Academic Vacancies

The Paul Scherrer Institut is a centre for multi-disciplinary research and one of the world's leading user laboratories. With its 1200 employees it belongs as an autonomous institution to the Swiss ETH domain and concentrates its activities on solid-state research and material sciences, elemen-tary particle and astrophysics, energy and environmental research as well as on biology and medi-cine.
The Gasphase and Aerosol Chemistry group is engaged in field studies, smog chamber experi-ments and in photochemical transport modeling. The main focus is the assessment and under-standing of the polluted boundary layer gasphase and aerosol composition and transformation.
Within a new project we are looking for a

PhD Student

In aerosol composition research

Your tasks
- Improve the existing experimental set-up for the determination of particulate 14C
- Study different particulate source contributions (e.g. wood burning versus traffic) at different sites in Switzerland and Europe in cooperation with national and international partners. The focus
will be the use of the 14C method but the work and analysis will include other measuring techniques like EC/OC measement methods and aerosol mass spectrometry.
You can find information about the 14C method in Szidat et al. (2006, J. Geophys. Res.) and references therein.
- Presentation of results at conferences and in peer-reviewed journals

Your profile
You have a master/diploma degree in chemistry, atmospheric science, environmental science, physics or equivalent. Preferentially, you are familiar with aerosol science and atmospheric chemistry. You like experimental work but you are also able to analyse your data using statistical methods. You are a motivated team player who likes to work in an interdisciplinary research field. Excellent communication skills in English are required and in German beneficial.

We are looking forward to your application.

For further information please contact Dr André Prévôt, Tel. + 41 56 310 42 02,
e-Mail: andre.prevot@psi.ch

Please send your application to: Paul Scherrer Institut, Human Resources, Mrs. Elke Baumann, ref. code 5501, 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland.

Ph.D. Position (65%)
(remote sensing / atmospheric research)


The Remote Sensing Research Group, Department of Geography, University
of Bern - Switzerland offers a Ph.D. position in remote sensing. The
project "Visibility forecast" is a co-operation between the Remote
Sensing Research Group and the Institute for Meteorology and Climate
Research, Karlsruhe. The core of this joined project is to combine
remote sensing data with a nested atmospheric chemistry model to achieve
visibility forecasts.

Position: Derivation of aerosol optical depth from NOAA AVHRR over land
surface
· Further development of the existing NOAA AVHRR aerosol product (channel 1)
· Algorithm development for a NOAA AVHRR aerosol optical depth retrieval
(channel 2)
· Derivation of Ångström-Coefficients and improvement of aerosol model
· Maintenance of ground based sun photometer

Applicants should have an M.S. degree in a relevant discipline,
preferable in physical geography or meteorology with advanced knowledge
in physics.
Skills in optical remote sensing, meteorology and experience in digital
image processing as well as programming are desirable. Project duration
is 3 - 4 years starting in July 2006. The salary is approximately SFr.
40.000,-- net per year. More information on the group's activities can
be found at http://saturn.unibe.ch/rsbern/. For additional information,
contact: Dr. Stefan Wunderle (swun@giub.unibe.ch).
Submit application to Dr. Stefan Wunderle, Department of Geography,
University of Bern, Hallerstr. 12, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland or via email.

Application deadline: June 15, 2006.

Women are especially invited to apply for these positions.

--
Dr. Stefan Wunderle
Remote Sensing Research Group
Department of Geography
Hallerstrasse 12
CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland
Tel. ++41 31 631 8553 (direct)
Tel. ++41 31 631 8859 (Secretary)
Fax ++41 31 631 8511

For those of you who want to take GRE test, maybe this an useful article. Written by a person, IITian, who got 1600 (perfect score) in GRE test.

For the benefit of the guys who arent well versed with the IITian jargon (and there
seem to be quite a few of them checking out this site recently), here is a
quick glossary:

funda, plural fundae : ideas, concepts, paradigms (derived from fundamentals)
junta       : people in general (derived from the hindi word for people)
infi        : infinite, a large number

Stuff to get(You wont need more than this..)

