PhD Student

The Algorithmic Bioinformatics Lab is recruiting a PhD student funded by TeamPerMed Center for Data-Enriched Personalised Medicine. You will work with Professor Veli Mäkinen. The general scope of the work is studying compressed data structures and applying them in the development of scalable algorithms to genome analysis tasks. More specifically, this position is devoted to studying haplotype phasing and imputation with noisy data. The noisy data is resulting from approaches to protect privacy of genomic content of individuals. The position offers collaboration opportunities with domain experts at the University of Tartu, as well as with experts in differential privacy (Assistant Professor Teresa Anna Steiner at the Univ. Southern Denmark and Professor Antti Honkela at the Univ. Helsinki) and in statistical and computational genomics (FIMM Group Leader Simone Rubinacci at the Univ. Helsinki).

A start date in early September 2026 is ideal, but it is flexible. The application deadline is June 22, 2026 (at 23:59 UTC +3).

Requirements

• A master's degree in computer science or a related topic
• Prior experience in algorithms in bioinformatics context and compressed data structures is desirable
• Excellent English skills

In addition, according to the system of the University of Helsinki, all doctoral researchers belong to a doctoral programme. The successful candidate should apply to Doctoral Programme in Science and obtain the study right within the trial period of six months of their employment contract. Please check the admission periods and eligibility criteria at https://www.helsinki.fi/en/admissions-and-education/apply-doctoral-programmes/how-apply-doctoral-programmes.

We offer

• The opportunity to do fundamental research
• A world class academic community that promotes diversity, international engagement and equality. We encourage all qualified applicants from diverse backgrounds to apply for our positions.
• 3-year full-time contract
• A starting salary of ca. 2800 euros/month. The salary will develop in accordance with the progress.
• Occupational health care and other social benefits
• Support for internationally recruited employees with their transition to work and live in Finland
• A chance to live in Helsinki and Finland renowned for their high-quality of life, services, and work-life balance

Application instructions

Applications shall be submitted through the University of Helsinki´s recruitment system and include the following document

• CV
• Transcripts from previous degrees
• A motivation letter (max 2 pages)
• Contact information of two referees to provide reference letters upon request

External applicants, please submit your application via the Apply Now button.

Internal applicants, who have a helsinki.fi username and a valid employment/grant/visitor contract, please submit your application via the Employee login button.

Additional information

For more information on the position, please contact Professor Veli Mäkinen (veli.makinen@helsinki.fi).

With technical questions related to the recruitment system, please contact recruitment@helsinki.fi.