Natural language plays an important role at every stage of the healthcare process, and recent advances in NLP therefore hold great potential, both for improvement of healthcare and as a tool for health research. However, NLP in medical settings comes with its own specific challenges, such as sparsity, jargon and language, and the need for integration with other data sources, such as (structured) data from electronic health records or medical images (unstructured). These challenges provide ample ground for further development, as well as application in clinical settings.
We are looking to appoint two ambitious and driven assistant professors spearheading the convergence of NLP and healthcare innovation. In Utrecht, electronic health record data from different sources in the region Utrecht will be made available through U-Cloud. U-Cloud will play a central role in a Learning Health Care environment, in which electronic health data from the people in our region will be used to improve health care for these patients. As an assistant professor, you will combine your expertise in the computer science/NLP community with an affinity for medical research. As a bridge between methodologically oriented NLP research and medical applications, you will leverage your expertise in the computer science/NLP domain, improve the use of unstructured EHR data from U-Cloud in medical research, and seamlessly connecting cutting-edge developments to impactful clinical implementations.
The Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care Medicine is a division of the UMC Utrecht and conducts groundbreaking research within four research programs: Cardiovascular health, Cancer, Infectious Diseases, and Methodology. Approximately four hundred researchers with diverse backgrounds work for the Julius Center in four departments (Epidemiology & Health Economics, General Practice & Nursing science, Global Public Health and Bioethics, and Datascience & Biostatistics) and in one of the six strategic programs of the UMC Utrecht. The Julius Center is a stimulating working environment for ambitious researchers. Within projects there is a very close connection with various other divisions of the UMC Utrecht and beyond.
We have two positions open for an assistant professor on NLP: one will be working in the department of Epidemiology & Health Economics; one will be working in the department of Data science and Biostatistics.
This position is at the level of assistant professor at Julius Center. This function involves the areas of research, education and management and entails the following duties:
- Perform and support research in the field of NLP and Health/disease prevention, contributing to the Data Science Plan of the Julius Center and the development and use of U-Cloud, participate in the AI methods lab at the UMC Utrecht and fuel a broader application of NLP in the UMC Utrecht, using the U-Cloud infrastructure.
- Educational coordination, development, and implementation in the area of expertise within UMC Utrecht and UU
- Supervise Bachelor, Master, and PhD students
- Write research grant proposals and obtain external funding
- Contribute to management tasks
We are looking for a candidate that meets the following requirements:
- A PhD degree in AI, Data science or a related field with a proven affinity with the health domain, or a PhD degree in a medical discipline with a proven track record in the application of NLP techniques
- Experience in the field of NLP and Health, demonstrated by publications in relevant journals and conferences, involvement in organization of events in the field, and/or presentations at medical and/or AI/DS conferences.
- Academic teaching experience with experience in or ambition to supervise of MSc and PhD students
- Experience with attracting research funding
- A salary between €4.498 and € 6.986 gross per month, salary scale 11 (max. € 6156) or 12 (max. € 6986), based on full-time employment (36 hours) and experience.
- A full-time position, initially for a period of one year with possibility of extension.
- Year-end bonus of 8.3% and holiday allowance of 8%.
- Pension insurance with ABP. We take care of approximately 70% of the monthly contribution.
- Access to a variety of online courses through GoodHabitz.
- The option to select additional employment benefits in exchange for gross salary, such as purchasing a bicycle and memberships.
Het salaris bedraagt €5459 - €6986