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Postdocs in computational neuroscience, decision-making: U Penn/U Houston/CU Boulder

by Zachary Kilpatrick

We are seeking up to two postdoctoral fellows to join an ongoing, collaborative project on adaptive decision-making jointly directed by Joshua Gold and Long Ding at the University of Pennsylvania, Krešimir Josić at the University of Houston, and Zachary Kilpatrick at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The positions are fully funded for 2–3 years each by our joint Collaborative Research in Computational Neuroscience (CRCNS) grant, “Adaptive Decision Rules in Dynamic Environments”. Both positions will be fully integrated into our cross-disciplinary team, which involves bi-weekly virtual meetings, annual in-person meetings, and other collaborative opportunities to ensure close, bi-directional interactions between theory/modeling and experiments. One position will be housed at the University of Pennsylvania and will focus on experimental approaches, including psychophysics and pupillometry in humans; psychophysics, pupillometry, and neurophysiology in non-human primates; and theory-driven, quantitative data analyses. The other position will be housed at the University of Houston and will focus on theoretical and modeling approaches, including stochastic and probabilistic models and their circuit-level implementations, assessed and updated via our experimental data using statistical model identification and comparison. The University of Pennsylvania, University of Houston, and University of Colorado at Boulder are all Equal Opportunity Employers with strong support for postdocs, via Penn’s Biomedical Postdoctoral Programs office, the University of Houston Postdoctoral Fellows Association (UHPFA), and UC Boulder’s Office of Postdoctoral Affairs. We value diversity in all forms and strive to promote a healthy, inclusive working environment. Applicants should send a CV and cover letter to Joshua Gold (jigold(a)pennmedicine.upenn.edu <mailto:jigold@pennmedicine.upenn.edu>) or Krešimir Josić (kresimir.josic(a)gmail.com <mailto:kresimir.josic@gmail.com>). Informal inquiries are also welcome.

Oct. 17, 2022

FW: Paid Research Internships in AI and Brain Research (CaCTuS)

by Susan Fischer

-- Apologies for cross-posting -- Our international internship program, CaCTüS, offers paid research internships at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems and the AI Center in Tübingen & Stuttgart (Germany) to students who face significant constraints in their pursuit of a career in AI or brain research. We would be very grateful if you could help us reach students who may benefit from our program. You can do that by distributing the call for applications in your professional networks, among your colleagues and any interested students, or by sharing our posts on social media. You may find details on the program and links to our social media posts below. We thank you in advance for any support you are willing to give us. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. Kind regards, Susan Fischer - on behalf of the CaCTüS Internship coordination team - About the CaCTüS Internship program cactus-internship.tuebingen.mpg.de The sciences of biological and artificial intelligence are rapidly growing research fields that need enthusiastic minds with a keen interest in solving challenging questions. The Max Planck Institutes for Biological Cybernetics and Intelligent Systems as well as the AI Center in Tübingen & Stuttgart (Germany) offer up to 10 students at the Bachelor or Master level paid three-months internships during the summer of 2023. Successful applicants will work with top-level scientists on research projects spanning machine learning, electrical engineering, theoretical neuroscience, behavioral experiments and data analysis. The CaCTüS Internship is aimed at young scientists who are held back by personal, financial, regional or societal constraints to help them develop their research careers and gain access to first-class education. The program is designed to foster inclusion, diversity, equity and access to excellent scientific facilities. We specifically encourage applications from students living in low- and middle-income countries which are currently underrepresented in the Max Planck Society research community. Application deadline: 4 December 2022 Social Media Links Twitter: https://twitter.com/MPICybernetics/status/1581941564699336704 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MPICybernetics/photos/a.1701083666787308/343340166… Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Cjz1mpssJjm/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6987707261393502208 ************************************************ CaCTüS Internship Coordination Office Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics Max-Plank-Ring 8 72076 Tübingen Germany cactus-internship(a)tuebingen.mpg.de http://cactus-internship.tuebingen.mpg.de/ ************************************************

