A Ph.D. studentship is available commencing end September 2010 for three years to create an updated methodology for the creation of a new area classification that will be employed on the 2011 Census of the Population, when the output data are made available. The current classification can be viewed as the ‘OAC interactive map’ at www.areaclassification.org.uk.

This provides an excellent opportunity to address a range of important methodological issues with geodemographic classifications, and to build better visualisation methods for dissemination that will maximise engagement and create more opportunities for public feedback. As such, the key research deliverables of this award will be: to evaluate alternate clustering methodologies that create more stable assignments of areas into clusters; to design new geographically sensitive methods of measurement that inform the underlying indicator variables used to create the classification; to develop and evaluate new modes of dissemination which better utilise web based technology and new advances in GIS.

The successful candidate is likely to have a background in GIS or computer science, and will have as a minimum an upper second or first class degree. The applicant will be a home (UK) or EU student. Applicants should email a curriculum vitae and supporting statement to Professor Paul Longley at the Department of Geography, University College London: plongley@geog.ucl.ac.uk. The closing date for applications is Friday 27 August 2010, with interviews planned for the following week.

PhD studentship opportunity at University College London in migration statistics and modelling.

—-

PHD Studentship – (ENFOLD-ing – Explaining, Modelling and Forecasting Global Dynamics), –

UCL Department / Division

Department of Geography

Specific unit / Sub department

Migration Research Unit/CASA

Duration of Studentship

3 Years

Stipend

£15,290 plus £3,390 tuition fees per annum

Vacancy Information

ENFOLD is a multidisciplinary, five year modelling project funded by the UK Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC: £2.9 million FEC) spanning seven UCL departments. It will develop new forms of complexity science to address the most difficult of human problems: those involving global change where there is no organised constituency and whose agencies are largely regarded as being ineffective. ENFOLD addresses problems arising from the fact that that global systems tend to be treated in isolation from one another. Their characteristically unexpected dynamics are thus due to the aspects of coupling and integration between them that are all too often ignored. To demonstrate these dynamics and develop appropriate policy responses, ENFOLD will study four related global systems: trade, migration, security and development aid. Integrated and coupled models will be developed, whose dynamics can be described in the language of complexity theory, including chaos, turbulence, bifurcations, catastrophes, and phase transition. The programme will apply spatial interaction models to trade and migration; reaction diffusion to conflicts and terrorism; and network models to international trade, migration and crime. These models will be extended to incorporate new events, such as the emergence of new entities, including countries, coupling them together in diverse ways. A generic framework will ultimately be developed for a coupled global dynamics spanning many spatial and temporal scales, pertaining to different systems whose behaviours can be both quantitatively and qualitatively simulated. Models will be developed which incorporate all these ideas into a global intelligence system to inform global policy makers about future events. Several UK government departments as well as global businesses are partners in this project.

Studentship Description

The role of the Migration PhD studentship within ENFOLD will be:

1. To review and engage with the literature on general theories of migration and more specifically that on migration forecasting models

2. To identify, collect, systematise and analyse relevant international migration statistics as required by the project

3. To assist in the programming and database effort for the migration model in ENFOLD

4. To develop and test several models of global migration dynamics

Person Specification

The applicants should possess a good honours degree (1st Class or 2:1 minimum) in any of the following disciplines: Economics, Statistics, Physics, Mathematics, Finance, or in any social science program with a strong quantitative component within Geography, Sociology, Epidemiology/ Public Health, GIS, Spatial Analysis or any other closely relevant subject area. An MSc in one of these areas or/and knowledge in econometric and statistical analysis is highly desirable. They should also have excellent quantitative research skills in social sciences including a good command of statistical analysis and programming knowledge of relevant packages (R, SAS,SPSS). As well as strong motivation to conduct independent research on the field of migration and basic knowledge of contemporary issues on migration.

Eligibility

The studentship is subject to funding restrictions please refer to the following link:http://www.epsrc.ac.uk/funding/students/Pages/eligibility.aspx.

Candidates should submit an application for graduate study to UCL Registry (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/admission/graduate-study/application-admission/) and should send a duplicate, along with a CV and cover letter, to Dr Pablo Mateos via email top.mateos@ucl.ac.uk.

Contact name

Dr Pablo Mateos

Contact details

p.mateos@ucl.ac.uk

UCL Taking Action for Equality

Closing Date

30 Jun 2010

Latest time for the submission of applications

30th June 2010

Interview date

Mid July 2010

Studentship Start Date

1st October 2010

The first event in a new high-profile series at University College London, the UCL Global Migration Symposia, organised by the UCL Global Migration Network, is to take place on 10th March 2010.

