Simons Research Fellowships Post

Alistair Sinclair asked me to post a note about the Simons Research Fellowships positions at Berkeley.  But since that's where Justin Thaler (my now-ex student) ended up, I thought he could put in a few words about his experience to add a personal effect.  Justin says...

Having been a Research Fellow at the Simons Institute for a couple of months now, I cannot speak highly enough about the experience. Others have already given a sense of how exciting it is to be here, so I'll just briefly list some of the things I find most striking about the place.

* The atmosphere is surprisingly collaborative, even for a place specifically designed to foster collaboration.
* Any time I have a question I can't answer, there is an expert's door I can immediately knock on.
* There's a great mix of junior and senior people.
* It's particularly fun hanging out with other Research Fellows! And I look forward to every Friday, when we all meet for lunch and one of us gives a short, informal talk on, well, whatever that person wants to talk about.
* Seriously, what's not to like about having no non-research responsibilities, surrounded by dozens of top researchers in the same boat?

With that very positive description, here's the formal information:

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The Simons Institute for the Theory of Computing at UC Berkeley invites applications for Research Fellowships for academic year 2014-15.

Simons-Berkeley Research Fellowships are an opportunity for outstanding junior scientists (up to 6 years from PhD by Fall 2014) to spend one or two semesters at the Institute in connection with one or more of its programs.  The programs for 2014-15 are as follows:

* Algorithmic Spectral Graph Theory (Fall 2014)
* Algorithms and Complexity in Algebraic Geometry (Fall 2014)
* Information Theory (Spring 2015)

Applicants who already hold junior faculty or postdoctoral positions are welcome to apply. In particular, applicants who hold, or expect to hold, postdoctoral appointments at other institutions are encouraged to apply to spend one semester as a Simons-Berkeley Fellow subject to the approval of the postdoctoral institution.

Further details and application instructions can be found at http://simons.berkeley.edu/fellows2014.  Information about the Institute and the above programs can be found at http://simons.berkeley.edu.

Deadline for applications: 15 December, 2013.