Postdoctoral scholarship (1 year) in Discrete Mathematics

The Department of Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics at Umeå University (Sweden) is offering a postdoctoral scholarship within the project “Bounds for Pancake Sorting and Analysis of the Pancake Graph”. The scholarship is tax-free and amounts to 375 000 SEK for one year with starting date 1st April, 2027 or by agreement. After the scholarship period, there is a possibility to apply for an extension. Project description: The purpose of the project is to pursue research in pancake sorting, which is a well-known problem in combinatorial optimization which goes back up to a paper of Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Papadimitriou from 1979. More concretely, we will study lower and upper bounds to both the unburnt and burnt version of this problem, and we will analyze the corresponding pancake graph. The specific research questions will be determined based on the candidate’s interests and expertise. The postdoctoral scholarship is funded and administered by the Kempe Foundation (JCSMK-0158). Research environment: The project will be carried out in close collaboration with Associate Professor Gerod Jäger. Beyond this, the postdoctoral scholar will be encouraged to interact with other members of the Discrete Mathematics group, that currently consists of 20 individual researchers. The Discrete Mathematics research group is highly active; it holds a weekly seminar, hosts yearly workshops and receives a frequent flow of visitors and international collaborators. The group's interests cover a wide range of areas including extremal and probabilistic combinatorics, combinatorial optimization, graph theory, game theory, algorithmics and geometry. Beyond Discrete Mathematics, the Department of Mathematics and Mathematical Statistics carries out research in computational mathematics, financial mathematics, mathematical modeling, analysis, machine learning, optimization, mathematical foundations of artificial intelligence, mathematical ecology and mathematical statistics. Life in Umeå: Umeå is a young, creative, and steadily growing city of about 135,000 people, where students make up a big part of everyday life. That mix gives the city an easy-going yet lively feel, with plenty of cafés, pubs, small venues, and cultural events, without the stress or pace of a big city. Day to day, though, Umeå is simply a comfortable place to live, safe, compact, and easy to get around, especially by bike. As the largest city in northern Sweden, it offers what you need while staying friendly, calm, and close to home. What people often appreciate most is how close you stay to nature here.

Last updated: 28 August 2026