within a collaborative team of mathematical modelers and epidemiologists, from different Canadian, Indian and English institutions, interested in the transmission dynamics of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infections and the evaluation of HIV prevention intervention. The modeling team at Imperial College is lead by Dr Marie-Claude Boily.

This highly visible project is financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and is part of the India AIDS Initiative (AVAHAN) intervention prevention programme, which is implemented in selected districts of six Indian states. The current project aim to evaluate the impact of this large scale intervention targeted to high risk population using a novel mathematical monitoring and evaluation framework.

Job summary:

The suitable candidate will help at the final stage of development of the mathematical evaluation framework and in the actual final evaluation of the impact of HIV/AIDS intervention activities targeted to core group individuals with high-risk sexual practices (e.g. male and female sex workers and their clients) on the HIV epidemic in more than 20 AVAHAN districts. The monitoring and evaluation (M&E) plan for the intervention involves the use of dynamical models of HIV/AIDS and STI transmission and extensive behavioural and biological data collection in high-risk and general populations in the different districts. The data collection is used to inform model development and parameter estimations. The project also includes additional modeling experiments to validate and simplify the mathematical framework without losing functionality and accuracy.

The candidate will be involved in adapting and simplifying the existing mathematical model of STI and HIV/AIDS, testing model assumptions, statistical analysis of data to parameterize the model, fitting the dynamical model to epidemiological trends in multiple settings using complex Bayesian sampling procedures, and multivariate statistical sensitivity analysis of model predictions of intervention impact.

The candidate will also be expected to be motivated and autonomous, have good organization skills, assist the main mathematical modeler in different analyses as well as carry his/her analysis and submit manuscript to peer reviewed journals.

Research Duties:

 Reviews o The review of the scientific literature on key aspects of model development, HIV/AIDS and STI epidemiology o Review and document the main issues encountered in past work and define appropriate modelling studies to solve these issues and improve the structure of the Avahan impact model.

 Model development o Help in the continued development and validation of the model structure and programming of dynamical model o Development and use of algorithms to fit model to epidemiological data . Prior estimation of model parameters . Sampling of model parameter space . Evaluation of goodness of fit o Estimation of intervention impact o Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of model results to parameter assumptions o Sensitivity analysis of model results to structural assumptions and simplification of evaluation framework

 Diffusion of information o Publication of methods and results in peer-reviewed journals o Presentation of results in scientific conferences or meetings of collaborator when appropriate

 Management o Defining a timeline for undertaking model developments and delivering to deadlines o Arranging team meeting sessions to inform the team and discuss main changes to procedure or problems with model development and implementation

 Committees and Meetings

o Attending the department/school meetings and committees when appropriate o Attending the M&E collaborators meetings

 Others o Working in close collaboration with the modelling team at Imperial College and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine o Work and assist closely the senior modeller and organise working meetings weekly o Working flexibly to meet deadlines o To comply with relevant College policies, including Financial Regulations, Equal Opportunities Policy, Promoting Race Equality Policy, Health and Safety Policy, Information Systems Security Policy and Intellectual Property Rights and Register of Interests Policies

Job descriptions cannot be exhaustive and the post-holder may be required to undertake other duties, which are broadly in line with the above key responsibilities.

Imperial College is committed to equality of opportunity and of eliminating discrimination. All employees are expected to adhere to the principles set out in its Equal Opportunities in Employment Policy, Promoting Race Equality Policy and Disability Policy and all other relevant guidance/practice frameworks. PERSON SPECIFICATION

Qualifications

Essential

 Strong mathematical background with a PhD degree in a relevant quantitative subject (e.g. mathematics, statistics, epidemiology, physics, etc) or  Strong mathematical background with a MSc degree in a relevant quantitative subject (e.g. mathematics, statistics, epidemiology, physics, etc) and in depth experience in applied research.

Knowledge

Essential

 Working knowledge of differential equation models  Knowledge of basic statistics (multivariate models, sampling, etc)  Working knowledge of statistical softwares (e.g. SAS, SPSS)  Knoweldge of basic epidemiological principles

Desirable

 Working knowledge of Microsoft packages (e.g. Word, PowerPoint, Excel)  Advanced knowledge of statistics (Bayes theory, maximum likelihood estimation, GIS, etc)  Advanced knowledge of the epidemic theory of infectious diseases  Knowledge of HIV/AIDS and sexually transmitted infections

Experience

Essential

 Experience in mathematical modeling of dynamical systems  Experience in developing, analyzing and programming dynamical models in C/C++  Ability to design and analyze large scale modeling experiments  Ability to undertake algebraic manipulations of model systems  Experience in statistical analysis

Desirable

 Experience in developing and programming epidemiological models of HIV/AIDS or other infectious diseases  Experience of handling uncertainty analyses in fitting dynamics models and performing intensive sensitivity analysis (e.g. Latin Hypercube sampling, MCMC, Likelihood)  Interest and experience of working in health in low and middle income countries  Experience in analyzing research data using appropriate statistical techniques  Experience in writing scientific papers and preparing scientific presentations  Previous supervisory experience

Skills/Abilities

Essential  Good computing skills (e.g. C or C++ or others appropriate language)  Ability to learn new state of the art modeling or statistical techniques  Ability to make effective use of scientific literature to direct research  Ability to work with limited amount of supervision and exercise initiative  Ability to relate appropriately to others and work effectively within a team environment  Ability to work in close collaboration with two supervisors  Good verbal communication skills  Ability to write reports in a clear and concise manner  Excellent time management and organization skills and the ability to work to tight deadlines  Ability to work with care and attention to detail

Desirable

 Ability to supervise students at undergraduate and MSc level  Ability to work with large data sets  Presentation skills  Writing papers and grant applications for future funding

Personal Attributes /Other

Essential

 Must be prepared to work flexible hours when needed to meet deadlines  Must be able to work in close collaboration and provide support to the senior modeler  Must be prepared to contribute to teaching  Must be prepared to travel to India or to international conferences when appropriate  Must be able to work closely with our collaborating institutions

APPLICATION GUIDANCE Please read the person specification carefully and describe, as part of your application, how much you feel you meet each of the criteria.

If you attach a CV it should include the following information:

Applicant’s full name, private address and private telephone number A confidential fax number and e-mail address, where possible Degrees (including University and dates) Past and present posts List of publications Brief description of future research plans Names, addresses and, email, fax numbers, of three referees.

Thank you for your interest in this post. We look forward to receiving your application.