1. kaplan (version 6.0)
2. princeton (stuff that has proper tests - new version)
3. 800 tests
4. powerprep (get the latest version from the gre site)
5. essay list from gre site
6. math prep fundae from gre site
7. wordweb - dictionary
8. cambridge tests 

Books

1. barrons
2. any essay book which does gre essays
3. if you have time, you may try kaplan or princeton books, but i didnt
  have time to do them
4. big book


Fundae

(the time written in brackets is from an optimal schedule, NOT my actual schedule depending on
the time you have, you may want to move this around)

Step 1. Go through words in barrons - 50 lists - mark out words you dont know (5-10 days)
 Get some familiarity with the words that you dont know at all, read the sentences and
 try to understand them. at times when i wasnt clear with the meaning, i used
 www.thefreedictionary.com for additional meanings and sentences.
 Also read the fundae on GRE given at the start of barrons so that you dont have any
 misconceptions

Step 2. Once a familiarity is achieved with most words start mugging just the words that
 you dont know and at the same time start with tests. (8-15 days)

 kaplans tests are good at this stage to frighten you (:-)). according to most ppl,
 kaplans scores are a strict lower bound on what you may get in the actual test.

 big book tests are also very good because they are from the actual gre guys
 and would necessarily test the same vocab. keep doing this - there are infi tests
  in this book and they wont run out. but make sure that in paper tests you
 follow the same attempt once and ditch funda rather than moving around arbitly
 in the paper. also paper tests have a different number of questions than the
 online test, so make sure you know that and time yourself accordingly.

Step 3. General testing stage (15-30 days)
 keep doing tests in this stage, my rule was attempt one math every two verbals
 do a few full time tests as well.
 
 if you are done with kaplan, you may want to try princeton, pretty easy stuff
 not really at teh level of gre, but practice nonetheless.
 
 you could do 800 tests too, the tests arent great, but its online.
 i think cambridge tests are good, but i didnt have the latest cd.

 the words that you find are not even there in barrons, write them separately somewhere
 for last minute revision.
 
 you should do the tests in barrons as well, they are pretty decent.

Step 4. One week before the exam stage (7 days)
 you MUST do powerprep. it gives you an exact feel of the online gre exam
 and is really good. do the practice exercises in it as well.
 
 continue with the testing process, and revise the words from barrons. (if you had
 the time and the enthu to make flash cards, revise them now)
 
 read the fundae in barrons for both math and verbal to make sure that you know
 everything.
 
 also spend some time reading sample essays and discussing them with ppl / showing
 your essays to ppl and making them evaluate, stuff like that.

Step 5. The day

 Chill and attempt questions sensibly.   

 In verbal, try and finish up the antonyms, anal and sent. comp. quickly enough
 so that you can give more time to the comprehension sections. Maybe you can try
 this in practice tests: try and quickly review your answer before jumping to the
 next question, it helps to reduce careless errors.

 In math, i tried to review each answer in the first 15 questions, as a result i
 was nearly out of time at the end. be warned, for some reason, the math in
 the actual gre is far tougher than any of the ones uve faced so far, but still 
 easy enough if done properly.

 Essays, follow the schedule that uve developed while writing practice essays.
 use similar techniques and stuff. for some reason readers in US prefer some
 kind of unconventionality, and you may want to try something different, but not
 too different. For the argument section there are usually 3 odd flaws, put one
 flaw per para and elaborate.

http://www.math-jobs.com/0023.html
nz: Pro-Vice-Chancellor (International) (responsible for enhancing University's int'l profile & internationalisation of curriculum, while involved in research in area appropriate to his/her backgrnd; ability to lead a team) / University of Otago; Dunedin / deadline June 30

http://www.math-jobs.com/0288.html
au: Research Associate (2y, from Sept 06; PhD in (theoretical) comp sc or (comp-sc related) maths, or equiv research exp; A$57,895-61,925; project: research into probabilistic/demonic concurrent systems) / University of New South Wales; Sydney / deadline June 1

http://www.math-jobs.com/0398.html
uk: Data Manager/Programmer - Whitehall II Study (3y; degree in a numerate discipline; exp in use of db's such as SAS, including data mgmt & programming; strong backgrnd in computer programming; £33,925-42,335) / University College London / deadline June 16

http://www.math-jobs.com/0378.html
de: Wissenschaftliche/r Mitarbeiter/in (2 y (20 Wochenstunden); ueberdurchschnittlicher Hochschulabschluss in einem mathematischen Studiengang; IIa BAT-O; DFG-Drittmittelprojekt "Effiziente Modellierung geometrischer Strukturen in digitalen Bildern: Entwurf und Analyse neuer Algorithmen") / Ernst-Moritz-Arndt Universitaet Greifswald / deadline May 29

http://www.math-jobs.com/0073.html
uk: ERP Prize PhD Studentships in Mathematical Sciences (3y, start Oct 06; The Maxwell Institute aims to attract the most talented applicants from around the world) / Maxwell Institute for Mathematical Sciences; Edinburgh / open to students of any nationality; deadline June 30

