Short-Term Research Assistant Service

MPC members can apply to use the services of a 10-hour per week graduate research assistant for a short period of time (typically 4-6 weeks). Priority is given to projects that (a) have a population studies focus, broadly construed; (b) can quickly result in a publication and/or grant proposal; (c) can clearly benefit from short-term research assistance; and (d) do not already have external funding. Preference will be given to junior faculty. All MPC faculty, postdocs, and research staff members are eligible to use this service. 

Applications for Short-Term RA service during Spring 2025 are now open. We review applications on a rolling basis, and in batches on set dates TBD.

To apply for this service, please complete this form with the following information:

  1. Your name and departmental affiliation
  2. Details about your project: A title and a short (~2 paragraph) description of the overall project's goals and activities
  3. Describe the relevance or alignment of the project with the MPC's primary research areas
  4. Information about the product that will result (e.g., a publication, a grant proposal, a conference presentation) and when that product will be produced
  5. A statement about current external funding support for the project
  6. A description of the specific activities the research assistant would do and (if not obvious) how they fit into the overall project
  7. The number of weeks the research assistant's services would be needed (at 10 hours per week) and a proposed starting date

Questions? Contact us at [email protected]

The Fall 2024 short term RAs are Xiaowen Han and Lillian Norman

Xiaowen's Skills and Experiences: 

  • Statistical Software: Stata, R, Python
  • Coursework: MS courses in Biostatistics (biostatistical inference, theory of statistics, causal inference, survival analysis, R visualization, multilevel modeling for longitudinal data), quantitative methodology in sociology, formal demography
  • Experiences: published multiple solo- and co-authored research papers in major sociology journals; worked as a graduate research assistant for many research projects, with responsibilities ranging from survey data collection/administration, undergrad RA mentoring, literature search and review, statistical analyses of the data, and manuscript preparation.

See more information on  MPC webpage or personal website.

Lillian Norman's Skills and Experiences:  

  • Statistical Software: Stata, R, ArcGIS, NVivo, Qualtrics, Excel  
  • Coursework: Statistics and Econometrics for Public Affairs, Program Evaluation, Population Studies Practicum, GIS for Planning and Policy, Industrial Organization
  • Experiences: Statistics (casual inference, research design, and data visualization), ArcGIS (buffer construction, data joins and relates, visualization), Qualitative Analysis (survey design, coding, transcribing, and thematic analysis)
To learn more about her research skills and experience, please visit her MPC page.