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ICDL-EpiRob 2015 - registration open
by Benjamin Rosman July 10, 2015

July 10, 2015

======================================================== REGISTRATION NOW OPEN IEEE ICDL-EPIROB 2015 The Fifth Joint IEEE International Conference on Development and Learning and on Epigenetic Robotics Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island, USA August 13-16, 2015 http://www.icdl-epirob.org/ Registration is now open at: http://www.tech.plym.ac.uk/SoCCE/CRNS/icdl-epirob//2015/registration.html In addition to the main conference, we will have both a preconference workshop and tutorial: Morning: "Introduction to Brains as Emergent Turing Machines" (Juyang Weng) Afternoon: "Mechanisms of learning in social contexts" (Michael Goldstein, Chen Yu) == Conference description The past decade has seen the emergence of a new scientific field that studies how intelligent biological and artificial systems develop sensorimotor, cognitive, emotional and social abilities, over extended periods of time, through dynamic interactions with their physical and social environments. This field lies at the intersection of a number of scientific and engineering disciplines including Neuroscience, Developmental Psychology, Developmental Linguistics, Cognitive Science, Computational Neuroscience, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Robotics. Various terms have been associated with this new field such as Autonomous Mental Development, Epigenetic Robotics, Developmental Robotics, etc., and several scientific meetings have been established. The two most prominent conference series of this field, the International Conference on Development and Learning (ICDL) and the International Conference on Epigenetic Robotics (EpiRob), are now joining forces for the fifth time and invite submissions for a joint conference in 2015, to explore and extend the interdisciplinary boundaries of this field. == BABYBOT CHALLENGE We are excited to announce a new ICDL-EpiRob conference feature: the BABYBOT CHALLENGE. The goal of the challenge is to use the tools of developmental robotics to replicate and extend the key findings from one of three selected human-infant studies. These will be presented during a special session. == Keynote speakers Prof. Dare Baldwin, Dept. of Psychology, University of Oregon, USA Prof. Kerstin Dautenhahn, School of Computer Science, University of Hertfordshire, UK Prof. Asif Ghazanfar, Dept. of Psychology, Princeton University, USA == Program committee General Chairs: Matthew Schlesinger (Southern Illinois Univ.) Dima Amso (Brown University) Bridge Chairs: Jeffrey Krichmar (UC Irvine) Bertram Malle (Brown University) Program Chairs: Anne Warlaumont (UC Merced) Clemént Moulin-Frier (INRIA) Publications Chairs: Lisa Meeden (Swarthmore College) Publicity Chairs: Lola Cañamero (Univ. of Hertfordshire) Matthias Rolf (Osaka University) Benjamin Rosman (CSIR) Local chairs: David Sobel (Brown University) Thomas Serre (Brown University) Finance chairs: Clayton Morrison (University of Arizona) -- This message is subject to the CSIR's copyright terms and conditions, e-mail legal notice, and implemented Open Document Format (ODF) standard. The full disclaimer details can be found at http://www.csir.co.za/disclaimer.html. This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. Please consider the environment before printing this email.

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Postdoctoral Position in Cybersecurity, Fordham CIS
by Henry Han July 8, 2015

