Department of Mathematics

Lectureship in Mathematics

Please note that this vacancy is now closed to applications

Salary range £40,123- £46,477 pa incl.

Applications are invited from candidates with proven research ability in Mathematics, especially those with research interests in an area where the Department has current strengths, such as algorithms and discrete mathematics, control theory, financial mathematics, game theory and probability theory. Interest in applications of Mathematics or Computer Science to the Social Sciences is an asset.

You will maintain an active programme of research and will contribute to the general work of the department, including the teaching of a range of mathematics courses.

You should have an established track-record of research at a level of international excellence as well as a completed, or nearly completed, PhD in a mathematical subject.

Ideally, the post will commence on 1 September 2009.

Information about the department can be found at www.maths.lse.ac.uk

The closing date for the receipt of applications is 31 March 2009 at 5.30pm. 
Regrettably, we are unable to accept any applications that are received after this date.

We value diversity and wish to promote equality at all levels

Lectureship in Mathematics  

Further Particulars

About The Post

The LSE wishes to appoint a career-track Lecturer in the Department of Mathematics. It is hoped that the person appointed will be able to take up the position on or before 1st September 2009.
We are interested in a candidate with expertise in a branch of mathematics that complements the existing research strengths of the Department (please see below). Interest in applications of mathematics to the Social Sciences is an asset.

About The London School of Economics and Political Science

The London School of Economics and Political Science is an independent and autonomous institution with the status of a School within the federal University of London. The School was founded in 1895.

At present there are nineteen academic departments, five interdisciplinary institutes, and several research centres. The subjects taught and researched are all in the sphere of the social sciences, broadly conceived. The School also houses the British Library of Political and Economic Science, one of the finest collections in the world of social science materials.

The LSE is an active participant in the nation’s public life. Located in central London, the School enjoys a high level of interaction with Westminster, Whitehall, the City, and London’s legal and media centres.

The School has approximately 9,000 full-time students. About half of the School’s full-time students are post-graduate, and over sixty-six per cent of the student cohort are from countries outside the UK. The School employs approximately 2,700 salaried staff.

The LSE has confirmed its position as a world-leading research university, with outstanding success in the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise. LSE has the highest percentage of world-leading research of any university in the country, topping or coming close to the top of a number of rankings of research excellence.

It is equal second in the UK when universities are ranked using a grade point average their research strengths; first when universities are ranked according to the percentage of their research receiving the top 4*(world-leading) grade and fourth when universities are ranked according to the percentage of their research receiving either 4* or 3* (internationally excellent) grades.

The holder of the post will enjoy the facilities and benefits open to full-time members of the academic staff of the School.

About The Mathematics Department

Consistent with its location within a world-class social science institution, the Department of Mathematics at the London School of Economics has major strengths in areas including algorithms and discrete mathematics, financial mathematics, mathematical control theory, mathematical game theory and probability theory. The Department's mission is to carry out outstanding research in mathematics within this context, and it is well known for its research excellence within its areas of specialisation. The Department has enjoyed a prolonged period of development and growth, reflecting the increasing impact that mathematical theory and techniques are having on disciplines such as economics and finance, as well as the value that LSE attaches to the contribution of mathematics to the social sciences.

The Department is responsible for the established and very popular undergraduate degree in Mathematics and Economics, attracting extremely strong students both from the UK and overseas. A new BSc in Mathematics with Economics, where students study approximately 75% mathematics, will start in 2010. In 2004 the Department launched an MSc in Applicable Mathematics, whose focus is on mathematics applicable to the Social Sciences (interpreted in an LSE context, so as to include, for instance, Economics and Operational Research). This has proven to be very popular, with 25 - 30 students taking the degree each year. An MSc in Financial Mathematics was launched in 2008. This degree is still in its growth phase, but is already attracting extremely large numbers of applications.

The Department has a growing cohort of PhD students and wants to continue expansion of its doctoral programme.

