Faculty in Statistics and Data Science- Open Rank

The Departmen t of Statistics and Data Scienc e at Washington University in St. Louis has multiple openings for tenure-track positions at the rank of Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor, to begin in 2027 , with particular interest in candidates who advance the university's broader +AI initiative . The department supports foundational research as well as transdisciplinary research.

Successful candidates will join a rich intellectual community of AI practitioners and subject matter experts utilizing AI methods to solve society's greatest challenges. We invite applications from candidates with expertise and interest in statistics and data science, broadly defined . We are especially interested in candidates whose research advances one or more of the four thematic areas of WashU’s +AI initiative: AI for Science and Engineering: Modeling the Physical World.

Fundamental AI and computational methodology that advances modeling, simulating, and reasoning about physical systems. This includes physical AI coupled with domain knowledge (climate, materials, digital twins) and AI-accelerated scientific discovery (structural biology, astrophysics, quantum systems). We particularly welcome scholars who can leverage AI to bridge information across temporal and spatial scales.

AI-Driven Imaging Science: Imaging from Molecules to the Universe. Advancement of foundation models, generative modeling, and inverse problem methods across scales from the biomedical to the geophysical, with applications spanning biomedical sensing, biodiversity and environmental monitoring, the built environment, and population health and food security.

Agentic AI: Governance, Society, and Institutions. Modeling how AI agents behave at scale in complex social and economic systems, including multi-agent dynamics, organizational adaptation to agentic systems, and the reshaping of labor, decision-making, and accountability in complex institutions. We welcome applications that engage high-stakes contexts leveraging existing WashU strengths, such as population health, democracy, or biotechnology.

Human Values, Creative Practice, and AI. Statistical and computational foundations of generative AI systems, and quantitative approaches to studying human interaction with AI, including questions of authorship, creativity, and the human implications of generative systems. Candidates selected under the +AI initiative will be invited to participate in a university-wide workshop in one of these four identified areas and to be an active member of the intellectual community forming around that topic.

Duties will include teaching and student mentoring at the undergraduate and the graduate levels, conducting and maintaining a strong research program, and participating in department and university service.

A Ph.D. in Statistics or a relevant field in data science is required. Candidates for the rank of Associate or Full Professor should have outstanding teaching, service, and research record commensurate with tenure at that rank.

Application materials should include a CV, list of publications, research statement, teaching statement, and three or four letters of recommendation. Applicants are recommended to include copies of past teaching evaluations along with their teaching statements. Applicants and reference letter writers should submit the required materials via Interfolio.

The department will review applications regularly from October 15, 2026, but applications completed prior to November 15, 2026 will receive full consideration. Consideration after that date will be at the discretion of the department. Each year Washington University publishes a Safety and Security brochure that details what to do and whom to contact in an emergency.

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