Oct. 17, 2022

5 year Neuroscience MSc/PhD Programme in Tuebingen

by Peter Dayan

5-Year combined MSc/PhD program of the International Max Planck Research School: The Mechanisms of Mental Function and Dysfunction The Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research and the University of Tübingen invite students from all over the world to apply for their interdisciplinary 5-year combined MSc/PhD program leading to a PhD in Neuroscience. MSc Scholarships will be available for top-ranked applicants. We are seeking talented, curious and open-minded young scientists with strong backgrounds in neuroscience, biomedical sciences, computational science, applied mathematics, statistics, artificial intelligence, or engineering. Successful candidates will possess a burning aspiration to shape the future of neuroscience and the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, interdisciplinary, environment. The application deadline is 30th November 2022. Please visit: https://www.kyb.tuebingen.mpg.de/imprs-mmfd for more details and information about applying. The MSc/PhD program is a collaboration between the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, the Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research and the University of Tübingen. It is closely affiliated with the renowned Graduate Training Centre of Neuroscience, the centerpiece of neuroscience training in Tübingen. Students (who should have been awarded a Bachelor's degree by September 2023) will receive a broad interdisciplinary training in neuroscience, including expert teaching by international renowned scientists and individual and intensive mentoring. Potential research topics cover a variety of fields in systems neuroscience, cognitive and behavioral neuroscience, computational neuroscience, translational and clinical neuroscience as well as cellular and molecular neuroscience. Teaching and research are conducted in English.

Oct. 17, 2022

Closing Soon: Postdoc (3 years) in computational neuroscience/machine learning at the University of Nottingham (UK) [Fixed link]

by Mark Humphries

[Apologies! posting again with fixed link to the job application portal] The Humphries’ lab at the University of Nottingham is seeking a postdoc to join a project developing a precision medicine platform for neuromodulation, in collaboration with MachineMedicine Technologies and St George’s Hospital, London. A crucial unmet need in the management of Parkinson’s disease is how to reliably identify patients that would benefit from deep brain stimulation, the most effective treatment for Parkinson’s. The project team will create a machine-learning platform that synthesises wide-ranging personal and clinical data, combined with neural modelling, to predict the suitability of each Parkinson’s disease patient for deep brain stimulation. An exciting opportunity for the pipeline will be integrating computational models of the neural circuits disrupted in Parkinson’s. The Humphries’ lab researches fundamental insights into how the joint activity of neurons encodes actions in the world and is disrupted in movement disorders (https://www.humphries-lab.org) The post is for 3 years, full-time. Nottingham University welcomes researchers from around the globe. As part of this support, the university will provide financial support to the post-holder for all visa costs. For queries please contact Professor Mark Humphries, mark.humphries(a)nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:.humphries@nottingham.ac.uk>. For full details of the role and how to apply https://jobs.nottingham.ac.uk/vacancy.aspx?ref=SCI437522 Closing data: October 26th 2022 This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender and delete the email and attachment. Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham. Email communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored where permitted by law.

Oct. 17, 2022

Postdoc positions: real-time neuroscience & neural dynamics

by Memming Park

Dear colleagues, Two open postdoc positions are available in the Neural Dynamics Lab led by Memming Park at the Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown in Lisbon, Portugal. We are looking for motivated scientists and engineers with experience and passion in two broad areas related to analysis of neural recordings: (1) statistical neuroscience, signal processing & control, and/or real-time systems, (2) machine learning (VAE, active learning, meta learning), theoretical neuroscience, and/or dynamical systems. The project is centered around inferring the effective dynamics and latent neural computation at the population level from a closed-loop neural recording system. Details & application: http://catniplab.github.io/postdoc-hiring/ https://fchampalimaud.org/offers/two-postdoctoral-positions-mp-2pd-oct2022 For any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. Best wishes, Il Memming Park -- Group Leader, Champalimaud Centre for the Unknown, Portugal Associate Professor, Stony Brook University, USA

Oct. 17, 2022

Closing Soon! Postdoc (3 years) in computational neuroscience/machine learning at the University of Nottingham (UK)