More details of the current activities of the Department can be found in the department’s Annual Report: Annual Report for 2008

Current members of staff and their research interests are as follows:

• Steve Alpern (Professor of Mathematics and Operational Research): Search theory, especially rendezvous search; chaos theory, volume preserving homeomorphisms; game theory, mathematical biology.
• Martin Anthony (Professor of Mathematics): Mathematical theory of machine learning and data mining; Boolean function classes and their representations.
• Tugkan Batu (Lecturer in Mathematics): Algorithms and theory of computation. In particular, randomized computation, sublinear algorithms, property testing, and statistical testing.
• Norman Biggs (Professor Emeritus of Mathematics): Algebraic combinatorics, cryptography, history of mathematics.
• Graham Brightwell (Professor of Mathematics): Combinatorics in general, especially finite partially ordered sets, probabilistic methods, and algorithmic aspects.
• Pavel Gapeev (Lecturer in Mathematics): stochastic calculus, optimal stopping and free-boundary problems, pricing of American options, sequential testing and disorder detection problems, interest rate and credit risk models, illiquidity markets, stochastic impulse control and optimization, Gaussian processes.
• Olivier Gossner (Professor of Mathematics): Game theory; Economics of information, bounded rationality and complexity.
• Jan van den Heuvel (Professor of Mathematics): Graph and matroid theory; applications and algorithmic aspects of graph theory; mathematical aspects of frequency assignment problems.
• Arne Lokka (Lecturer in Mathematics): Probability and financial mathematics, with special emphasis on hedging and pricing of derivatives, utility maximization and equilibrium and real investment decisions under uncertainty.
• Malwina Luczak (Reader in Mathematics): Probability theory, concentration of measure, stochastic processes, discrete mathematics, phase transitions, applications to mathematical biology, queueing and telecommunications.
• Adam Ostaszewski (Reader in Mathematics): Applicable Mathematics (Mathematical finance, with a particular interest in real options and accounting theory, including Corporate Disclosure policy; Bargaining Theory) and Pure Mathematics (Set-theoretic Topology and Regular Variation).
• Amol Sasane (Lecturer in Mathematics): Mathematical control theory, Operator theory, Complex analysis.
• Robert Simon (Lecturer in Mathematics): Stochastic Games and Dynamic Systems, Games of Incomplete Information, Ergodic Theory and Topology, Matroids and other shellable simplicial complexes.
• Jozef Skokan (Lecturer in Mathematics): Extremal set theory, probabilistic combinatorics, quasi-random structures, discrete geometry, graph theory, topics in theoretical computer science, combinatorial games, and mathematical modelling of natural phenomena.
• Bernhard von Stengel (Professor of Mathematics and current Head of Department): Game theory (efficient computation of equilibria, theory of online algorithms), extensive form games, correlated equilibria, pivoting algorithms in linear programming and linear complementarity, polytope theory.
• Mihail Zervos (Professor of Financial Mathematics): Stochastic analysis, stochastic control and optimisation, optimal stopping problems, valuation of investment decisions and investments in real options, options of American type, derivative pricing in incomplete markets, weather derivatives.

General information about the LSE can be found at www.lse.ac.uk. Further information about the Department of Mathematics can be found at www.maths.lse.ac.uk or in the aforementioned Annual Report.

Any candidate wishing to discuss the appointment informally is invited to contact Professor Bernhard von Stengel (preferably by email: stengel @ maths.lse.ac.uk)

Back to top ^

Job Description and Person Specification

The job description and person specification for the position of Lecturer in Mathematics at LSE can be downloaded (in PDF format) below:

Lecturer in Mathematics Job Description

Lecturer in Mathematics Person Specification

Back to top ^

How to Apply

A full application pack can be obtained at http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/recruitment/jobsAtLSE/CurrentVacancies.htm#22/08/LEC.

If you cannot download the pack, email HR.Recruit.Lec@lse.ac.uk or call 020 7955 6183 quoting reference 22/08/LEC.

Back to top ^

Last amended: 3rd March 2009
Send comments to webmaster