PhD position specialized in statistical modeling of long-term survival and cure.

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam is offering a fully funded, four-year PhD-position in statistics on survival analysis and extreme value theory, as part of the NWO-funded project “Seeing beyond the study duration: extreme value theory for long term survival and cure chances”.

This project will develop statistical methods and theory for analysing time-to-event data when a fraction of the population is immune to the event of interest (‘cured’). For example, in oncology the event of interest is cancer relapse/death, and the cured patients after treatment will never experience the event. However, in absence of a lifetime follow-up, cured patients cannot be distinguished from the uncured ones who do not show signs of the disease. A major constraint of most existing methods for cure models is the sufficient follow-up assumption, i.e. the study duration should be longer than the time span of possible events, which is rarely satisfied in practice. In this project, we will develop methods that relax this assumption by making use of extreme value theory (EVT) to extrapolate beyond the study duration. EVT has been well established for tail modeling and statistical inference on rare events that lie outside the range of the available data. We foresee applications of the developed methodology in several fields, but within this project we will focus on applications in oncology and credit scoring (for default prediction).

As a PhD candidate, you will join a collaborative team of two PhD candidates and two senior researchers, Dr. Juan Cai (VU Amsterdam) and Dr. Eni Musta (University of Amsterdam), who will also be your supervisors. Your research will center on developing cutting-edge estimation approaches for the cure rate and the survival time of the uncured depending on covariates (risk/prognostic factors, treatments). Your work will focus on developing statistical learning approaches that allow for high dimensional covariates and a non-linear dependence response, supported by theoretical guarantees on the accuracy of the method.

The project is expected to start in February 2027, although the exact start date is negotiable.

Your duty
As a PhD candidate you will:

• conduct research within the specified project which involves development of statistical methodology and theory, implementation of the new methods in R, conducting simulation studies and real data applications
• disseminate your research findings through publications in academic journals and presentations in international conferences
• participate in relevant seminars and engage in research collaborations locally and/or internationally
• participate in the School of Business and Economics PhD training program
• complete and defend a PhD thesis within the appointment duration of four years
• contribute to the department’s educational programmes (0.2 FTE) by teaching tutorials and supervising undergraduate students

Tandartsassistent Orofaciale Pijn en Disfunctie

• Voorbereidende en ondersteunende taken, zoals voorbereiden van de kliniek en dagstart, bijhouden van logboeken, bijhouden, aanvullen en administreren van voorraden, materialen van en naar Sterilisatie halen en brengen, zorgen voor de afvoer van afval, opruimen en verzorgen van de behandelruimtes en voorbereiden van de behandelruimtes voor de behandeling van patiënten
• Assisterende taken aan de stoel
• Ondersteunende taken, zoals het faciliteren van de onderwijs- en onderzoeksactiviteiten die in de kliniek worden uitgevoerd

Junior Lecturer in AI, Comp. Science and/or Computational Sciences (5 positions)

We are looking for five colleagues who are passionate about education in Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science, and/or Computational Sciences. Our department wants to attract junior lecturers who can strengthen our teaching staff by delivering high-quality education. You will support the Bachelor's and Master's programmes in AI, the Bachelor's and Master's programmes in Computer Science, and/or the Master's programme in Computational Sciences.

As a junior lecturer, you will be involved in various teaching-related and organizational activities across (some of) these programmes, with a special focus on course innovation. You will contribute to the further implementation of the principle of "active blended learning" in our programmes.

As a junior lecturer, you will be encouraged to work on educational innovation and build a teaching portfolio as preparation for various career paths. To support this, you will have the opportunity to obtain the Basic Teaching Qualification (BKO) for university teaching. The junior lecturer position is ideally suited for early-career teachers. You will work closely with, and be supported by, many enthusiastic and experienced colleagues.

Expected tasks

• Support teachers in individual courses in AI, CS, and/or Comp. Science education programmes;
• Revise and improve course materials, e.g. setup of practical sessions;
• Coordinate and coach student assistants;
• Supervise/coordinate bachelor's and/or master's thesis projects;
• Provide technical and organisational assistance for project-oriented courses;
• Advise on and help with the further development of innovative teaching concepts;
• Provide organisational assistance in education-related events.

Tandartsassistent Implantologie

Eén van de belangrijkste klinieken van de faculteit tandheelkunde is de kliniek prothetiek & orale implantologie. Deze kliniek is onderdeel van de sectie Reconstructieve Mondzorg. Bij Reconstructieve Mondzorg onderwijzen we bachelor-, master-, postgraduaat- en differentiatie-studenten. Samen met ons team van gespecialiseerde docenten behandelen we in de kliniek de meest complexe en uitdagende verrichtingen van orale rehabilitatie. Dit maakt je baan als tandartsassistent veelzijdig.

Jouw taken:

• je verricht voorbereidende taken, zoals voorbereiden van de kliniek, de dag-op-start, de behandelingen, bijhouden van logboeken, aanvullen en administreren van voorraden
• je gebruikt en onderhoudt apparatuur, signaleert storingen en zo nodig schakel je derden in, je houdt onderhouds- en reparatiegegevens bij en laat apparatuur periodiek inspecteren en ijken volgens het onderhoudscontract
• je verricht, onder supervisie, (assisterende) taken tijdens chirurgische tandheelkundige verrichtingen
• je bent betrokken bij ondersteunende taken, zoals bij het klinisch onderwijs tandheelkunde, materialen van en naar Sterilisatie halen en brengen, opruimen van de behandelruimte, zorgen voor de afvoer van afval, reinigen en desinfecteren van de behandelruimtes en van de bijbehorende apparatuur

student-assistent Groepsdynamiek in de klas

Bijdragen aan de ontwikkeling van SPARC? Als student-assistent werk je nauw samen met onderzoekers van Onderwijswetenschappen en Psychologie en met Master studenten Klinische Ontwikkelingspsychologie. Je reviewt literatuur over sociale relaties en groepsdynamiek in het onderwijs, je codeert kwalitatieve data uit literatuur en focusgroepen en denkt mee over de verdere analyse van deze data en over de opzet van het observatie instrument.

Jouw taken

• Literatuur reviewen en kwalitatieve codering en analyse
• Codering van transcripten van focusgroepen
• Meedenken over de opzet van het te ontwikkelen observatie instrument