Postdoctoral Scholar Position Available Immediately

The Global Health Equity Community of Excellence is pleased to announce an exciting post-doctoral opportunity at the University of Buffalo for outstanding candidates interested in the connection between global health equity and planning/policy. The post-doc will join a newly formed university-wide Center that includes the School of Architecture and Planning, the School of Public Health and Health Professions, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Applications are being accepted immediately, and reviewed on a rolling basis. Please see the information below for further details.

About the position

Applications are invited for an outstanding postdoctoral scholar to join a university-wide interdisciplinary research initiative on Global Health Equity. Joining an interdisciplinary team of faculty, post-docs, graduate students, and research staff across multiple schools, including the Schools of Public Health and Health Professions, the School of Architecture and Planning, and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, the selected postdoctoral scholar will focus her/his research on addressing global health inequities by harnessing the power of non-health disciplines including architecture, applied economics, engineering, international development, social work, urban, regional and rural planning and policy, and related disciplines to address challenging global health inequities. The candidate will develop a research portfolio working under the guidance of faculty mentors in the School of Architecture and Planning, School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, and the School of Public Health and Health Professions.

Eligibility requirements

Candidate must hold a doctorate in the following or related fields: urban and regional planning, international development, public policy, or industrial engineering. An eligible candidate’s dissertation and research interests should be related to advancing public health or development in a global setting, preferably in low-resource communities.

Skills and experience

Experience in teaching or supervision of graduate student research at the masters level will be helpful. Applicants from engineering disciplines will need to demonstrate capability in modeling complex systems; dealing with large quantity of data are a plus.

Responsibilities

Selected candidate will conduct independent research with guidance from Drs. Samina Raja, Li Lin, Korydon Smith, and Pavani Ram. Candidates are encouraged to identify a principal mentor among this faculty group. Candidate will also collaborate closely with the near-60 faculty aligned with the Community of Global Health Equity.

The candidate will be expected to contribute intellectually to the work of the UB CGHE through research-related activities, including generating original scholarship and contributing to ongoing research through the UB CGHE.

How to Apply (and Additional Details)

Apply at www.ubjobs.buffalo.edu. Search using the position posting number 1500823.

About the UB Community of Excellence in Global Health Equity

The grand challenge of global health inequity is one of the defining issues of the 21^st century, attracting unprecedented levels of interest and the attention of thinkers who are concerned about the underlying social, economic, political, and environmental factors of this challenge, in addition to the biomedical manifestations. The UB Community for Global Health Equity (CGHE) was established in July 2015 to bring the strength of UB faculty across many disciplines to bear on this most vexing of world problems. The UB CGHE advances global health equity by harnessing the power of interdisciplinary scholarship and action spanning architecture, planning, engineering, and supportive disciplines (APEX disciplines). Read more about UB CGHE here:http://www.buffalo.edu/provost/signature-initiatives/communities-of-excellence.html.

The selected postdoctoral scholar will be from an APEX discipline, and will join a team of faculty and researchers across multiple disciplines including public health and APEX disciplines.

The WHO defines health inequity as “unjust differences in health between persons of different social groups.” These differences between one population (and group) and another are due, in part, to one or more of the following systemic barriers:

1. gaps in foundational science (e.g., lack of drug discovery to treat neglected tropical diseases)
2. socio-cultural barriers or phenomena (e.g., gender gap in provision and utilization of healthcare)
3. ineffectual and/or unjust public policies (e.g., land-use policies that (inadvertently) limit people’s access to nutritious foods)
4. ineffective practices or unequal access to best practices (e.g., lack of safe construction practices in hard-to-reach rural areas)

Low resources and/or low capacity for change at global, social, and/or institutional levels exacerbate these systemic barriers. This Community’s aim is to “influence the influencers,” the leaders, organizations, and policy makers that can reduce or eliminate barriers to improved global health and well-being for all in settings around the world:

1. research bodies (e.g., universities or funding agencies)
2. facilitative/dissemination organizations, including international organizations (e.g., state agency providing assistance to refugees or international organization promoting child health)
3. policy makers and implementers (e.g., ministries of rural development)
4. professional/practitioner organizations (e.g., urban planning organizations or organizations providing healthcare)