by Mark Humphries

The Humphries’ lab at the University of Nottingham is seeking a postdoc to join a project developing a precision medicine platform for neuromodulation, in collaboration with MachineMedicine Technologies and St George’s Hospital, London. A crucial unmet need in the management of Parkinson’s disease is how to reliably identify patients that would benefit from deep brain stimulation, the most effective treatment for Parkinson’s. The project team will create a machine-learning platform that synthesises wide-ranging personal and clinical data, combined with neural modelling, to predict the suitability of each Parkinson’s disease patient for deep brain stimulation. An exciting opportunity for the pipeline will be integrating computational models of the neural circuits disrupted in Parkinson’s. The Humphries’ lab researches fundamental insights into how the joint activity of neurons encodes actions in the world and is disrupted in movement disorders (https://www.humphries-lab.org) The post is for 3 years, full-time. Nottingham University welcomes researchers from around the globe. As part of this support, the university will provide financial support to the post-holder for all visa costs. Unsure if you're a good fit for the post? Got any questions? Then contact Mark for a chat: mark.humphries(a)nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:.humphries@nottingham.ac.uk>. For full details of the role and how to apply: https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/jobs/currentvacancies/ref/SCI437522 Closing date: October 26th 2022 Professor Mark Humphries | Professor of Computational Neuroscience My book "The Spike: An Epic Journey Through the Brain in 2.1 Seconds" is out now in hardback, ebook, and audiobook! https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691195889/the-spike Lab: humphries-lab.org<https://www.humphries-lab.org/> Twitter: @markdhumphries Public blog: https://medium.com/the-spike This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender and delete the email and attachment. Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham. Email communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored where permitted by law.

Oct. 17, 2022

New Book: Information Theory

by James V Stone

New book (well, new edition). Information Theory: A Tutorial Introduction. Contains two new chapters: Rate Distortion Theory and Transfer Entropy. Reviews, table of contents, code, and Chapter 1 here: https://jamesstone.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/books/information-theory-2nd-editi… regards, Jim Stone -- James V Stone Honorary Associate Professor, Sheffield University, UK. Web: https://jamesstone.sites.sheffield.ac.uk/books Twitter: @jgvfwstone

Oct. 17, 2022

ANNOUNCEMENT: comp-neuro has moved to new host

by Erik De Schutter

Dear comp-neuro subscriber, I am glad to announce that the comp-neuro mailing list has moved to a new home. This was necessary because the previous set-up became increasingly hard to maintain since I left the University of Antwerp. As a consequence it became difficult for aspirant members to subscribe and mails were sometimes delayed. The mailing list has now moved to a cloud based home and runs a more recent version of the software. I expect this will provide a stable solution with a better service. Appropriately, it is now managed by the Organization for Computational Neurosciences. Please encourage your colleagues, collaborators, students, etc who are not member yet to subscribe to comp-neuro, now that the website works again. From now on please use: - Email to post to mailing list: comp-neuro(a)lists.cnsorg.org - Email to contact admin/moderators: comp-neuro-owner(a)lists.cnsorg.org - Webpage of mailing list (to subscribe / unsubscribe / view archives): https://www.cnsorg.org/comp-neuro-mailing-list Erik De Schutter Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology

Oct. 14, 2022

Test Email

by Shailesh Appukuttan

This is a test email for maintenance purposes. Please ignore. Cheers, Shailesh Appukuttan *OCNS Webmaster*

Oct. 14, 2022

Extra PhD fellowship at SISSA – Cognitive Neuroscience in Trieste

by Alessandro Treves

The National Program in Theoretical and Applied Neuroscience opens up an additional possibility to join SISSA for a PhD this Fall, together with those recently admitted. SISSA is an elite postgraduate research institution in Trieste, Italy, focusing on Maths, Physics and Neuroscience. It operates in English: many among its students and faculty are not Italian. The Cognitive Neuroscience Department https://phdcns.sissa.it/ hosts 7 research labs, led by D Bueti, D Zoccolan, R Rumiati, D Crepaldi, M Diamond, E Piasini and A Treves, which study the neuronal bases of time and magnitude processing, visual perception, motivation and intelligence, language and reading, tactile perception and learning, inference and memory. Those admitted can design their own research projects within or across these labs, with a variety of approaches including behavioural, psychophysics, and neurophysiological experiments with humans and animals, computational and mathematical models. Candidates from diverse backgrounds (eg in the hard or life sciences, linguistics, medicine or psychology) are most welcome to apply, if daring. If interested, please register and apply immediately *** deadline Oct 19 *** to https://vele.unicam.it/CallforApplication/?st=2 (the Univ Camerino website handling all applications) indicating, within Curriculum 1: Cognitive and Behavioral Neuroscience, the position Code 1.7 ---------------------------------------------- Alessandro Treves Liminar Investigations of Memory and Brain Organization Cognitive Neuroscience, SISSA, Trieste, Italy +39 349 2504602 http://people.sissa.it/~ale/limbo.html

