IACS' Thriving Postdoctoral Fellowship Program

The Institute for Advanced Computational Science began holding a limited competition in 2020, awarding only a select number of IACS Postdoctoral Fellows per year. These postdoctoral fellowships are intended for outstanding candidates with recent PhDs who wish to conduct computational-related research at the Institute under the mentorship of core or affiliate IACS faculty researchers. IACS Postdoctoral Fellows play a strong role in the overall life of the Institute, which is comprised of 13 core and ~45 affiliate faculty spanning chemistry, materials by design, condensed matter, astrophysics, atmospheric science, nanoscience, linguistics, ecology, applied mathematics, computer science, biomedical informatics, civil engineering, electrical and computer engineering, music, neurobiology and behavior, psychology, and sociology.

 

The Institute's inaugural postdoctoral fellow, Dr. Christian Che-Castaldo, was appointed in 2020. Working with Professor Heather Lynch, his research has focused on modeling penguin population dynamics in a Baysian framework combining remote sensing imagery with long-term ecological datasets, emphasizing on high-performance computing, forecasting, and reproducible science. Che-Castaldo co-developed the Antarctic Penguin Biogeography Project, an open access decision support tool designed for Southern Ocean managers, scientists, and the public. Now in his third and final year of the fellowship, Che-Castaldo will soon embark on his next chapter--A highly sought after position with the US Geological Survey (USGS) Cooperative Research Units program where he will continue his research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

 

Dr. Linn Eriksson is working in the field of planetary astrophysics using simulations to study different aspects of the planet formation process, ranging from the formation of tiny mm-sized pebbles to the final assembly of giant planets. Her research mentor is Professor Philip Armitage from the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Dr. Eriksson grew up in Sweden and received her PhD from Lund University in May 2022, where she also did her undergraduate studies. Between receiving her PhD and coming to Stony Brook in January 2023, she continued her work as a postdoc in Lund. During this time, she also went for an extended visit to Zurich University to work with collaborators. The planet formation process begins when tiny micron-sized dust grains collide with each other and form pebbles. If enough pebbles concentrate in the same region, this pebble swarm can gravitationally collapse to form roughly 100km-sized planetesimals. In Dr. Eriksson’s research, she performs detailed multi-dimensional simulations of planetesimal formation, to study when and where this process can occur. She is currently also involved in a research project studying the formation of Uranus and Neptune. Apart from using hydrodynamical simulations, Dr. Eriksson also has experience in performing simulations of gravitational interactions in planet forming systems.

 

Fall 2023 will be monumental as we welcome four new IACS Postdoctoral Fellows from across the world.

Andrew McCumber holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of California, Santa Barbara with an interdisciplinary emphasis in Environment and Society. His work, which examines how cultural ideas of nature shape environmental problems, combines diverse methodological approaches including ethnography, interviews, computational text analysis, and GIS. His book project on cultural meaning, human-animal relationships, and rat extermination is under advance contract at University of Chicago Press. Recently, his work has been published in outlets including Sociological Forum, American Journal of Cultural Sociology, and Environmental Science and Policy.Dr. McCumber will be working with Professor Heather Lynch.

 

Dr. Mason Youngblood’s primary research interest is understanding how cognition and demography influence cultural evolution in humans and non-human animals. To do this, he uses agent-based modeling, machine learning, and other computational approaches to infer the processes responsible for patterns in big cultural datasets from a variety of domains, including music, birdsong, and political ideologies. For example, he has explored how conformity stabilizes traditions among music producers, content bias for more complex sounds shapes birdsong in house finches, and content bias for negativity boosts the spread of conspiracy theory messages. Working with Professor Margaret Schedel as a fellow at IACS, Dr. Youngblood aims to integrate these generative approaches into a new phylogenetic framework to explore how cognitive biases drive cultural change in complex population structures with high levels of horizontal transmission.

 

 

Dr. Thomas Helfer’s research aims to use deep learning methods to solve hard problems in physics. Currently, he is studying how deep learning can speed up numerical simulations, which is crucial for the next generation of gravitational wave detectors. Dr. Helfer received his Ph.D. from King's College London in numerical general relativity, where he used high-performance computing clusters to simulate cosmic strings and bosonic stars. After completing his degree, Thomas continued his research as a postdoc at Johns Hopkins University, where he worked on simulations of ultra-relativistic black hole mergers. His goal is to continue pushing the boundaries of gravitational wave physics and make meaningful contributions to the field. At IACS, Dr. Helfer will be working with Professor Michael Zingale. 

 

Dr. Jiří Suchan is a recent graduate of the University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague and the  International Max Planck ResearchSchool. His research is focused on theoretical photochemistry where he explores development of efficient tools to describe interactions between light and matter. He likes to bring experimental measurements and theoretical models together and will be working with Professor Benjamin Levine.

 

 

 

IACS will begin accepting applications for the next cohort of fellows in the fall. This prestigious fellowship offers opportunities for independent, interdisciplinary research with highly competitive compensation; comprehensive medical, dental, and vision benefits; unrestricted travel and research allowance of $10,000, in addition to other resources and professional opportunities. The annual deadline to apply for an IACS Postdoctoral Fellowship is November 1.