July 8, 2015

*Postdoctoral Position in Cybersecurity, Fordham CIS* *We invite applications for a postdoctoral researcher position in Cybersecurity in the Department of Computer and Information Science.*This position requires a Ph.D. in Computer Science or a closely related area with a specialization in cybersecurity. Those with expertise in network security, software security, cyber-physical systems, computer forensics, wireless security, biometrics-based security, e-Systems Security, and related areas of cybersecurity are encouraged to apply. This postdoctoral researcher will conduct high-quality research in cybersecurity and teach courses for MS program in Cybersecurity. The selected candidate can apply and compete for a tenure track position that will be available next year. *How to apply:* Send a detailed CV, research statement, teaching statement, and a list of info of 3-5 references with e-mail addresses in a single pdf file to xhan9(a)fordham.edu (Dr. Henry Han). Include job-code “POSTDOC-Cybersecurity” in subject line. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. The Department of Computer and Information Science is currently in the process of expanding its undergraduate and graduate programs in order to serve students entering the growing fields of computer science, information science, and interdisciplinary areas. Fordham's administration is committed to increasing the department's local and national distinction in research and science education. Additional new members will join the faculty in the coming years to build upon the faculty's wide range of expertise and to serve new programs. The faculty of the Department of Computer and Information Science represent a wide range of academic backgrounds, research and professional interests. Serving undergraduate majors in computer science, information science, and interdisciplinary programs in Fordham College at Rose Hill (Bronx), Fordham College at Lincoln Center (Manhattan), and the School of Professional and Continuing Education (all 3 campuses), the department also offers an MS program in Computer Science in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and an MS in Cybersecurity in the School of Professional and Continuing Studies. An MS program in Data Analytics is in its final process of development. In the thriving metropolis of New York, these programs are ideally situated for education and productivity in the computer and information sciences and industries. The department has a rich network of professionals and organizations, including loyal alumni, throughout the Metropolitan area, and students benefit from research, internship, and career opportunities afforded by the city's vast resources. Fordham University. With over 14,500 students in its 13 schools, Fordham's Carnegie classification is Research University (High Research Activity). U.S. News & World Report currently ranks Fordham 57th nationally, placing it among the Tier 1 universities. Fordham's New York City campuses in the center of Manhattan and the Bronx avail faculty and students of extraordinary resources for education, research, and service. Fordham offers its students a highly dedicated faculty, a productive research environment, emphasis on ethics and social justice, and respect for all individuals, religions, cultures, and creeds. Fordham University is an independent, Catholic University in the Jesuit tradition that welcomes applications from men and women of all backgrounds. Fordham University is committed to excellence through diversity and welcomes candidates of all backgrounds; it is an equal opportunity employer.

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CFP: ICDM Workshop HealthMining 2015 and HISS Special Issue (Deadline: July 20, 2015)
by william July 8, 2015

July 8, 2015

[Please accept our apologies if you receive multiple copies of this email] CALL FOR PAPERS (Submission Deadline: July 20, 2015) HEALTHMINING 2015 - The ICDM Workshop on Data Mining and Decision Analytics on Public Health and Wellness (URL: http://www.comp.hkbu.edu.hk/~healthmining2015/) In conjunction with the IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM 2015) AIMS and SCOPE For many years, data mining and decision analytics techniques have already been extensively applied to various domains, such as smart environments, social networks, marketing, and web technology. The focus of this workshop is mainly on the issues and challenges of data mining techniques with the purpose of improving human well-being and quality of life. It is expected that the workshop may increase the diversity of application areas that can benefit from data mining. At the same time, it is also desirable that the discussion and vision of this workshop would also offer further insights into, as well as new tools for, the issues of data collection, processing, system modeling, simulation and optimization arising from various public health topics. The objective of this workshop is to serve as a venue for researchers to discuss how data mining and analytics methods can contribute to improving public health quality in clinical, medical/biomedical, and healthcare systems in smart ways, including evidence-based medicine, personalized treatment and healthcare, assistive technology and active surveillance and control of diseases. In addition to mining statistical regularities, associations, or causalities from large-scale health-related datasets, it would be more desirable to further investigate how the results can effectively and efficiently support decision-making, system modeling, optimization, and simulation in various healthcare systems. TOPICS OF INTEREST - Large-scale data acquisition and management issues for public health - Social and other network-based analysis for public health - Medical big data mining and innovative applications - Mining risk patterns in medical data - Mental and physical health data integration - Biomarker discovery and biomedical data mining - Clinical data mining for practice knowledge building - Data mining from clinical decision-making, and practitioner reflection - Data mining from genetic data of diseases - Data mining for disease profiling and personalized treatment - Data mining for (active) syndromic surveillance - Data mining for infectious/chronic disease epidemiology and control - Data mining for exploring hidden patterns in clinical systems - Data mining for medical/biomedical, and healthcare systems - Data mining for assistive environments - Data modeling and information management forpervasive assistive environments - Data mining and knowledge modeling for wellness - Spatiotemporal data exploration and mining of diseases - Unstructured data mining in medicine and healthcare - Semantic data mining in medicine and healthcare - Scalable data integration in medicine and healthcare - Evidence-based decision-support systems - Healthcare knowledge abstraction, classification, and summarization - Healthcare knowledge computerization, execution, inference, and representation IMPORTANT DATES - Paper Submission Due: Jul 20, 2015 - Paper Notification Date: Sep 1, 2015 - Workshop Date: Nov 13, 2015 >>> SPECIAL ISSUE <<< Selected papers of the workshop will be invited for revision to be included in a special issue to be published in Health Information Science and Systems (URL: http://www.hissjournal.com/) ORGANIZING COMMITTEE - William K. Cheung, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong - Jiming Liu, Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong - Parisa Rashidi, University of Florida, USA - Fei Wang, University of Connecticut, USA Department of Computer Science: http://www.comp.hkbu.edu.hk HKBU Faculty of Science: http://www.sci.hkbu.edu.hk Disclaimer: http://www.comp.hkbu.edu.hk/disclaimer

