Last October, Northeastern University unveiled its new academic plan, Experience Unleashed, announcing a goal of hiring 500 full-time research faculty within five years.
The ambitious hiring plan outlined how the university would build on its overall goal of educating world leaders and developing solutions for the future of humanity.
In pursuit of that goal, Experience Unleashed clusters learning and discovery around current global issues rather than specific academic disciplines.
Fast-forward a year and the university has created open positions for professors committed to research around 13 global challenges that require interdisciplinary solutions, according to David Madigan, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs at Northeastern.
The global themes are: brain and cognitive health; health, technology and data; educational innovation; food, water and energy; sustainability; mental health; disease strategies; biological systems and solutions; modeling; artificial intelligence (AI) and social justice; technology and digital economies; extraordinary HCI (human-computer interaction); and network science.
“We operate in a highly competitive global market for talent and our new approach to faculty recruitment is aimed at bringing to Northeastern the impact-focused academic faculty that will take us to new heights,” Madigan said. “This is a great undertaking and I deeply appreciate the efforts of the many search committees and everyone involved.”
New professors hired under the plan, a multimillion-dollar investment in the future of teaching and research, will typically have joint appointments at two or more colleges or schools. Most will be headlines and headlines.
Hires will be freed from the constraints of isolated disciplines and encouraged to collaborate with unexpected colleagues.
Here are the global issues briefly defined with links to the full Northeast job opportunities:
Cognitive and brain health
Focus areas include epigenetics and genetics, neuromodulation, nutritional neuroscience and metabolomics, computational modeling, and other related fields. Potential topics of interest may also include lifestyle factors such as physical activity, diet, cognitive training, meditation, music, dance, drama, and social interaction, as well as a variety of populations of interest from childhood to adulthood in healthy persons or patients. stocks
Health, technology and data
Some of the richest countries are seeing declines in social health that have been evident by almost every measure: lifespan, obesity, diabetes, mental health, substance abuse, etc. health technology and sensing, health big data analytics and visualization, human-robotic team technology for health applications, trustworthy and ethical AI, and genomics.
Educational innovation and Extended Reality
These positions represent the opportunity to join an exciting cohort working in new technologies, extended reality (XR), and serious gaming, specifically to invite continued creative approaches to educational innovation needed to harness the full potential of Northeastern’s global campus. New approaches to technologies and their ethical and social implications remain fundamental to the impact of the university in the world at large and are key to curricular transformations.
Food, water and energy
In the context of climate change and other man-made disturbances, the need to provide energy and feed the planet lies at the nexus between water, food and energy. The cluster is designed to develop multidisciplinary teams for research and curriculum impact, as well as partnerships that are crucial to human well-being and conflict resolution around the world.
sustainability
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated several undercurrents in the world of work, including remote work, automation, and algorithms/artificial intelligence. This changing nature of work has created a significant opportunity for thought leaders in workforce transformation who can help assess, shape and propagate ideas to address emerging challenges and capitalize on opportunities that include economic, social, legal and and technological.
Mental health
One in five adults globally is dealing with a mental health disorder, and 5% of adults and 10% of young people have a serious mental illness. Addressing mental health disorders with prevention and therapies is a global priority that requires interdisciplinary approaches in almost all areas, including life sciences, health sciences, social sciences, communications, policy, media, design, technology and the arts.
disease strategies
The identification of novel therapies and the development of new delivery systems form a set of crucial challenges for health. These hires will develop Northeast leadership in several key areas, including antibiotic and antimicrobial resistance, healthy aging, drug screening and delivery, and the use of computational approaches.
Biosystems and solutions
Physical, chemical, and biological approaches lead to insights, innovations, and products. The interdisciplinary hires will build expertise in mechanobiology and develop new materials, sensors, drugs, and diagnostics, all at the frontiers of discovery and application.
Modeling
Developing a modeling cohort offers a powerful opportunity for leadership in science, engineering, communications, computer science, and design. Employees will adopt mathematical approaches to data analysis and presentation, including optimizing medical diagnoses, and use mathematical methods to evaluate computer systems and assist in the development of new algorithms.
AI and social justice
The use of AI and the analysis of its ethical and social implications remains central to Northeastern’s impact on the world at large and is key to curricular transformations, including research, partnerships, and humanics agendas.
Technology and digital economies
The need to understand, analyze and use data to inform decisions has increased exponentially. Similarly, data protection to ensure appropriate use and disclosure has become a major economic, social, and public policy issue. This topic offers opportunities for potential collaboration across various disciplines, including business, computer science, and cybersecurity.
Extraordinary HCI
Inclusive design fosters a broad understanding of potential users of new technology and AI, and ensures that fairness and inclusion are built into the ways that technology and AI are created and deployed. The use of AI and the analysis of its ethical and social implications remain central to Northeastern’s impact in the world at large.
network science
Relevant fields of study include the core areas of network science and its applications to physics, mathematics, social sciences, biology, computer science and engineering, art and design, or any other area that uses approaches mathematical or computational to model physics, computing, social. , complex biological or geospatial systems and their mixtures.
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