Oct. 12, 2022

PhD positions available in ML-flavoured neural modelling

by Goodman, Daniel F M

If you're interested in doing a PhD with me in using ML techniques to explore neuroscience questions with spiking neural networks, etc. Please get in touch. Application process: http://neural-reckoning.org/openings.html To get a quick idea of whether or not you're interested, check out this paper. Basically if you like this, you'd be at home. http://neural-reckoning.org/pub_heterogeneity.html Dan If you are interested in a future where access to and participation in research are equitable and open to all, please take a moment to read and sign our open letter to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy<https://ostp-letter.github.io/why.html>. Your support can make a real difference to the future of research.

Oct. 11, 2022

The Donders Institute is looking for a new Scientific Director!

by Fleur Zeldenrust

Are you a leading researcher in the field of brain, cognition and behaviour with experience in managerial leadership? Do you have a clear vision on the future of cognitive neuroscience and are you able to translate this into a coherent business strategy for one of the leading neuroscience institutes in Europe? Then combine your scientific and leadership skills as the scientific director of the Donders Institute. In 2023, a new governance structure will be implemented at the Donders Institute. As part of this development, the Donders Institute has an opening for a scientific director who will spend 0.5 FTE as director of the institute and 0.5 FTE for research activities and teaching. As scientific director, you will be the head and chair of the Executive Board of the Donders Institute Network. The Scientific Director is ultimately responsible for the overarching research activities and research strategy and for managerial and financial aspects of the Donders Institute. The latter include among others various portfolio's, such as the Donders Graduate School's graduate programme, talent development, societal impact, external relations, public outreach, diversity and sustainable science. Since most researchers at the Donders Institute are based at partners of the Donders Institute (Faculty of Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, the Radboud university medical center, Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Max-Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics), you will consult with the deans/directors involved at the Supervisory and Strategy Boards' meetings to set out a long-term research strategy, financial commitment and investment programme. You will chair the Executive Board of the Donders Institute, the Research Platform with the leaders of the Institute's four research themes, and the Strategy Board, which includes the directors of the four Donders Centres and the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (MPI). The Research Platform and the Strategy Board operate as advisory bodies to the Executive Board for all strategic issues of the Donders Institute Network. As scientific director, you will be accountable to the Supervisory Board, which will respond to Radboud University's Executive Board. Interested? Combine your scientific and leadership skills as the scientific director of the Donders Institute and apply online before 7 November. More information about how to apply can be found here: https://www.ru.nl/en/working-at/job-opportunities/scientific-director-for-t… Fleur Zeldenrust -- Fleur Zeldenrust Assistant Professor Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour Donders Centre for Neuroscience Faculty of Science, Radboud University Heyendaalseweg 135, room HG 00.111 6525 AJ Nijmegen, the Netherlands tel +31 24 36 53195 fleurzeldenrust.nl *Due to my own family/work balance, you may receive emails from me outside of normal working hours. I do not expect a response from you outside of your own working pattern, nor do I expect an immediate response when you are working.*

Oct. 11, 2022

Neuroimaging Data Analyst Position at Stanford University

by Mai-Phuong K Bo

Dear Colleagues, The Stanford Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience Laboratory in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University has an opening for a talented individual with strong computational and programming skills. This is an exciting opportunity to work with a multidisciplinary research team (https://scsnl.stanford.edu<http://scsnl.stanford.edu/>) on a wide range of studies of human brain function and dysfunction. The successful candidate will assist lab members with neuroimaging and behavioral data analysis, data organization, and management. We are seeking talented and enthusiastic candidates with a strong background in biomedical engineering, computer science, physics, mathematics, statistics, computational neuroscience, quantitative psychology, or related subjects. Stanford offers a highly competitive salary with excellent health and retirement benefits. Please include a CV, a statement of research interests and career goals, and contact information for three references to scsnl.stanford(a)gmail.com<mailto:scsnl.stanford+quantitative@gmail.com> Thank you, Mai-Phuong Bo (She/Her) Lab & Recruitment Manager Stanford Cognitive & Systems Neuroscience Lab Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences Email: maipbo(a)stanford.edu [cid:e70df0c1-2a80-4fb7-91a9-bf1692af5692]