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New computational challenge on Big Data and neurodegenerative diseases
by Neta Zach July 7, 2015

July 7, 2015

Prize4Life, Sage Bionetworks and DREAM are proud to announce the launch of The DREAM ALS Stratification Prize4Life Challenge <https://www.synapse.org/#!Synapse:syn2873386/wiki/>. The prize, is a computational challenge inviting bioinformatics, statisticians, computation geeks and math geniuses to work on the PRO-ACT database and identify meaningful subgroups of ALS patients. The challenge offers a $28000 prize and journal partnership with Nature Biotechnology. You can read more about it here <http://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Health-and-Science/Israel-base…> or join our Webinar about it on Wednesday <https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/2656120293543998721> July 8 at 11am EST. While most ALS patients die with 3-5 years, but some patients, like Stephen Hawking, survive much longer. What differentiates the Stephen Hawkings from the Lou Gehrigs? Is ALs one disease or several sub-disease? the challenge invite participants to devleop algorithms that can stratify the ALS patient population into meaningful subgroups with distinct features. You can read more about it here <http://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Health-and-Science/Israel-base…> . A previous Challenge, the ALS Prediction Prize <http://www.innocentive.com/prize4life-announces-50000-als-prediction-prize-…> which ran in 2012, using only a small subset of the full database, led to the creation of solutions that are able to reduce by 20% the number of patients needed for effective ALS clinical trials, a millions of dollars reduction in the costs of each future ALS clinical trials and are used by several drug companies. Furthermore, the Challenge’s winning algorithms identified novel features of ALS pathology that are predictive of disease progression. The Challenge summary was published in Nature biotechnology <http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v33/n1/full/nbt.3051.html> and were also covered by Science News <http://news.sciencemag.org/brain-behavior/2014/11/crowdsourcing-project-pre…> , Science Translational Medicine <http://stm.sciencemag.org/content/6/264/264ec204.full> and a News and views piece in Nature biotechnology <http://www.nature.com/nbt/journal/v33/n1/full/nbt.3118.html>. The ALS Stratification Challenge aims to go beyond the prediction prize and bring us one step closer to personalized medicine- to accurately and effectively identify meaningful subgroups of diverse ALS patients and the predictive models and features specific to these subgroups. Winners will win $28000 and the winning submissions with be published with a journal partnership from Nature Biotechnology. You can read more- and Join!- here <https://www.synapse.org/#!Synapse:syn2873386/wiki/> Neta Zach, PhD | Chief Scientific Officer

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PhD positions at LMU Munich
by Stefan Glasauer July 6, 2015

