St John's College

Fellowship ID:

Fellowship Title:

University of Oxford, St John's College: Career Development Research Fellowship (Post-Doctoral Fellowship) in the Mathematical Sciences, 2025

Fellowship Type:

Postdoctoral

Fellowship Location:

Oxford, Oxfordshire OX1 3JP, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

Subject Area:

Mathematical Sciences

Appl Deadline:

2024/10/24 11:59PM help popup

finished (2024/10/08, finished 2025/04/26, listed until 2025/11/01)

Fellowship Description:

*** this fellowship has been closed. ***

This Career Development Research Fellowship (CDRF) in Mathematical Sciences is a full-time, four-year research position with effect from 1st October 2025 or as soon as possible thereafter. It is open to early career researchers who have recently completed or are close to completing a doctorate (and will have submitted their thesis no later than three months before the start date of the post), or who have recently been awarded a doctorate. It offers an outstanding opportunity to establish a research profile as a member of a collegiate community and the wider University of Oxford. Applications for this post are particularly welcome from women and Black and minority ethnic candidates, who are under-represented in academic posts in the mathematical sciences in Oxford.

Duties

The primary obligation of this Fellowship is to engage in full-time research in the mathematical sciences and its dissemination. The successful candidate is expected to propose, plan, and deliver a high-quality programme of original research; publicise the outcomes of that research through conference presentations and publications; and engage in the life and activities of the College.

The CDRF will join the vibrant mathematical science community at St John’s College. This includes the teaching fellows for the College (Tutorial Fellows Professors Christopher Beem, Jan Obłoj, and Stuart White; Supernumerary Teaching Fellow Dr Nick Jones), who work closely with Professor Stefan Kiefer (Tutorial Fellow in Computer Science), together with Professors Heather Harrington, Phillip Maini, Simon Myers, and James Maynard. The College has a large body of graduate students undertaking DPhils at the Mathematical Institute and the Department of Statistics, and typically a cohort of around 40 undergraduate students studying Mathematics, Mathematics and Statistics, or Mathematics and Computer Science. While a full-time employee of St John’s College, it is anticipated that the CDRF will have an intellectual home at the Mathematical Institute or the Department of Statistics at the University of Oxford, joining one or more of the research groups in these departments. We encourage potential applicants to become familiar with the breadth of research in the mathematical sciences undertaken at Oxford.

While the principal focus of the post will be on the postholder’s programme of research, they will also be asked to undertake a small amount of teaching for the College. This will typically involve giving an average of three to four “tutorials” in each week of term, usually to pairs of undergraduate students on courses from the first two years of the Mathematics and Statistics degree programme that are related to the expertise of the CDRF. The postholder will also participate in our undergraduate admissions exercise and contribute towards our state school mathematics and computer science study day. The expectation is that over the academic year these activities will occupy around 10% (0.1 FTE) of the CDRF’s working time. The aim is to offer the individual postholder broader development opportunities and integration with the academic life of the subject in College and at Oxford. Additional details on tutorial teaching can be found at the end of these Further Particulars.

Applications are welcomed from candidates who can demonstrate research excellence in any area of the mathematical sciences.

Terms and Benefits

Career Development Research Fellowships are fixed-term posts, tenable for four years. The start date of a Fellowship may, with the agreement of the College, be brought forward or delayed in exceptional cases to accommodate personal circumstances; if so, the terminal date will be adjusted accordingly.

The CDRF is intended to allow postholders to develop early in their career by completing a research project or projects without embarking upon a medium-term or permanent appointment. Having taken account of the Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002, the College would not regard appointment to a CDRF as entitling the Fellow to permanent employment on the following objective grounds:

(a) It is the College’s policy that Career Development Research Fellowships should provide opportunities for academics at the beginning of their careers; (b) In order to achieve a turnover of appointments in a wide range of subjects so that this policy may continue into the future for a succession of academics at this stage of their careers, it is an essential feature of these Fellowships that they are limited in duration.

