Are you an expert in philosophical Logic, and familiar with formal and/or probabilistic approaches to meaning?  Do you have a track record of publishing in leading journals in Logic and language? Are you an inspiring teacher who is competent to teach in the area Philosophy of AI? If so, we hope you will apply for our vacancy for a four-year postdoctoral researcher in the area of Logic and Language. This position also has a significant teaching component (research:teaching ratio is 70:30).

What are you going to do

You are expected:

• to be active in the field of logic and its application to language and artificial intelligence at the ILLC, while also reaching out to the broader research community active in language and cognition within the Faculty of Humanities;
• to publish papers in international journals / conference venues in your field, and to give contributed or invited talks at international venues;
• to teach courses at MSc and BSc level on topics such as philosophical logic, and philosophy of AI;
• to contribute to the supervision of BSc and MSc thesis projects;
• to contribute to research valorisation, as well as to outreach activities in research and/or teaching at the ILLC.

What to require of you

• A PhD in a relevant field (e.g. Logic, Linguistics);
• Excellent research skills, evidenced by publications in renowned international journals and/or conference venues in logic and Language, as well as contributed/invited talks at international venues;
• Proven didactic abilities in Logic and Language; you should have experience in teaching at both Bachelor and Master levels, and have the Dutch BKO (UTQ) or be willing to acquire this within two years;
• Experience in teaching courses for an interdisciplinary audience would be an advantage;
• Some experience with the (co-)supervision of BSc, MSc and/or PhD students;
• Ability to contribute to research valorisation and outreach activities in teaching and/or research;
• Ability to cooperate in a multidisciplinary environment;
• Excellent oral and written communication skills, and an excellent command of both English and Dutch.

Our offer

A temporary contract for 38 hours a week, preferably starting on 1 Oktober 2021 or as soon as possible after this date. The contract is for the duration of four years.  The salary, depending on relevant experience before the beginning of the employment contract, will be €2,790 to €4,402 (scale 10) gross per month, based on a fulltime contract (38 hours a week). This is exclusive 8% holiday allowance and 8.3% end-of-year bonus. A favourable tax agreement, the ‘30% ruling’, may apply to non-Dutch applicants. The Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities is applicable.

Are you curious about our extensive package of secondary employment benefits like our excellent opportunities for study and development? Take a look here.

University of Amsterdam

With over 6,000 employees, 30,000 students and a budget of more than 600 million euros, the University of Amsterdam (UvA) is an intellectual hub within the Netherlands. Teaching and research at the UvA are conducted within seven faculties: Humanities, Social and Behavioural Sciences, Economics and Business, Law, Science, Medicine and Dentistry. Housed on four city campuses in or near the heart of Amsterdam, where disciplines come together and interact, the faculties have close links with thousands of researchers and hundreds of institutions at home and abroad.  

The UvA’s students and employees are independent thinkers, competent rebels who dare to question dogmas and aren’t satisfied with easy answers and standard solutions. To work at the UvA is to work in an independent, creative, innovative and international climate characterised by an open atmosphere and a genuine engagement with the city of Amsterdam and society.

Faculty of Science – Institute for Logic, Language and Computation

The Faculty of Science has a student body of around 7,000, as well as 1,600 members of staff working in education, research or support services. Researchers and students at the Faculty of Science are fascinated by every aspect of how the world works, be it elementary particles, the birth of the universe or the functioning of the brain.

The Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) embraces curiosity-driven research and serves as a rallying point for information scientists across traditional research fields, ranging from AI, computer science and mathematics to linguistics, cognitive science and philosophy. ILLC's scientific mission is to study the formal properties of information, viz. the fundamental structure and properties of processes of encoding, transmitting and comprehending information. The latter notion is to be viewed in its broadest sense, covering not only the mathematical and algorithmic properties of formal languages, but also the flow of information in natural language processing and in human cognitive activities such as reasoning.