July 6, 2015

Two PhD positions are available at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) München for a fixed term of 36 months, starting 1st September 2015. Both positions are linked to the research projects “Dynamic prior and contextual calibration”, which is a part of the newly funded German research group “active perception”. The project aims to uncover the mechanism underlying dynamic contextual calibration in multimodal environments, and to develop a general Bayesian framework describing the prior updating mechanisms in contextual calibration. In particular, we plan to focus on central tendency effects (for a review, see Shi, Church & Meck, 2013, Petzschner & Glasauer, 2015) in multimodal magnitude estimation. The project is expected to establish a general computational framework to examine whether the brain uses multiple modality-specific priors or an amodal prior in contextual calibration, and how the brain resolves inconsistencies among priors, as well as how action priors are taken into consideration in magnitude estimation. Successful candidates should have an excellent M.Sc. degree, or equivalent (or be currently working towards one) in a field of cognitive or computational neuroscience. Computational modeling and programming skills in MATLAB and R are essential. Good verbal and written communication skills in English, interest and some experience in multi-disciplinary research are highly desirable. Successful candidates will be paid according to German salary scale 65% TVL-13. One candidate will work in Department of Psychology, LMU under the supervision of Zhuanghua Shi, and the other candidate in the Center for Sensorimotor Research, LMU under the supervision of Stefan Glasauer. Applicants should send a completed application form along with a cover letter detailing their research experience and interests, a CV and two academic references electronically to either Zhuanghua Shi (shi(a)psy.lmu.de) or Stefan Glasauer (s.glasauer(a)lrz.uni-muenchen.de) The closing date for applications is August 1st, 2015. Shortlisted candidates will be invited for interview at the beginning of August. We regret that we may not be able to respond to all applications. Applicants who have not received an offer by the end of August 2015 should consider their application has been unsuccessful on this occasion. LMU Munich is an equal opportunity employer. Applications of women and disabled persons – given similar qualification – are preferred. Applicants with children are welcome. Part-time employment is possible in principle. ------------- Dr. Zhuanghua Shi Experimental Psychology, Department Psychologie LMU München Tel: (+49) 89 2180 5213 Fax: (+49) 89 2180 5211 Lab: http://www.psy.lmu.de/exp/mlab/

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Event-Driven Retina IC Designer Position
by bernabe July 6, 2015

July 6, 2015

Apologies for Cross-Posting --------------------------- The Sevilla Microelectronics Institute (www.imse-cnm.csic.es) from the Spanish Research Council (www.csic.es) is seeking a post-doc (or highly experienced researcher) with strong analog IC design experience, preferably in vision sensors (but not mandatory). The work to be carried out will be in collaboration with French company Chronocam (http://www.chronocam.com) with the goal of developing new generations of Event-Driven Dynamic Vision Sensors. Salary is negotiable depending on experience and qualifications. Contract is for one year, extensible to two. Later on, if progress is satisfactory, the contract could be extended further or the candidate could be incorporated into Chronocam's staff. Interested candidates please contact directly bernabe(a)imse-cnm.csic.es. -- -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bernabe Linares-Barranco, PhD, IEEE Fellow Full Professor (Profesor de Investigacion) CSIC Instituto Microelectronica Sevilla (IMSE) Phone: 34-954-466643/66 National Microelectronics Center, CNM-CSIC Fax: 34-954-466600 Av. Americo Vespucio s/n E-mail: Bernabe.Linares(AT)imse-cnm.csic.es 41092 Sevilla, SPAIN URL: http://www.imse-cnm.csic.es/~bernabe -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Post-doc in multimodal neuroimaging in Munich, Germany
by Igor Yakushev July 5, 2015

July 5, 2015

A postdoctoral position is available immediately in the Neuroimaging group (Head: Dr. Igor Yakushev) at the Department of Nuclear Medicine, Technische Universität München (TUM), Munich, Germany. Projects with include the modeling of cerebral networks and disease trajectories on the basis of brain images, as obtained using PET (amyloid, FDG), DTI, and fMRI. The group's clinical focus is neurodegenerative disorders, in particular Alzheimer’s disease. Existing data sets will provide the basis for prompt data analysis and publications. The research group is integrated into the TUM Neuroimaging Center, which possesses a broad methodological and thematic expertise: http://www.tumnic.mri.tum.de/tumnic/index.html The Dept. of Nuclear Medicine offers exciting opportunities for neuroimaging research in an interdisciplinary environment and access to state-of-the-art technology including a hybrid PET/MR scanner. You should hold a PhD or equivalent degree in a relevant discipline (e.g., computer sciences, engineering, physics, mathematics, neuroscience, medicine). Experience in image analysis tools (SPM, FSL, FreeSurfer) is desirable. Solid knowledge of programming (Matlab, Java) and statistics (SPSS, SAS, R) is advantageous. Salary is according to TV-L. The position is limited for two years, with a possibility of extension. Applications will be considered until the position has been filled. Interested researchers should submit their applications including CV, two recommendation letters (or names and contact details of personal references), and a brief letter of motivation to Dr. Yakushev at igor.yakushev(a)lrz.tum.de

