Acting Assistant Professor, Future Health Scenarios

The Department of Health Metrics Sciences (HMS) and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) within the School of Medicine at the University of Washington are recruiting to fill one full-time faculty position at the Acting Assistant Professor level on the Forecasting team. Anticipated start is Winter 2024-25, or as soon as available. 

About HMS & IHME 

The Department of HMS applies innovative, multidisciplinary, and comprehensive health metrics science to critical health problems and their drivers, and collaborates worldwide in pursuit of policy impact, change in practice, and dissemination of information to improve health for all people. HMS advances the field and the Academy through nurturing and training the next generation of diverse and high-potential scientists and leaders with mentorship by renowned faculty, and with access to top-tier data, resources, infrastructure, and networking strategies. Faculty, staff, and students within HMS collaborate extensively with IHME. 

IHME is an independent research center at the University of Washington whose mission is to deliver to the world timely, relevant, and scientifically valid evidence to improve health policy and practice. IHME carries out its mission through a range of projects within different research areas including the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors; Future Health Scenarios; Costs and Cost Effectiveness; Resource Tracking; and Impact Evaluations. Our vision is to provide policymakers, donors, and researchers with the highest-quality quantitative evidence base, so all people live long lives in full health. 

HMS and IHME are committed to providing the evidence base necessary to help solve the world’s most important health problems. This requires creativity and innovation, which are cultivated by an inclusive, diverse, and equitable environment that respects and appreciates differences, embraces collaboration, and invites the voices of the entire HMS and IHME communities. 

About the Position 

The Future Health Scenarios (FHS) team is an integral component of IHME’s modeling portfolio to forecast the burden of disease in the future. Utilizing estimates for the Global Burden of Disease study, the FHS team forecasts trends in health outcomes for 300+ diseases as well as more than 70 drivers of health, including risk exposure, vaccine coverage, and social determinants of heath. The platform is also unique in its ability to produce custom scenarios that quantifiably measure the health gains achieved by reducing exposure to known risk factors or scaling up new interventions. The outputs of the FHS framework are a critical tool to guide future health investments and implementing effective policies.  

The successful applicant will lead the development of methodologies in consultation with senior faculty to improve the forecasting models across all measures produced under the framework, drive analytic problem solving, review results, and manage research staff involved in the production of the forecasts. The FHS platform utilizes modeling frameworks that are systematically applied across forecast entities (such as risks or causes of disease) but sufficiently flexible to produce robust forecasts with strong predictive validity. The successful applicant will be expected to use applied mathematics, health metrics, and/or statistical modeling while working with global health metrics and the Global Burden of Disease Study.  This role also includes consultation with subject area experts within the Institute as well as those within the global health community, engagement with external partners, presenting findings, publication of results, and the expansion of the network of collaborators.  

Faculty members will also take on an important leadership role in mentoring predoctoral and postdoctoral fellows working in the field of health metrics. The salary range for this position is $100,000 – $130,000 commensurate with experience. 

Acting Assistant Professors in the Department of Health Metrics Sciences have an annual service period of 12 months (July 1– June 30).  

Qualifications 

The successful applicants will have an MD, PhD, or foreign equivalent in mathematics, statistics, health metrics, biostatistics, epidemiology, population health, medicine, public health, health informatics, or other relevant subject. The successful applicant will have a proven record of quantitative research including applied mathematics or statistical modeling using large data sets. 

Application Instructions 

Applicants should submit a curriculum vitae, a brief statement outlining research interests and a minimum of two letters of recommendation through Interfolio: http://apply.interfolio.com/154418

Note that three letters of recommendation are required at the point at which a candidate advances to the final phase of consideration. 

This position is open until filled.