Description

Duke University and North Carolina State University (NCSU) invite applications for a full-time postdoctoral associate to conduct research on causal inference and analytic methods for data integration, with a focus on innovative statistical methods that boost the efficiency and robustness of clinical trials by incorporating real-world data and taking into account hidden biases. The position will be funded by a recent FDA U01 grant and other funding sources. The position will be primarily based in the Department of Biostatistics & Bioinformatics, Duke University School of Medicine, under the supervision of Dr. Xiaofei Wang. The postdoctoral associate will also work closely with Dr. Shu Yang from the Department of Statistics at NCSU, and other clinical and methodology investigators from Duke University, Brown University and Eli Lilly & Company. 

Under the guidance of the PIs, co-investigators and collaborators, the postdoctoral associate will be responsible for developing new statistical methods to empower clinical trials by harnessing external historical controls or other type of auxiliary information from existing clinical trials or real-world data. She/he will use analytic and Monte Carlo methods to compare the new designs and methods with existing designs and methods in binary, continuous, and time-to-event outcomes. She/he will help develop R/SAS software for the proposed statistical methods. The postdoctoral associate will also work closely with all investigators of this project to extract relevant data from existing clinical trials and large observational studies or population-based databases from multiple diseases areas, including Alzheimer's disease and lung cancers. The postdoctoral associate will attend regular face-to-face or virtual meetings of the study team and the meetings with the FDA. We expect the postdoctoral associate to be the leading author or a co-author on statistical or medical publications and to disseminate research findings at professional conferences. 

To forge closer collaboration with statistical and medical investigators, the successful applicant will be assigned offices with access to computing facilities in Duke and NCSU and will spend time at both Duke and NCSU, and other institutions depending on the need. 

The initial offer of the position will be one year and is subject to be renewed depending on the performance. We seek candidates willing to commit to at least 2 years on this project.