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Autumn school on sensorimotor foundations of social cognition
by Alexander Maye July 3, 2015

July 3, 2015

"The sensorimotor foundations of social cognition" Autumn school Boltenhagen, Baltic Sea, Germany October 11-17, 2015 Description Sensorimotor approaches predict that social cognition does not primarily result from maintaining and running complex models of intentions and beliefs of other agents, but rather from patterns and regularities in the dynamic sensorimotor coupling between them. The school will take stock of concepts and models that follow this emerging view and illuminate them from the perspectives of relevant fields like social psychology, social cognitive neuroscience, robotics and philosophy of mind. Tangible outcomes of the school will be a set of articles on selected aspects of sensorimotor accounts of social cognition which will be authored by the participants and published in Scholarpedia (scholarpedia.org) The school will be the first in a series which is funded and organized by the EU H2020 project "Socializing sensorimotor contingencies - socSMCs" (socSMCs.eu). This year the school is organized by the Dept. of Neurophysiology at the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (uke.de/neurophysiology). The registration fee is 300Ä and covers participation in the school, accommodation in a single room, breakfast, lunch and three dinners. A reduced fee of 200Ä is requested from participants willing to share a double room. Participants will have to cover their own travel expenses. Content The five-day school will be structured around the following themes: * Enactive and embodied views on social cognition * Non-reductionist, interaction-based approaches to social cognition * Entrainment vs. emulation and mindreading * Dynamical systems theory and social cognition * Neural mechanisms of social interaction: toward a second-person neuroscience * Mutual prediction and adaptation in social interaction * Motor resonance during human-robot interaction The school will comprise keynote lectures in the mornings and discussion groups in the afternoons which serve for in-depth discussions of topics from the keynote lectures. Results from these discussions will be summarized and structured in drafts for Scholarpedia articles. Confirmed Speakers: Luciano Fadiga, University of Ferrara and IIT Genua, Italy Tom Froese, National Autonomous University of Mexico, Mexico D.F. Mattia Gallotti, University College London, UK Peter E. Keller, University of Western Sydney, Australia Christian Keysers, Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience, Amsterdam, John A Michael, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary Albert Newen, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany Andreas Roepstorff, Aarhus University, The Netherlands Giulio Sandini, IIT Genua, Italy Cordula Vesper, Central European University, Budapest, Hungary Kai Vogeley University of Cologne, Germany Date and location The school will take place from Oct. 11-17, 2015, in Boltenhagen, a nice little beach resort at the Baltic Sea and close to Hamburg (http://www.iberotel.de/iberotel-boltenhagen-ostsee-deutschland.html) Important dates: - Application deadline: August 2, 2015 - Notification of acceptance: August 14, 2015 - Summer school: October 11-17, 2015 - Technical program: October 12-16, 2015 How to apply: The school is open to PhD students and postdocs who are working on the themes addressed. Interested participants shall submit written information on their scientific background, projects involved, and motivation to attend. Admission will be on a competitive basis. Applications should be sent via email to school2015(a)socSMCs.eu. Please state on a single page (11pt font): - Your scientific background and degree - Your motivation to come to this school - The topic of your thesis (if appropriate) - Any prior knowledge in the field Further information: The forerunner project "Extending sensorimotor contingencies to cognition - eSMCs" (2011-2014) funded previous schools in this series like "The future of the embodied mind", held 2011 in San Sebasti·n, Spain (summerschool2011.esmcs.eu), the "Barcelona cognition, brain and technology summer school" in 2012 (bcbt.upf.edu/bcbt11, co-funded) and "Embodiment and Morphological Computation", held at the University of Zurich in 2013 (www.ifi.uzh.ch/ailab/summerschool2013) For further questions, please contact us: school2015(a)socSMCs.eu. -- _____________________________________________________________________ Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf; Körperschaft des öffentlichen Rechts; Gerichtsstand: Hamburg | www.uke.de Vorstandsmitglieder: Prof. Dr. Burkhard Göke (Vorsitzender), Prof. Dr. Dr. Uwe Koch-Gromus, Joachim Prölß, Rainer Schoppik _____________________________________________________________________ SAVE PAPER - THINK BEFORE PRINTING

