Artificial Intelligence, Health Disparities, and Environmental Health AI Specialist

Howard University invites applications for a tenure-line faculty position at the rank of Associate Professor, as part of a university-wide AI Cluster Hiring Initiative focused on advancing the application of artificial intelligence to address health disparities and environmental health challenges.

About the Initiative

The AI Cluster Initiative aims to recruit scholars with expertise and research interests in the areas of social and environmental determinants of health and health disparities. This initiative is jointly led by the College of Medicine in partnership with the School of Social Work and the Department of Earth, Environment, and Equity (E3) in the College of Arts and Sciences. To address the dearth of AI research studies in health, especially for minoritized communities, this cluster faculty hire will consist of a faculty member who will collaborate on an interdisciplinary team to advance research projects.

Position Details

The successful candidate will be housed in the College of Medicine (COM) and develop an innovative, extramurally funded research program that applies AI, machine learning, natural language processing, and/or spatial data science to questions at the intersection of environmental health, health disparities, and clinical outcomes.

Research expertise in social and environmental determinants of health, biostatistics, data analysis, machine learning and/or other artificial intelligence techniques is desired. Examples of relevant research areas include: AI applications in environmental exposures and digital biomarkers; integrating EHR, environmental, GIS, and population health data;

NLP for extracting structured information from clinical and unstructured text; machine learning models for risk prediction and health inequities; social determinants of health and spatial modeling etc.

This faculty member will lead interdisciplinary research projects at the intersection of computational health, AI, GIS, and medical data analysis and utilize data science and data engineering expertise to convert unstructured data into structured formats. The applicant will apply machine learning models to analyze and interpret complex environmental and health data, with a focus on digital biomarkers. Experience designing systems to capture unstructured EHR data with proficiency in Python or R programming, managing cloud solutions and database creation for Microsoft Azure, writing structured query language (SQL) and designing and maintaining efficient databases is required. The applicant will be expected to publish research findings in high-impact journals, present at conferences, and submit grant applications for their research projects.

This candidate will partner with other AI cluster faculty to develop interdisciplinary coursework including responsible and ethical AI in healthcare. The position includes access to significant institutional resources, including partnerships with Howard University Hospital, community-based research networks, and university-level research support services. The faculty member will contribute to teaching and mentoring medical, graduate, and undergraduate students and will have a joint appointment in either the School of Social Work or the E3 Department, depending on expertise.