Oct. 10, 2022

DeepMath Registration reminder

by Ahmed El Hady

*Dear all,* * **Just reminding everyone that the**registration is still open for DeepMath 2022 : ** https://www.eventbrite.com/e/deepmath-2022-registration-393832562797 We**have an amazing line up of invited**speakers: * Francis Bach**(INRIA) * Anima Anandkumar (CalTech) * Sara Solla**(Northwestern) * Berk Ustun**(UCSD) * Yisong Yue**(Caltech) * Courtney**Paquette (McGill) * Daniel Soudry ( Technion ) In**addition, we have a poster session and ample**opportunities for researchers across disciplines to discuss state of the art**research on the theoretical understanding of deep neural networks. So save your**spot . == Location == DeepMath 2022 will be held in**San Diego, CA, USA.. Stay tuned to the DeepMath website (www.deepmath-conference.com <http://www.deepmath-conference.com/>) for more details on venue and hotels ** The**talks will be freely live-streamed over YouTube and subsequently posted on the**DeepMath YouTube**channel : https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCamugMiftSeZo4EjdtePPyw/playlists ** Please get in touch in case you have**any outstanding questions. All the best, Ahmed El Hady** ** On behalf of the DeepMath 2022**Organizational Committee ********** *

Oct. 7, 2022

Postdoctoral position in computational/theoretical neuroscience

by Maxim Bazhenov

The Bazhenov Lab at the University of California, San Diego (https://www.bazhlab.ucsd.edu) is seeking to fill a postdoctoral position to study role of sleep in memory and learning. The ultimate goals of the work are to understand how sleep contributes to continual learning, generalization and transfer of knowledge and how sensory or electrical stimulation affect sleep dynamics and memory consolidation in human and animal brain (see, e.g., 10.7554/eLife.51005; 10.1093/cercor/bhaa228; 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1427-19.2019; doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2044-21.2022 ). To address these questions, we develop and apply large-scale models of the brain dynamics in sleep and wakefulness, based on animal and human data, in close collaboration with experimental laboratories. Our lab other research directions include topics in neuroscience (olfaction, epilepsy, TBI) and neuroscience inspired artificial intelligence (lifelong learning, generalization, adversarial robustness); lab members are encouraged to participate in multiple projects. The successful candidate will be responsible for the design and analysis of the anatomically realistic large-scale brain models based on experimental data. Qualified applicants are expected to have background and experience in neuroscience, computational neuroscience, physics/engineering and/or mathematics. Knowledge and experience in C/C++ and PYTHON are a big plus. The University of California offers excellent benefits. Salary is based on research experience. Applicants should send a brief statement of research interests, a CV and the names of three references to Maxim Bazhenov at mbazhenov(a)ucsd.edu -- Maxim Bazhenov, Ph.D. Professor, Department of Medicine, Neurosciences Graduate Program, UCSD, School of Medicine http://www.bazhlab.ucsd.edu/

Oct. 7, 2022

CARLsim 6: An Open Source Library for Large-Scale, Biologically Detailed Spiking Neural Network Simulation

by Jeffrey Krichmar

Dear Colleagues, We are pleased to announce the release of CARLsim 6: An Open Source Library for Large-Scale, Biologically Detailed Spiking Neural Network Simulation. Abstract. The CARLsim SNN platform is one of the first Open Source simulation systems that utilized CUDA GPUs to address the tremendous parallel processing demands of natural brains. It has evolved over almost a decade in numerous scientific research projects requiring efficient biologically plausible modeling at scale. With its sixth major release, CARLsim 6 respects this legacy by supporting the latest versions of operating systems, development tool chains, multi-core computers, and of course GPUs. It runs on a range of platforms; from Notebooks up to the NVIDIA DGX-A100 supercomputer, and is used in biologically plausible simulations of the hippocampus and neocortex. The latest version has added flexibility for incorporating long-term and short-term synaptic plasticity. Neuromodulation is an important property of neurobiology that can lead to rapid few shot learning, network rewiring, and neural activity modulation. Because of this, CARLsim 6 now supports four multiple neuromodulators for simulating neural excitability and synaptic plasticity. Software: https://github.com/UCI-CARL/CARLsim6 A paper describing CARLsim 6 can be found here: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9892644 A video describing CARLsim 6 can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d97ElAiKjc Best regards, Jeff Krichmar Department of Cognitive Sciences 2328 Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway University of California, Irvine Irvine, CA 92697-5100 jkrichma(a)uci.edu http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~jkrichma

