9 Marie Curie ITN Fellowships

Nine Early Stage Researcher (ESR) positions in five locations (EPFL,
TU Berlin, Technion, FORTH, and U Rennes I)
are funded by the European Commission under the Marie Curie Initial
Training Network Program (project TransForm).

We address (pre-PhD) researchers aiming at significantly improving
their career perspectives from both the
public and private sector.

The duration of the appointment is 3 years, with a possibility of
extension funded from other sources.

RESEARCH TOPIC

The ESRs will pursue research on the general area of concurrent
computing and in particular on the theoretical
foundations of transactional memory.

Multicore architectures have come to stay; yet multicore is useless
without concurrent programming. The
current parallel programming approach of employing locks is widely
considered to be too difficult for any but
a few experts. Transactional Memory (TM) is a new programming
paradigm which is considered by many
researchers as the future of parallel programming. To understand
properly TM systems as well as be able to
assess them and improve them, a rigorous theoretical study of the
approach, its challenges and its benefits is
badly needed.

This is the challenging research goal to be undertaken by the recruited ESRs.

Each recruited ESR will primarily work with one of the academic
partners of the project:

* Swiss Institute of Technology in Lausanne(EPFL), Switzerland
(Prof. Rachid Guerraoui)
* Technical University of Berlin, Germany (Prof. Anja Feldman & Dr.
Petr Kuznetsov)
* Technion, Department of Computer Science, Israel (Prof. Hagit Attiya)
* FORTH, Heraklion, Greece (Prof. Panagiota Fatourou)
* University of Rennes I, France (Prof. Michel Raynal)

and under the supervision of researchers from the industry:

* Deutsche Telekom Laboratories, Germany (Prof. Dr. Anja Feldman &
Dr. Petr Kuznetsov)
* Microsoft Research, Cambridge, UK (Dr. Tim Harris)
* Sun Microsystems Labs, Massachusetts, USA (Dr. Victor Luchangco)
* IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, USA (Dr. Maged Michael and Dr.
Eran Yahav).

ELIGIBILITY

The recruited researchers should be, at the time of selection, in the
first four years of their research careers
(measured from the date when they obtained the degree which would
formally entitle them to embark on a
doctorate). Also:

* ESR should not already have a PhD
* ESR should be nationals of a country other than the country of
her/his primary academic partner, and
* ESR must not have resided or carried out her/his main activity
(work, studies, etc.) in the country of her/his
primary academic partner for more than 12 months in the last 3 years.

ELIGIBILITY EXAMPLES

Example A:
A researcher has already been working as a researcher in industry for
two years since graduating with his/her
first degree in computer science.
S/he would be able to benefit from participation in an ITN as an ESR
even without pursuing a PhD degree.

Example B:
A researcher has graduated with his/her MSc degree in computer science
in 2007 and would like to start
his/her PhD studies in 2010.
S/he is eligible as an ESR within the ITN as s/he has less than 4
years of research experience and no PhD.

Example C:
A researcher obtained his/her PhD after 3 ½ years.
S/he is not eligible as an ESR within an ITN even though s/he has less
than 4 years of research experience.

IMPORTANT DATES

There are two cut-off dates:

1) 1st Cut-off date: November 15, 2009
Expected starting date: January 1, 2010

2) 2nd Cut-off date: March 31, 2010
Expected starting date: October 1, 2010

Priority will be given to applicants that can join the project in early 2010.
Applicants should send an e-mail of interest to the contact person at
the academic partner
of their choice (EPFL, TU Berlin, Technion, FORTH, or U Rennes I):

* EPFL: Prof. Rachid Guerraoui, rachid.guerraoui AT epfl DOT ch
* TU Berlin: Dr. Petr Kuznetsov, pkuznets AT acm DOT org
* Technion: Prof. Hagit Attiya, hagit AT cs DOT technion DOT ac DOT il
* FORTH: Prof. Panagiota Fatouru, faturu AT csd DOT uoc DOT gr
* U Rennes I: Prof. Michel Raynal, michel.raynal AT irisa DOT fr

FINANCIAL PROVISIONS

Marie Curie ITNs provide competitive financial support to the ESRs including:

* a fair monthly living and mobility allowance
* a yearly travel allowance (i.e., a fixed amount of money based
upon the direct distance between the location
of origin of the researcher and the chosen institution)
* a career exploratory allowance (i.e., a single payment for
attending job interviews, additional courses, job
fairs, etc.) and
* coverage of the expenses related to the participation of the
ESRs in research and training activities
(contribution to research-related costs, meetings, conference
attendance, training actions, etc.).

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