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Postdoctoral Position in Computational Neuroscience at IUPUI
by Yaroslav Molkov July 2, 2015

July 2, 2015

A postdoctoral/research associate position in computational neuroscience for the duration of up to two years is available in the externally funded project focusing on multiscale computational modeling of motor control mechanisms, involving interactions between basal ganglia, thalamus, cerebellum, cortex, and spinal cord in connection with realistic simulation of pathological changes in motor control during Huntington’s disease. This collaborative project is performed jointly by the groups of Drs. Ilya Rybak (Dept. of Neurobiology and Anatomy, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA) and Yaroslav Molkov (Dept. of Mathematical Science, Indiana University – Purdue University, Indianapolis, IN, USA). Applicants must have a PhD degree in Neuroscience, Applied Mathematics, Physics, or a related discipline, a strong research record, and excellent C++ programming skills. Previous experience in computational neuronal modeling is a plus. Interested candidates are encouraged to contact Dr. Molkov ( ymolkov(a)iupui.edu) by email. To apply, please send an email along with (1) curriculum vitae; (2) a cover letter describing previous research experience and interests; (3) the names and contact information of three references. ================================= Yaroslav Molkov, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Indiana University - Purdue University at Indianapolis Department of Mathematical Sciences 402 N. Blackford St, LD 270, Indianapolis, IN 46202 Office: LD 224U Phone: (317) 274-6934 Fax: (317) 274-3460 Email: ymolkov(a)iupui.edu

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Postdoc position in Computational Neuroscience in the Clopath lab.
by Claudia Clopath July 1, 2015

July 1, 2015

Postdoc position in Computational Neuroscience in the Clopath lab. ----------------------------------------------------- Computational Neuroscience Laboratory Headed by Dr. Claudia Clopath Department of Bioengineering Imperial College London -----------------Requirements:----------------- The Computational Neuroscience Laboratory, headed by Dr. Claudia Clopath, is looking for a talented Postdoc, interested in working in the field of computational neuroscience, specifically addressing questions of learning and memory. The perfect candidate has a strong mathematical, physical or engineering background (or equivalent), and a keen interest in biological and neural systems. A PhD in the field of computational neuroscience is a plus. PostDoc funding is secured for at least 2 years. -----------------Research topic:----------------- Learning and memory are among the most fascinating topic of neuroscience, yet our understanding of it is only at the beginning. Learning is thought to change the connections between the neurons in the brain, a process called synaptic plasticity. Using mathematical and computational tools, it is possible to model synaptic plasticity across different time scales, which helps understand how different types of memory are formed. The PostDoc candidate will be working to build those models of synaptic plasticity, and study the functional role of synaptic plasticity in artificial neural networks. ----------------- The lab:----------------------- The Computational Neuroscience Laboratory is very young and dynamic, and publishes in prestigious journals, such as Nature and Science. It is part of the Department of Bioengineering, which conducts state-of-the-art multidisciplinary research in biomechanics, neuroscience and neurotechnology. The lab is at Imperial College London, the 3rd ranked university in Europe, is in the top 10 worldwide, and is located in the city centre of London. More information can be found at: http://www.bg.ic.ac.uk/research/c.clopath/lab/ <http://www.bg.ic.ac.uk/research/c.clopath/> ----------------- How to apply:----------------- Candidates should send a single pdf file, consisting of a 1-page motivation letter and CV (including publication list) to clopathlab.imperial(a)gmail.com, with the subject containing 'Postdoc2015'. In addition, candidates should organize two letters of reference to be sent to clopathlab.imperial(a)gmail.com. The position is open until filled but the earlier applications will be considered first.

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