The annual salary is equivalent to point 7.5 on the University Scale (currently £40,521) plus a pensionable £1,500 per annum Oxford University Weighting payment which will be paid in equal monthly instalments and pro-rated for part time appointments. The appointee will automatically be enrolled in the Universities Superannuation Scheme. Further details can be found here - USS.

The salary will normally be adjusted if the Fellow is in receipt of other remuneration and may be subject to annual increment.

Successful applicants will normally be required to spend most of their time in Oxford during their appointment.

CDRFs will enjoy full dining privileges in the Senior Common Room (access to lunches and dinners without charge when the kitchen is open). They will have a research & development allowance, currently £3k/year. CDRFs will be eligible to apply for additional research funding from certain competitive College grant schemes.

The College offers parental leave provision comparable to the University’s. Further details are available on request. St John’s College has a purpose-built college nursery which provides places for children of College and University staff and students. Further information is available at http://www.baintonroadnursery.co.uk/

Selection Criteria

Candidates should:

• hold a doctorate in mathematics or statistics or a cognate discipline, or be close to completion and will have submitted their thesis no later than three months before the start date of this post. Those who formally submitted their doctoral thesis for viva voce examination (i.e., defence) prior to 1st October 2022 are not eligible, unless they have had a career break (e.g., a period of parental leave, family commitments, illness, or other circumstances), or there are other exceptional circumstances. • have research expertise in their chosen field as demonstrated by a completed (or close to being completed) doctoral thesis and/or published articles in refereed journals or preprints, as relevant to the candidate’s field; or promise of such achievement, as relevant to the candidate’s field; • have the ability to present research findings effectively at national and international academic conferences and research seminars; • have a coherent, mathematically ambitious and feasible plan of research for the duration of the appointment which can either be the further development of the candidate’s doctoral work or an entirely new project and which has the potential to make an outstanding contribution to the candidate’s field; • have the ability to deliver or potential to deliver high quality tutorials on courses relevant to the research interests of the candidate from the first two years of the Mathematics and Mathematics & Statistics undergraduate degrees; • have not already held a comparable career development appointment at Oxford or another university. A comparable appointment is deemed to be a salaried, research-focused appointment for the purposes of self-directed research.

Successful candidates will be expected to contribute fully to the life of the College.

How to Apply

Applications should be made electronically through https://fellowships.sjc.ox.ac.uk/:

• You will be asked to enter a research statement to this system. Please upload a pdf document, which cannot exceed 1 MB. The Statement must cover the following: o A statement of at most 6 pages, which describes your research achievements to date and your research plan for the period of the fellowship. The first page of the statement should put the work into a broader context and summarise both the achievements to date and future plans in terms that are accessible to any researcher in the mathematical sciences. o A statement of at most 1 page, describing how your research fits into the research environment at the University of Oxford. This should include a clear indication of which research group or groups in the Mathematical Institute or Department of Statistics you would expect to associate with. • There is a field in the application system to upload a list of publications. Please subdivide your publications into peer reviewed articles, and preprints which have not been peer reviewed, providing stable URLs for all articles. Please indicate your two most significant articles in your publication list with a *. • In addition to using the Research Record text box to provide details of invited talks, visits and other similar events, please use this space to provide a short list of relevant teaching experience. • For this subject, no separate written work is required as the online publications you have listed will suffice. Please therefore write ‘Not applicable’ in this section of the application. • In the event that your research requires access to laboratory space, or specialist infrastructure and resources, then you must communicate with the relevant department in the University of Oxford before applying. In this case you may be required to submit a letter of support confirming access to these resources from the host department. The College cannot meet expenses associated with research beyond the annual research allowance mentioned above. • Candidates applying more than three years since submitting their doctoral thesis (or equivalent qualifications) should bring to the College’s attention any special factors to be considered.

