Thursday, June 30, 2016

Brookings Institution Research Assistant Position for Recent Grad, Center on Social Dynamics and Policy

The Research Assistant, CSDP assists with research using agent-based models, output presentation. Topics include public health (obesity, tobacco, infectious disease epidemiology), economics, and behavioral/social sciences.

Responsibilities:

Research Assistance (60%)
  • Compiles, reads, and provides analytical reviews and summaries of diverse existing literatures from multiple fields of science pertinent to projects.
  • Synthesizes literature in the form of background papers, analytical reviews, or outlines for the benefit of CSDP and external partners.
  • In collaboration with senior research staff, drafts material for incorporation into working papers and project publications, particularly literature reviews but may also be called upon to write up results or methodology.
  • Contributes to parameterization of models by drawing on established literature to quantify relationships between and among variables.
  • Maintains electronic bibliography files, organizes references for manuscripts/websites/proposals, and locates relevant documents from electronic sources.


Visualization and Reports (20%)
  • Converts agent-based model outputs to viewable form for analyses and presentations. 
  • Assists in drafting written reports and online profiles for funders and external research partners describing model design, implementation, and results.
  • Works with the scholar to create PowerPoint presentations for use in summarizing research findings to outside audiences. 
  • Assists in preparation and revision of manuscripts and proposals.
  • 10% Programming Simulation and Statistical Assistance.
  • Some data analysis responsibilities – analyzing STATA output or using STATA or Excel to create graphics.
  • Interfaces with external research partners to obtain, process, and convert outside data into forms suitable for integration into agent-based models.

Administrative Support (10%)
  • Assists scholar with miscellaneous administrative tasks.
  • Assists scholar with planning Brookings events to present research.
  • Write and edit summaries to be posted on Center and scholar webpages.

Qualifications:

Education/Experience Requirements

Bachelor’s degree in economics, mathematics/statistics, or a related quantitative field required. Master’s degree in a related field a plus. One-year job experience in scientific research in social science or public health preferred but not required. Competence to undertake research assignments with little supervision.

Knowledge/Skills Requirements

Strong writing and research skills, ability to work with empirical data and statistics, ability to condense academic articles on a wide variety of topics. Experience or familiarity with agent-based computational modeling preferred but not required.

Apply here.