Postdoctoral Fellow at the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard (LISH), IQSS

School

Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Department/Area

LISH / IQSS

The Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard University (LISH) is accepting applications for multiple postdoctoral fellowships in quantitative social science (economics, management, psychology, and sociology). Candidates with a background in applied work with observational data establishing casual relationships, or experimental design in the lab or field settings would be well-suited.

LISH is a Harvard-wide research program led by faculty co-directors Karim Lakhani and Marco Iansiti of Harvard Business School; Eva Guinan, Harvard Medical School; and David Parkes, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. We focus on developing a science of innovation primarily through field-based experiments. The lab works with several partners (NASA, Harvard Medical School, and various other institutions and corporations) to investigate real-world innovation problems.

Multiple positions available. Fellows will focus on one of three areas: online platforms and contests, science of science, or the economics and management of AI systems. The online platforms and contests area addresses issues relating to open innovation that occurs now through online platforms such as Kaggle, Freelancer, Topcoder, etc., and has occurred historically with the Longitude Prize and X-Prize competitions. Past projects have examined how different kinds of incentives and different competition rules change contributor behavior and outcomes. The science of science area focuses on innovation in academia. Past projects have addressed the functioning of grant evaluation procedures, the information content of citations, and the management practices of research labs. The economics and management of AI systems area examines the effects of the introduction of AI systems into enterprises. Projects have looked at AI applicability to supply chain logistics through field experiments and AI adoption using survey data.

Position Description

A typical empirical project involves refining a research question, designing an experiment or survey, analyzing historical and experimental data, and writing targeted at peer reviewed social science journals. Candidates should have some familiarity with:

• Experimental design: treatment selection, power analysis;

• Game theoretic modeling of behavior;

• Programming/scripting knowledge suitable for processing raw data for analysis (e.g., text manipulation);

• One or more computational environments for statistical analysis (e.g., MATLAB, R, or Stata).
  
  

LISH is looking for candidates with diverse backgrounds and/or new perspectives.

There are no teaching requirements for these open positions.


Appointment Details:

 
These positions are funded by awards administered by the Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS) at Harvard.
 
This is a one-year term appointment through Harvard University with the possibility of renewal based on performance and funding.
Basic QualificationsPh.D. in economics, management, psychology, sociology, or a related field.