Applications will be accepted only if made according to the above instructions.

The closing date for receipt of applications is noon on 24th October 2024. Late applications will not be accepted. Please ensure you check all junk and spam folders for communications.

References

Every candidate is asked to supply names and email addresses for two referees in their application and referees will be e-mailed to asked to provide a reference. Hard copy references should NOT be sent. References should be received by the College by noon on 31st October 2024

Candidates are responsible for notifying referees that the College will be contacting them to provide a reference; they should therefore give referees enough time to write in their support.

Selection Process

Interviewing and appointing procedures for this post will be conducted in December 2024 and January 2025. Interviews will take place online by Microsoft Teams.

St John's College is committed to equality of opportunity. It is the policy and practice of St John’s that entry into employment and progression within employment will be determined only by criteria which are related to the duties of a particular post and the relevant salary scale. No applicant or member of staff will be treated less favorably than another because of their age, disability, ethnicity, marital or civil partnership status, parental status, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.

The appointment will be subject to the provision of proof of the right to work in the UK. If you require a visa, we have a dedicated Staff Immigration Team to support successful applicants through the immigration process (for Skilled Worker visas) from job offer through to arrival in the UK. This is subject to the eligibility criteria being met for the required visa route. In particular, you must have sufficient English language skills (evidenced by having passed a secure English Language Test at CEFR B1 or above, or coming from a majority English-speaking country, or having taken a degree taught in English). You are also to asked to note that the visa application process will require you to submit no later than three months prior to the start date of this post either a copy of your doctoral award certificate, an academic reference confirming that your doctorate has been awarded, or an academic reference confirming that you have submitted your thesis, if you have not yet completed. Informal queries can be sent to Professor Philip Maini (Philip.Maini@maths.ox.ac.uk).

About St John’s College

Established in 1555, St John’s College fosters excellence in education and research. It is one of the largest among Oxford Colleges and nearly every subject studied at the University has its representation. Today, St John's is home to approximately 410 undergraduates, 310 graduate students, 100 fellows, and 25 College lecturers. A vibrant international community, it fosters intellectual rigour, creativity, and independence in its students, teachers, and researchers. The College supports a range of research activities including discussions, seminars, workshops, public lectures, and visiting scholar schemes. While scholarly publication is naturally at the heart of our research endeavours, the fellowship is also committed to informing policy and public debate, and to teaching that is informed by research findings. Further information about the College is available at http://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk/

Tutorial Teaching in Mathematical Sciences

During the first two years of the Mathematics, Mathematics and Statistics, and Mathematics and Computer Science undergraduate degrees, students attend lecture courses offered by the relevant departments and are further supported through (very) small group teaching in their College, known as tutorials. In tutorials, students typically meet in pairs together with a tutor to discuss their work on the course. A course typically comprises 16 lectures and 4 tutorials. Problem sheets for these tutorials are set by the departments, and the tutor is expected to mark students’ problem sheets in advance of tutorials and discuss their work and the course more broadly in the tutorials.

More details of the available courses, including the problem sheets to be discussed in tutorials, can be found on the website courses.maths.ox.ac.uk. (First year courses are called Prelims; second year courses are called Part A).

St John’s normally admits 6-8 undergraduates each year to read either the three-year BA or four-year MMath course, along with 2-5 undergraduates each year to read for Mathematics and Computer Science. St John’s is widely regarded as the leading Oxford college for mathematics at the undergraduate level––achieving the largest proportion of first-class degrees of any Oxford college over the last 20 years––and has attracted extremely strong fields of applicants for admission in recent years.

We are not accepting applications for this job through MathJobs.Org right now. Please apply at https://fellowships@sjc.ox.ac.uk .

Contact: Amanda Armstrong, +44 1865 277335

Email: email address

Postal Mail:

: St John's College
Oxford
OX1 3JP

Web Page: http://www.sjc.ox.ac.uk