Postdoc #1. Hierarchical Modeling and Computation: We are fitting hierarchical regression models with deep interactions. We’re working on new models with structured prior distributions, and this also requires advances in Bayesian computation. Applications include public opinion, climate reconstruction, and education research.

Postdoc #1 is funded by grants from the Department of Energy, Institute of Education Sciences, and National Science Foundation.

Postdoc #2. Hierarchical Modeling and Statistical Graphics: The goal of this research program is to investigate the application of the latest methods of multi-level data analysis, visualization and regression modeling to an important commercial problem: forecasting retail sales at the individual item level. These forecasts are used to make ordering, pricing and promotions decisions which can have significant economic impact to the retail chain such that even modest improvements in the accuracy of predictions, across a large retailer’s product line, can yield substantial margin improvements.

Project #2 is to be undertaken with, and largely funded by, a firm which provides forecasting technology and services to large retail chains, and which will provide access to a unique and rich set of proprietary data. The postdoc will be expected to spend some time working directly with this firm, but it is fundamentally a research position.

Ideally, postdoc #1 will have a statistics or computer science background, will be interested in statistical modeling, serious programming, and applications. Ideally, postdoc #2 will have a background in statistics, psychometrics, or economics and be interested in marketing or related topics. Both postdocs should be able to work fluently in R and should already know about hierarchical models and Bayesian inference and computation.

Both projects will be at the Applied Statistics Center at Columbia University, also with connections outside Columbia. Collaborators on Postdoc #1 include Jinchen Liu, Jennifer Hill, Matt Schofield, Upmanu Lall, Chad Scherrer, Alan Edelman, and Sophia Rabe-Hesketh. Collaborators on Postdoc #2 include Eric Johnson.

If you’re interested in either, please send a letter of application, a c.v., some of your articles, and three letters of recommendation to the Applied Statistics Center coordinator, Caroline Peters, [email protected].