Post Doc Research Assistant

Job Summary

PURDUE UNIVERSITY

College of Liberal Arts (CLA) Postdoctoral Research Assistant in

AI, Decision Making, and Risk

Date Available: August 2026

The College of Liberal Arts Research Academy (CLARA) at Purdue University invites applications for a full-time Postdoctoral Research Assistant position in AI, decision making, and risk.

The selected candidate will join a vibrant community of faculty, staff, graduate and undergraduate students from social science and humanity programs in the College of Liberal Arts at Purdue and will be involved in interdisciplinary projects including faculty from communication, psychology, and engineering at Purdue and Rice University. This is an academic year position (9 months) with a start date of August 12. The appointment is for one year.

• Cover letter
• CV
• 1-3 representative manuscripts or other products demonstrating relevant expertise
• Names and contact information of at least 2 references
  
  

The priority deadline is March 31, 2026, but all applications will be considered until the position is filled. Questions about the position can be addressed to the Director of Purdue’s College of Liberal Arts Research Academy (CLARA), Professor Torsten Reimer, at treimer@purdue.edu.

Qualifications

Minimum Qualifications:

• PhD in social science (e.g., cognitive and decision science, psychology, communication, political science, sociology), or a technology-related field (e.g., computer science, industrial engineering) conferred by the expected start date
• Substantial quantitative expertise in one or more of the following areas: human decision making; decision modeling; human-machine interaction; human perceptions of AI; large language models; data simulation; machine learning; software development
  
  

Preferred Qualifications

• Excellent academic writing ability on quantitative topics
• Familiarity with relevant software environments (e.g., R, Python, SPSS)
• Expertise in psychological research methods including experiments and modeling of cognitive processes involving AI
• Substantive research interests related to AI and human decision making/risk
  
  

We are looking for an individual who is enthusiastic about studying social scientific questions of the application of AI in decision making and risk. Since the focus of the postdoc position includes AI techniques such as large language models and modeling of information processing and decision making, experience in these areas is desirable.

FLSA Status

Exempt