The Department of Biomedical Informatics (DBMI) 
of Columbia University seeks researchers 
interested in applying modeling and computational 
sciences to medicine, biology, and public health. 
There is particular interest in machine learning, 
multiscale modeling, and network analysis.

DBMI (www.dbmi.columbia.edu) comprises 32 faculty 
members and 61 students. The department has 
amassed a large, diverse research portfolio, 
breaking new ground in several areas of 
informatics research. The Department's mission 
is to improve the health of the population and to 
make biomedical discoveries using information and 
computational techniques. The Department runs a 
2.5-million-patient 18-year electronic health 
record that is used by 7000 health care 
providers. It participates in a $30 million 
project with the New York City Department of 
Health and Mental Hygiene to deploy electronic 
health records across the city, with the hope of 
using the system to improve the health of the 
population and to carry out health department 
functions such as syndromic surveillance. The 
Department is known for its work on medical 
language processing, decision making and 
cognition, and systems biology.

Potential projects include the following: 
modeling the spread of infection across a 
population; modeling the progression of a chronic 
disease, including predicting and intervening on 
exacerbations (e.g., for asthma); modeling social 
behavior among health care participants to 
improve workflow; and developing a model for 
temporal uncertainty of disease signs and 
symptoms. In many cases, the Department has access 
to relevant large databases from which an empirical 
distribution can be developed, a training set can 
be extracted, and simulation can be tested.

The ideal candidate will have a strong record of 
accomplishments and publications in research 
areas spanning the boundary between life sciences 
and the computational sciences. The candidate 
must have a doctorate in Biomedical Informatics, 
Computer Science, Physics, or a related field. 
Positions are available in the tenure track.  Level 
of appointment will be commensurate with experience.

If you seek a challenging research career in a 
highly collaborative, multidisciplinary 
department, please send a two-page description of 
your interest, a curriculum vitae, a set of no 
more than 10 relevant publications, and the names 
of at least three referees to George Hripcsak, 
MD, MS, Department of Biomedical Informatics, 
VC5, 622 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032 
(hripcsak@columbia.edu). Columbia University is an 
equal opportunity and affirmative action employer.