The first event is entitled: Globalisation and Cosmopolitan Citizenship: Migrating Bodies, Practices and Ideas and will be given by Professor Peggy Levitt of Wellesley College, USA; chaired by Dr Claire Dwyer of the Migration Research Unit, UCL Department of Geography, and with Professor John Eade, Director of CRONEM, University of Roehampton and Visiting Professor in the Migration Research Unit acting as discussant. The abstract is as follows:

“Cosmopolitanism today is no longer the exclusive province of elites. Labour migrants, sojourners, religious believers, and refugees are also open to the world, although they interact with it differently than their professional counterparts. In fact, in today’s world, cosmopolitanism is a necessity not a choice. What are the rights and responsibilities of global citizenship? How can we begin to imagine a community that extends beyond national borders and where do the elements come from with which to create it?”

Peggy Levitt is a Professor of Sociology at Wellesley College and a Research Fellow at The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs and The Hauser Center for Nonprofit Organizations at Harvard University where she co-directs The Transnational Studies Initiative. Her books include God Needs No Passport: Immigrants and the Changing American Religious Landscape (New Press 2007), The Transnational Studies Reader (Routledge 2007), The Changing Face of Home: The Transnational Lives of the Second Generation (Russell Sage 2002), and The Transnational Villagers (UC Press, 2001).

The event is scheduled to take place on 10 March 2010 from 5.30-7pm in the Roberts Lecture Theatre, 106 Roberts Building, Torrington Place, London WC1E 7JE. The event is followed by a drinks reception in the Roberts Building Foyer. All are welcome, but places are limited, pleases can be reserved at http://migrationsymposium.eventbrite.com/.

The series is sponsored by UCL Research Challenges and the UCL Grand Challenge of Intercultural Interaction. A full programme for the series is available here: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/migration/symposia/.

UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) is running a free one day conference on Tuesday 13th April which will feature the work of group on projects associated with research funded by various UK research councils. The conference is free but you have to register. It is also the day before the UK’s annual conference on GIS called GISRUK which is on the 14-16 April. The GISRUK conference is chargeable and details can be got from the CASA conference site.

If you want to come to the one day CASA meeting “Advances in Spatial Analysis & e-Social Science”, then please go to the registration site at http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/conference/ and register.

You can get to the GISRUK site from http://gisruk2010.spatial-literacy.org/registration/

If you need any more information about this meeting email christiane.morgan@ucl.ac.uk.

The programme for the CASA meeting is listed below

Session One (AM)

Online exploration of cultural regions, migration and ethnicity using the geography of personal names  – Paul Longley & Pablo Mateos

Spatial Interaction Models for Higher Education – Alex Singleton & Ollie O’Brien

The Dynamics of Skyscrapers: Scaling, Allometry, and Sustainability – Michael Batty

Development of an urban growth model using high-resolution historical data – Kiril Stanilov

Session Two (PM)

The research frontier in urban modelling: the agenda and the challenges – Alan Wilson

On-line Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Network Data and Road Developments – Tao Cheng

Twitter Tags and Real-Time Visualisation of Complex Geographic Data with MapTube – Richard Milton

Tales of Things and Electronic Memory ­ Creating and Mapping The Geography of Everything – Andrew Hudson-Smith

Panel Discussion with Mike Goodchild, Keith Clarke, David Maguire, Carl Steinitz

Coffee at convenient points is provided, but lunch is not.

Afterwards, there will be a reception in the Wilkins Building Jeremy Bentham Room.

The Programme Committee for the GIS Research UK (GISRUK) conference in 2010 are pleased to open the call for papers.

The GISRUK conference series is the UK’s national GIS research conference, established in 1993. GISRUK conferences are primarily aimed at the academic community though research papers from outside academia are welcomed. The conferences attract delegates from all parts of the UK, together with the European Union and North America, and from disciplines including Geography, Computer Science, Planning, Archaeology, Geology, Geomatics, Crime Science and Engineering.

This year the conference is being hosted at University College London (UCL), from Wednesday 14 to Friday 16 April 2010.

The overarching theme this year will therefore be “Global Challenges”. As is usual with GISRUK papers across the range of contemporary GIS research are welcomed, but the papers on the following themes are particularly well received:

• Crime and Place
• Environmental Change
• Migration and Identity
• Intelligent Transport
• Public Health and Epidemiology
• Simulation and Modelling
• London as a global city
• The geoweb and neo-geography
• Open GIS and Volunteered Geographic Information

More details of the call for papers, abstract format, and the submission URL can all be found on the conference website.

Plenary speakers and details of the social events at the conference are to be announced shortly. Conference registration will open in the Autumn.

Applications are invited for seven new research posts within UCL Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis (CASA) funded by the EPSRC, GLA ECONOMICS and JISC.

In brief they are:

2 x Research associates with the SCALE project

1 x PhD Studentship with the SCALE project

1 x Research associate with TOTeM project

1 x Research technician with TOTeM project

1 x Research associate with National e-Infrastructure for Social Simulation Project

1 x Post as GLA Economics research fellow in urban systems

Closing date is Tuesday 7th July 2009 for all positions.

Further information on each of the posts, and contacts here.