Modelling opinion dynamics at individual level

eSSENCE at Uppsala University has announced a research position on modelling opinion dynamics at individual level. Methods from statistical physics will be applied to electoral data from Stockholm city. I would be grateful if you could share it with potential applicants. Last application date: 2017-04-01

http://www.uu.se/en/about-uu/join-us/details/?positionId=134648

The project is to apply an interdisciplinary method, previously known from the field of physics, on electoral individual-level data. Within this project, we are planning to develop further a voter model presented in the prestigious journal Physical Review Letters in 2014 (Volume: 112, page: 158701) by extending it to multi-party systems while applying it to the City of Stockholm where spatial electoral data exist in fine resolution.

The project itself constitutes a co-operative effort between sociology (Prof. Ilkka Henrik Mäkinen, Department of Sociology) and statistical physics (Dr. Attila Szilva, Department of Physics and Astronomy) within Uppsala University. The project belongs to the emerging field of computational social science and is based on a mathematical model of ferromagnetism in statistical physics. Hence it indeed requires an interdisciplinary collaboration with meetings among the project partners on a weekly basis. Prof. Ilkka Henrik Mäkinen is responsible to coordinate the work together with Dr. Attila Szilva who is to construct the theoretical model for multi-party systems.

The researcher we plan to hire will be responsible to develop the simulation code with Dr. Attila Szilva, and will run the computer simulations, hence a strong interest in data science is needed. The candidate should have a Doctoral Degree (PhD or equivalent) in physics or computational (social) science. Department of Sociology can give some help in managing of data processing, however, the candidate should be able to easily work with large data sets as well as to run computer simulations on (super)computers. Previous studies and work experience in network science or complex systems are needed for a successful application. Strong interest in social science is welcomed.

The candidate will work at the Department of Sociology in an own office. Teaching can be optionally chosen, excellent skills in spoken and written English are required.
Contact Ilkka Mäkinen ([email protected]) or Attila Szilva ([email protected]).