Oct. 6, 2022

Gatsby Unit PhD Programme: Applications now open

by I-Chun

4-Year PhD Programme in Theoretical Neuroscience and Machine Learning Call for Applications! Deadline: 13 November 2022 The Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit is a leading research centre focused on theoretical neuroscience and machine learning. We study (un)supervised and reinforcement learning in brains and machines; inference, coding and neural dynamics; Bayesian and kernel methods, and deep learning; with applications to the analysis of perceptual processing and cognition, neural data, signal and image processing, machine vision, network data and nonparametric hypothesis testing. The unit provides a unique opportunity for a critical mass of theoreticians to interact closely with one another and with researchers at the Sainsbury WellcomeCentre for Neural Circuits and Behaviour (SWC), the Centre for Computational Statistics and Machine Learning (CSML) and related UCL departments such as Computer Science; Statistical Science; Artificial Intelligence; the ELLIS Unit at UCL; Functional Imaging; Neuroscience; and the nearby Alan Turing and Francis Crick Institutes. Our PhD programme provides a rigorous preparation for a research career. Students complete a 4-year PhD in either machine learning or theoretical and computational neuroscience, with minor emphasis in the complementary field. Courses in the first year provide a comprehensive introduction to both fields and systems neuroscience. Students are encouraged to work and interact closely with SWC/CSML researchers to take advantage of this uniquely multidisciplinary research environment. Applicants should have a strong analytical and quantitative background, a keen interest in neuroscience, machine learning or both, and a relevant first degree, for example in Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, Engineering, Physics, Neuroscience or Cognitive Psychology. Full funding is available regardless of nationality. The unit also welcomes applicants who have secured or are seeking funding from other sources. Applications should be submitted directly to us via the online portal. For programme details and how to apply, see www.ucl.ac.uk/gatsby/study-and-work/phd-programme -- I-Chun Lin, PhD Scientific Programme Manager Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, UCL www.ucl.ac.uk/gatsby | @GatsbyUCL

Oct. 5, 2022

Accepting Applications for 2023 CCN Workshop on Calcium & Imaging Voltage Analysis

by Matthew Turner

Dear Neuroscience Community Members, The Center for Computational Neuroscience at the Flatiron Institute of the Simons Foundation is pleased to announce that we're accepting applications for our free 2023 CCN Workshop on Calcium & Imaging Voltage Analysis; please note that travel awards will also be made available for persons from populations underrepresented in the scientific workforce as defined by NIH <https://diversity.nih.gov/about-us/population-underrepresented>. For more information, please see below or visit the workshop website <https://indico.flatironinstitute.org/event/3293/>. 2023 CCN Workshop on Calcium & Imaging Voltage Analysis <https://indico.flatironinstitute.org/event/3293/> Workshop Description New imaging modalities - including endoscopic and multiphoton calcium imaging, and single and multiphoton voltage imaging, among others - have granted unprecedented access to the activity of large neuronal populations with high temporal resolution. As such, those methods have been instrumental in obtaining new neurobiological insights inaccessible to other recording modalities. However, the barrier to establishing reproducible and efficient computational pipelines for imaging datasets, along with the difficulty of integrating this technology into real-time experiments, have substantially slowed progress in neuroscience and represent a significant opportunity cost for many laboratories. CaImAn is an open-source software platform that provides optimized and scalable routines to process imaging data with the goal of extracting the activity of each neuron. CaImAn handles multiple imaging modalities (voltage, calcium, endoscopic, multiphoton, volumetric) and analysis settings (batch/offline vs online/real-time). Mesmerize is a new organizational and visualization framework that allows for efficient and streamlined analysis using CaImAn algorithms, and enables users with minimal programming experience to use CaImAn effectively. CaImAn is very popular among neuroscientists world-wide, but its widespread dissemination, the efficient use of its routines, and the opportunities provided by Mesmerize, require access to training opportunities. We will address this challenge by establishing a workshop at the Flatiron Institute, Simons Foundation. The free workshop will be of interest to imaging researchers at many levels of experience. It will provide a unique opportunity to directly learn from lead developers of both CaImAn and Mesmerize for analysis of calcium and voltage data. Attendees will receive: - Tutorials on cutting edge calcium and voltage imaging analysis tools. - Hands-on training with real data sets and practical code examples that they will be able to use with their own data. - Receive training on the new Mesmerize framework for batch analysis and data organization enabling streamlined use of CaImAn algorithms. - Training on the mesmerize-viz and fastplotlib libraries for very fast visualization or large-scale datasets in Jupyter notebooks. - More experienced users and developers will have the opportunity to participate in a hackathon, make contributions to the core packages, and become active contributors to these tools moving forward. - Training in DataJoint: data organization and infrastructure with the help of a database server. Application Deadlines Workshop attendance will be capped at 30 attendees. In the event that there are over 30 applications, participation will be restricted to one applicant per lab. Applications to attend the workshop will be accepted through midnight on Sunday, November 6, and admitted attendees will be notified by Friday, November 18; persons who applied for travel grants will also be notified by November 18. If your application is accepted, you will be required to submit your intent to attend by Tuesday, November 22 to help ensure full attendance and to allow time for travel arrangements. The event will also be recorded as a reference for attendees, and for those who are unable to attend. For more information, please visit the conference registration page <https://indico.flatironinstitute.org/event/3293/>, or be in touch with Noah Dlugacz, administrative coordinator, CCN, at ndlugacz(a)flatironinstitute.org. Thanks for your time. Cordially, Matthew Matthew B. Turner Manager for Center Administration | Center for Computational Neuroscience Pronouns: any *FLATIRON INSTITUTE* 160 Fifth Avenue Suite 408 New York, NY 10010 917.363.1095 *mobile* *simonsfoundation.org/flatiron/ <http://simonsfoundation.org/flatiron/>*

