Postdoctoral positions @ Ecole Polytechnique.

Description: The combinatorics team of the CS lab of the french Ecole
Polytechnique seeks postdoctoral researchers for a research project on
combinatorial approaches to the study of embedded graphs and discrete
surfaces, headed by Dr. Gilles Schaeffer. 

The researchers will contribute to the research of a team of computer
scientists and mathematicans working in combinatorics and algorithmics
within the 2008-2013 European Research Council (ERC) funded project
"ExploreMaps: Combinatorial methods, from enumerative topology to
random discrete structures and compact data representations"
http://www.lix.polytechnique.fr/~schaeffe/ExploreMaps/

The appointments are full time research positions with a net salary
determined by CNRS salary tables, around 2000EUR/month.  The holders
will in addition benefit from the project funds for e.g. conference
participations.  We expect to fill one 12 month position every
academic year of the project, although other arrangements are
possible.

The Ecole Polytechnique is located in Palaiseau, in the Paris area.
Full time participation to the IHP winter 2009 trimester Statistical
physics, combinatorics and probability: from discrete to continuous
models ( http://ipht.cea.fr/statcomb2009/ ) is possible within the
position.

Requirements:
PhD defended before starting date, not more than 3 years ago.
Expertise in at least one of the following areas: 
 enumerative combinatorics / discrete probability / random 
 combinatorial structures / combinatorial maps / embedded graphs / 
 succinct data structures / graph algorithms / mesh compression. 
Good knowledge of english or french.


Applicants that are interested in a position for the academic year
2009-2010 should preferably send their CV and a short motivation
letter to Gilles.Schaeffer@lix.polytechnique.fr by february 15, 2009.
They should also arrange for two letters of recommandations to be
sent to the same address.