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Good afternoon, I would like to draw the attention of potentially interested candidates to the opening below. Best wishes, Antonella -------------- Dr. A. Ianni, Economics Department, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK skype: antonellaianni http://www.personal.soton.ac.uk/ianni/ Obesity and Health over Social Networks<http://www.findaphd.com/search/ProjectDetails.aspx?PJID=63559&LID=2155> The last decade has seen a trend towards increasing use of social media and data sharing, meaning that larger and larger amounts of social information are available for research. Such data extracted from social media are increasingly used to understand and characterise human behaviour. In the last years also health-related applications of “Big data” have started to make an impact, e.g. by using google search queries or twitter-based information to forecast the spread of flu or by using data collected by mobile phone operators to understand movement and migration patterns and their impact on the spread of infectious diseases. The richness and availability of data from social media also provides ample opportunities for an improved understanding of health related behaviour with potentially big impacts on preventative medicine. We are looking for an interested PhD candidate to join an interdisciplinary team of economists, physicists, computer- and internet scientists to work on a project that aims to extract, analyse, and model the spread of behavioural and health-related user characteristics from social media. The initial phase of the PhD will concentrate on the analysis and data mining of twitter data, with a goal of identifying and characterising relevant user groups. Building on this foundation, relationships between behavioural characteristics and health-related information will be analysed, with the goal of understanding the spread of relevant characteristics on social networks. The project will cover a fully funded stipend (including research and travel budget) for 3 years (with a possible extension to 4 years) at the University of Southampton (UK). The candidate will be based in the Economics Department. International, EU- or UK-based candidates with a strong interest in the project and a robust numerical and programming background in theoretical or computational physics, informatics or computer science, or economics are encouraged to apply. Expertise and previous experience in the areas of network theory, data analysis, or data mining and data extraction from social media will be considered relevant for the position. For informal inquires please contact: Antonella Ianni ([log in to unmask]<http://www.findaphd.com/search/EmailEnquiry.aspx?fapjid=63559&LID=2155&[log in to unmask]>), Marcus Brede ([log in to unmask]<http://www.findaphd.com/search/EmailEnquiry.aspx?fapjid=63559&LID=2155&[log in to unmask]>), or Emmanouil Mentzakis ([log in to unmask]<http://www.findaphd.com/search/EmailEnquiry.aspx?fapjid=63559&LID=2155&[log in to unmask]>). Applications should be submitted using the Southampton ESRC-DTC application form which can be found on the Soton ESRC-DTC website. www.southampton.ac.uk/esrcdtc<http://www.findaphd.com/common/clickCount.aspx?theid=63559&type=75&url=http://www.southampton.ac.uk%2fesrcdtc> Application forms should be submitted to [log in to unmask]<http://www.findaphd.com/search/EmailEnquiry.aspx?fapjid=63559&LID=2155&[log in to unmask]> by 1st June 2015. Funding Notes: Studentships awarded by the Southampton ESRC-DTC cover programme fees and an annual Standard Maintenance Grant. Enhanced awards of an additional £3000 are available to Economics researchers. The Southampton ESRC-DTC studentships also provide access to Research Training Support Grants, funding for Overseas Fieldwork, and additional funding awards for Overseas Institutional Visits, and Internships. EU and International students must be enrolled on an Economics programme or be undertaking Advanced Quantitative Methods as part of their research project to be eligible for funding.