The Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research (MPIDR) in collaboration with the Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet is inviting applications from qualified and highly motivated students for a PhD student position (m/f/d) in area of population health.
Your tasks
Project description: Successful disease prevention has been a cornerstone of health and mortality improvements in recent decades. However, effective disease prevention has far-reaching demographic consequences. Improved survival with diseases results in an increasing number of life years with diseases, and as a consequence, a population that will consist of higher shares of individuals with chronic conditions, or a history of diseases. At the same time, longer lifespans may cause individual disease histories to become more complex, and increase the number of multimorbid individuals. Counteracting dynamics such as a delayed disease onset or a complete prevention of a disease could slow or even reverse these processes. The demographic consequences of disease prevention are the result of inherently positive achievements but they are inevitable and pose new challenges, which eventually cause us to rethink preventive strategies and healthcare policies.
This PhD project explores the demographic consequences of disease prevention and centers around the questions: (I) how and to what extent has disease prevention altered the composition of the population, and (II) how does disease prevention relate to population-level dynamics, such as the increases in life expectancy?
Your profile
We are looking for a candidate with a background in Demography, Epidemiology, Public Health, or related disciplines and research interests in health and mortality.
Our offer
Supervisory team: This project will be supervised by an interdisciplinary team of renowned scholars that includes Marcus Ebeling (MPIDR), Mikko Myrskylä (MPIDR), Karin Modig (Karolinska Institutet), and Katharina Schmidt-Mende (Karolinska Institutet). For informal inquiries regarding the PhD project and the position, please contact Marcus Ebeling (Ebeling@demogr.mpg.de), Mikko Myrskylä (office-myrskyla@demogr.mpg.de) and Karin Modig (Karin.modig@ki.se).
The PhD student is expected to be in residence at the MPIDR and enrolled in the PhD program of the Institute of Environmental Medicine at Karolinska Institutet. Additionally, the PhD student will receive support for research visits to Karolinska Institutet, in order to complete mandatory coursework and to have further scientific exchange with the research team in Stockholm. The PhD studentship offers an excellent opportunity for motivated students to work with a highly international team of researchers.
In addition to the mandatory coursework at Karolinska Institutet, the admitted student is expected to be part of the International Max Planck Research School for Population, Health and Data Science (IMPRS-PHDS) that merges demography, epidemiology and data science. IMPRS-PHDS equips doctoral students not only with advanced knowledge of the theory and methods of demography and epidemiology (broadly defined as ‘population health’), but also with strong technical skills in statistics, mathematical modeling, and computational and data management methods (broadly referred to as ‘data science’). PHDS supports strong interdisciplinary research training and exchange within a network of universities in Europe and the US. The research school offers a core training program in Rostock, extensive networking opportunities across partner sites, and high-quality supervision across at least two institutes. For more information on the IMPRS-PHDS curriculum please see https://www.imprs-phds.mpg.de.
The starting date is flexible, but no later than Spring, 2024. The PhD student is offered a 3-year contract with remuneration based on the salary structure of the German public sector (Öffentlicher Dienst, TVöD Bund) currently starting at 34,295.22 € gross a year. Online interviews will be held at the beginning of October 2023.
The MPIDR is one of the leading demographic research centers in the world. It is part of the Max Planck Society, a network of more than 80 institutes that form Germany’s premier basic-research organization. Max Planck Institutes have an established record of world-class research and they offer a unique environment that combines the best aspects of an academic setting and a research laboratory. Karolinska Institutet is one of the world’s leading medical universities with the vision to pursue the development of knowledge about life and to promote better health for all. Karolinska Institutet offers the largest range of medical education in Sweden.
The MPIDR is an equal opportunities employer. Our work atmosphere includes respectful treatment of each other, with gender, nationality, religion, disability, age, cultural origin, and sexual identity playing no role. We aim to have an institutional culture that enables everyone to develop their individual skills and competencies.
The Max Planck Society offers a broad range of measures to support the reconciliation of work and family. These are complemented by the MPIDR’s own initiatives. The Society has been awarded the certificate “Work and Family” which is granted to institutions committed to establishing a family-friendly corporate culture by binding target agreements. The MPIDR collaborates with a network of local day-care centers that provides childcare places for the children of Institute staff. The Max Planck Society has contracts with a private family service company that offers services such as arranging child care on short notice in various cities in Germany for parents who attend conferences, care services for children of school age up to 14 years, and support for those caring for family members and relatives. The MPIDR also practices flexible working-time models, which include at least one home office day per week, and scheduling meetings only within core working hours. To help accompanying spouses and partners find appropriate work at their new location, the MPIDR works in close cooperation with Dual-Career Partners in regional networks.
The MPIDR values diversity and is keen to employ individuals from minorities. We are committed to increasing the number of individuals with disabilities in our workforce and therefore encourage applications from such qualified individuals. Furthermore, we seek to increase the number of women in those areas where they are underrepresented and therefore explicitly encourage women to apply.
Your application
Applications must be submitted online via this survey by September 8th, 2023 and include as a single pdf file, in English:
- Curriculum Vitae, including a list of your scholarly publications,
- a motivational statement (maximum two pages) explaining why you applied, how your research interests fit with the project; how the position could foster your career development; and describing your technical skills and areas of expertise,
- copies of transcripts of undergraduate and master’s degrees. Applicants should hold a master’s degree or equivalent at the time of starting the PhD,
- names and contact information for 2 academic referees,
- one writing sample.