Postdoctoral Fellowship

As part of a three-year project funded by the John Templeton Foundation, we seek to hire three postdoctoral fellows in the study of science, mathematics, and philosophy of mathematical discovery.

Our project has three main themes; ideal candidates will have an interest in one or more of these themes.

Theme One: Proofs in Practice: the cognitive science and psychology of how humans discover and make sense of mathematical proofs, both as individuals and collectives. How do people prove things?

Theme Two: Transcendental Structures: the formal study of mathematical proof itself, as a subject in computational complexity, type theory, metamathematics, logic, and beyond. What is the space of mathematical truth, and what proofs are there to be discovered?

Theme Three: Cyborg Proofs: the use of artificial intelligence in both discovering and verifying mathematical proofs, with and without human aid. What kinds of tools can we build, and how will they alter the nature of mathematics? 

Applicants: to be considered for this position, please submit:

(1) a short research statement (two pages or so, not including references; 12-point font, 1-inch margins). This statement should cover, (A) a brief summary of your research interests, achievements, and discoveries to date — this need not be tailored to this position; (B) an account of your interests in, ideas about, and potential contributions to, one or more of the themes above — this can be as referenced or as speculative as you like.

(2) a peer-reviewed publication from the last five years that represents work you are particularly proud of, any content. If you have no peer-reviewed publications, a pre-print is sufficient.

(3) a peer-reviewed publication, or pre-print, that most closely relates to the themes of this project — broadly conceived.

(4) an academic CV, which must include a list of three people (name, e-mail, and affiliation) who can serve as academic references.

(5) a brief cover letter, including a statement of interest, your future career goals, and either (1) the date you were awarded your Ph.D., or (2) the date you expect to graduate from your Ph.D.

Fellowship Overview:

This fellowship is a three-year position, resident, in person, and full time at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA. The salary is $78,000/year and includes health benefits. Citizenship unrestricted, and international travel assistance is available.

Fellows work independently under the mentorship of the project director, Prof. Simon DeDeo, and a board of advisors in mathematics (Akshay Venkatesh, Michael Harris, Simon Rubinstein-Salzedo), computer science (Dana Randall, Scott Aaronson), cognitive science (Thalia Wheatley, Tyler Marghetis, Carina Curto), and philosophy (Edouard Machery, Nick Stang, Sean Carroll). The director and the board work together to help mentor the fellows, promote their research, and develop their careers.

As part of the interdisciplinary goals of this project, fellows are funded to spend at least one semester working with someone outside of their home domain. This can be with faculty in Pittsburgh, at either CMU or the University of Pittsburgh; fellows have the opportunity, if desired and on mutual agreement with their host, to visit and collaborate with one of our board of advisors, or with another scholar. Offsite visits include funding for travel and lodging.

Research Fellow Job Responsibilities

• Conduct novel scientific, mathematical, and philosophical research into the nature of mathematical understanding, including, depending on their interests, conducting psychological experiments, developing novel mathematics, inventing new algorithms, and making new philosophical arguments.
• Publish and share this research with the wider academic community.
• Help organize, once during their three years, a yearly workshop on project themes held either in Pittsburgh, Princeton, or Santa Fe.
• Collaborate with other fellows, as consistent with their intellectual goals, in truly interdisciplinary research, and to help mentor graduate students and undergraduate researchers, as consistent with their intellectual goals.

Qualifications

Fellows should have a background and publication record in one or more of the following fields: 

• Cognitive Science, Psychology, Computer Science, Mathematics or Philosophy
• PhD Degree
• We are particularly interested in candidates with demonstrated abilities to conduct interdisciplinary work across these fields, with an interest in collaborating, at least some of the time, with people outside of their Ph.D. training.
• We are also open to considering other fields as well. 

Additional Information:

Sponsorship: Carnegie Mellon is not a qualifying employer for the STEM OPT benefit: only the 12-month OPT may be used to work at Carnegie Mellon.