http://www.math-jobs.com/0014.html
rw: Rector/Vice Chancellor (PhD; Should have risen to position of professor or assoc professor in his/her field of specialization; excellent administrative track record in similar position for a period of 5+ y in reputable university) / Umutara Polytechnic, Rwanda

http://www.math-jobs.com/0272.html
uk: Research Assistant/Fellow - Reliability and Risk Assessment (3y; higher degree in OR, Probability or Stats; Ministry of Defence funded project: Expert Judgement in Safety and Reliability Cases) / Strathclyde University; Glasgow / deadline June 16

http://www.math-jobs.com/0200.html
de: Professur in Informatik (Studium an einer wissenschaftlichen Hochschule; wissenschaftliche Befaehigung, die durch die Qualitaet einer Promotion nachgewiesen wird; besondere Leistungen waehrend einer min fuenfjaehrigen beruflichen Praxis, davon min 3 y außerhalb des Hochschulbereiches; W2) / Hochschule Niederrhein / deadline June 2

http://www.math-jobs.com/0025.html
ie: Postgraduate Research Position in Combinatorial methods for data visualization (start Sept 06; strong background in Maths and Stats, with good programming skills) / National University of Ireland Maynooth / deadline June 30, or until filled

http://www.math-jobs.com/0328.html
uk: One Stipendiary and One or More Non-Stipendiary Research Fellowships (-4 y, from 1 Oct 06; Fellowships in Science, Mathematics, Engineering, Mathematical Economics or Scientific Archaeology) / King's College; Cambridge / deadline May 26

http://www.math-jobs.com/0145.html
de: Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterstelle (DFG) (2 y; sehr gut abgeschlossenes Studium in Mathematik, Physik oder Informatik; exp in "Bildverarbeitung", "Bildkommunikation", "Computergraphik", "Computer Vision", "inverse Probleme", "angewandte Optik" od "wissenschaftliches Rechnen/Simulation"; C/C++; sichere Beherrschung der deutschen Sprache, gutes Englisch; BAT IIa) / TU Braunschweig / deadline July 31

http://www.math-jobs.com/0302.html
in: Faculties in Mathematics and more (at all levels; payscale will not be a constraint) / Compucom Institute of Information Technology & Management; Jaipur, Rajasthan

http://www.math-jobs.com/0118.html
nl: 3 PhDs and 1 post-doc in the area of Logic and Theoretical Computer Science (start 1 Sept 06; expected to perform research related to the mathematical theory of modal logic) / Universiteit van Amsterdam / deadline June 1

http://www.math-jobs.com/0168.html
pg: Senior Lecturer/Lecturer - Mathematics & Computer Science (PhD with 3+ y research & teaching exp/MSc with 5+ y exp ¦ MSc with 3+ y exp; should have qualifications in a computing specialism) / Papua New Guinea University of Technology; Lae / deadline May 30

http://www.math-jobs.com/0422.html
fr: Research Engineer in Bayesian Programming (3-4 y, available now; Master, engineering degree or PhD in computer science; a plus: proficiency in probability or stats, exp of robotics &/or AI; C,C++; fluent in either French or English) / INRIA; Grenoble

http://www.math-jobs.com/0420.html
uk: Great Western Research PhD Studentship (1st/Upper 2nd Class Honours degree computing, electronics, physics, maths or rel engineering subject; sound math backgrnd; C &/or C++; project: Automated Improvement of Film & Video Media) / University of Bristol

http://www.math-jobs.com/0412.html
de: PhD student (m/f) (3 y; BSc/MSc/Diplom in economics, mathematics, physics, system theory or equivalent; good knowledge of mathematical and/or agent-based modelling; skills in computer programming (Delphi or C++); good English skills; TVoeD (13/2)) / UFZ Leipzig-Halle GmbH / deadline June 1

http://www.math-jobs.com/0374.html
ch: Computational Geoscientist (3 y, start Sept 06; PhD comp sc, appl maths, engineering, geophysics, environmental sciences, earth sciences, hydrogeology, or rel field; project: Development of codes for aquifer characterization and stochastic forecasts) / University of Neuchâtel

http://www.math-jobs.com/0303.html
de: Wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin/Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter, Moeglichkeit zur Promotion (2+ y; sehr gut abgeschlossenes Hochschulstudium in Informatik, Mathematik oder Technomathematik; Vorkenntnisse in Bildverarbeitung, Bildregistrierung und mathematischer Optimierung Vorteil; sehr gute Kenntnisse in objektorientierter Programmierung (C++ / Java)) / Universitaet zu Luebeck / deadline May 31