Call for postdoctoral position on the subject of technological innovation and its relationship with economic growth and development
We are looking for one postdoctoral candidate that will work with Chris Magee, professor of the practice at MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society and co-director of the International Design Center and Giorgio Triulzi, assistant professor at Universidad de los Andes School of Management (Bogotá, Colombia) and research affiliate at MIT Sociotechnical Systems Research Center.
The contract is for one year and is potentially renewable for a second year, conditional on performance and funding availability. The intention is to spend the first year at MIT and the second year at University of the Andes. The postdoc will primarily work on a project to develop a new artifact-based classification of technologies, matching it with industry classification systems and analyze patent data to identify high-potential diversification pathways. A specific focus of the project is to provide data-driven policy and managerial recommendations to middle-income countries for the achievement of innovation and industrial development targets described in the Sustainable Development Goals. However, the postdoc is also encouraged to contribute additional research ideas, within the broad field of the title given for this call.
Requirements
– a strong research interest in the field of technological innovation and its relationship with economic growth and development, proven by prior work in this area
– having completed a PhD at the start of the postdoc (in the field of Economics is preferred but other fields are also of interest provided that the candidate has strong research experience in the relationship between technological change, economic productivity and growth)
– strong quantitative skills: advanced econometrics and statistics, ability to handle and analyze data (experience of working with large patent datasets is a plus)
– experience in programming in Python, R or Matlab (knowledge of Stata is not required but desirable)
– fluency in English (knowledge of Spanish could be helpful but is not required)
Important dates
Application deadline: November 30, 2018
Skype interviews invitation for shortlisted candidates (no notification will be sent to candidates that are not selected): December 15, 2018
Tentative starting date: February 1, 2019
Application procedure
To apply to the position please fill the online form and send the CV and motivation letter at the MIT career website (Job Number 16512). Please also send the following documents to both g.triulzi@uniandes.edu.co and cmagee@mit.edu with the email subject saying “Application for MIT-Uniandes postdoc position”.
– CV
– motivation letter
– letter of references
– a minimum of one and a maximum of three prior research articles related to the topic of this call (please attach PDF files)
Pre-application inquires can be directed to the same email addresses.
About the Principal Investigators
Chris Magee has a PhD in Metallurgy and Materials Science from Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie Mellon University), is a member of the National Academy of Engineers and has worked for many years in R&D for Ford Motor Company. His recent scholarly work focused on performance curves, technology decomposition and quantitative analysis of technology development.
Giorgio Triulzi is an assistant professor at Universidad de los Andes School of Management and a Research Affiliate at MIT Sociotechnical Systems Research Center. He has a PhD in Economics and Policy Studies of Technological Change from Maastricht University and UNU-MERIT in the Netherlands. Giorgio has spent one year as postdoc at Singapore University of Technology and Design and two years at MIT. He has expertise in patent network analysis, empirical identification of technological trajectories, measurement of technology relatedness and estimation of technology improvement rates