Oct. 4, 2022

COSYNE 2023: Meeting announcement; Call for Workshop Proposals; DEIA Committee

by Tomas Hromadka

==================================================== Computational and Systems Neuroscience 2023 (Cosyne) MAIN MEETING 09 - 12 March 2023 Montreal WORKSHOPS 13 - 14 March 2023 Mont-Tremblant www.cosyne.org ==================================================== ---------------------------------------------------- MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT ---------------------------------------------------- The annual Cosyne meeting provides an inclusive forum for the exchange of empirical and theoretical approaches to problems in systems neuroscience, in order to understand how neural systems function. The MAIN MEETING is single-track. A set of invited talks is selected by the Executive Committee, and additional talks and posters are selected by the Program Committee, based on submitted abstracts. The WORKSHOPS feature in-depth discussion of current topics of interest, in a small group setting. All abstract submissions will be reviewed double blind. The deadline for Abstract submission will be 23 November 2022. Cosyne topics include but are not limited to: neural basis of behavior, sensory and motor systems, circuitry, learning, neural coding, natural scene statistics, dendritic computation, neural basis of persistent activity, nonlinear receptive field mapping, representations of time and sequence, reward systems, decision-making, synaptic plasticity, map formation and plasticity, population coding, attention, neuromodulation, and computation with spiking networks. We would like to foster increased participation from experimental groups as well as computational ones. Please circulate widely and encourage your students and postdocs to apply. IMPORTANT DATES Abstract submission opens: 05 October 2022 Workshop proposals deadline: 07 November 2022 Abstract submission deadline: 23 November 2022 When preparing an abstract, authors should be aware that not all abstracts can be accepted for the meeting. Abstracts will be selected based on the clarity with which they convey the substance, significance, and originality of the work to be presented. ORGANIZING COMMITTEE General Chairs: Laura Busse (LMU Munich) and Tim Vogels (IST Austria) Program Chairs: Jessica Cardin (Yale) and Blake Richards (McGill) Workshop Chairs: Anna Schapiro (U Penn) and Andrew Saxe (Oxford) Tutorial Chair: Kanaka Rajan (Mount Sinai) DEIA Committee: Hysell Oviedo (CUNY) and Aman Saleem (UCL) Undergraduate Travel Chairs: Angela Langdon (Princeton) and Sashank Pisupati (Princeton) Fundraising Chair: Michael Long (NYU) Social Media Chair: Grace Lindsay (Columbia) Audio-Video Media Chair: Carlos Stein Brito (EPFL) Poster Design: Xaq Pitkow (Rice) PROGRAM COMMITTEE Jessica Cardin (Yale) Co-chair Blake Richards (McGill) Co-chair Yashar Ahmadian (Cambridge) Mark Andermann (Harvard) Omri Barak (Technion) Brice Bathellier (Paris) Yoram Burak (Hebrew University) Johannes Burge (U Penn) Chandramouli Chandrasekaran (Boston U) SueYeon Chung (Columbia) Jeremiah Cohen (Allen Inst) Anne Collins (Berkeley) Christine Constantinople (NYU) Carina Curto (Penn State) Jan Drugowitsch (Harvard) Tatiana Engel (CSHL) Sean Escola (Columbia) Annegret Falkner (Princeton) Kevin Franks (Duke) Rainer Friedrich (FMI Basel) Andrea Hasenstaub (UCSF) Monika Jadi (Yale) Santiago Jaramillo (U Oregon) Kohitij Kar (MIT) Narayanan Kasthuri (U Chicago) Jens Kremkow (Berlin) Guillaume Lajoie (MILA) Sukbin Lim (Shanghai) Scott Linderman (Stanford) Ashok Litwin-Kumar (Columbia) Mackenzie Mathis (EPFL) Paul Miller (Brandeis) Ida Momennejad (Microsoft) Eilif Muller (U Montreal) Marieke Mur (Western U) Kathy Nagel (NYU) Daniel O'Connor (Johns Hopkins) Hysell Oviedo (CUNY) Il Memming Park (Stony Brook) Joseph Paton (Champalimaud) Adrien Peyrache (McGill) Xaq Pitkow (Rice) Kanaka Rajan (Mount Sinai) Nathalie Rochefort (Edinburgh) Aman Saleem (UCL) Cristina Savin (NYU) Tatyana Sharpee (Salk) Aparna Suvrathan (McGill) Saori Tanaka (ATR) Daniela Vallentin (MPI Ornithology) Melissa Warden (Cornell) Brad Wyble (U Penn) Marta Zlatic (Cambridge) EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE Stephanie Palmer (U Chicago) Zachary Mainen (Champalimaud) Alexandre Pouget (U Geneva) Anthony Zador (CSHL) CONTACT meeting [at] cosyne.org ----------------------------------------------------- COSYNE DEIA COMMITTEE ----------------------------------------------------- The Cosyne Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access (DEIA) committee aims to promote practices of inclusiveness at the meeting. We are currently seeking two additional committee members to participate in the planning for Cosyne 2023. To get involved, please see www.cosyne.org for details on how to apply. ----------------------------------------------------- CALL FOR WORKSHOP PROPOSALS ----------------------------------------------------- A series of workshops will be held after the main Cosyne meeting. The goal is to provide an informal forum for the discussion of important research questions and challenges. Controversial issues, open problems, comparisons of competing approaches, and alternative viewpoints are encouraged. The overarching goal of all workshops should be the integration of empirical and theoretical approaches, in an environment that fosters collegial discussion and debate. - There will be 6-10 workshops/day, running in parallel. - Each workshop is expected to draw between 15 and 80 people. - The workshops will be split into morning and late afternoon sessions. - Workshops will be held in Mont-Tremblant, QC, Canada. - Workshop speakers do NOT receive free registration, travel expenses, or accommodation for either the main meeting or the workshop sessions. Organizers should let invited speakers know that they are expected to pay for workshop registration fees. Workshop organizer responsibilities include coordinating workshop participation and content, scheduling all speakers, submitting a final schedule for the workshop program, and moderating the discussion. Organizers can, but need not, be speakers. One complimentary (free) organizer registration is provided per workshop. For workshops with two organizers, the free registration can be given to one of the organizers or split evenly between them. Any required multimedia resources beyond a projector, screen, and microphones will be the responsibility of the workshop organizers to coordinate with Cosyne and the workshop venue A/V staff. EVALUATION CRITERIA As stated above, the goal of Cosyne workshops is to provide an interactive, informal forum for discussions. Relevant topics include, but are not limited to: sensory processing; motor planning and control; functional neural circuits; motivation, reward and decision making; learning and memory; adaptation and plasticity; neural coding; neural circuitry and network models; and methods in computational or systems neuroscience. Workshop proposals will be evaluated by the Cosyne Workshop Chairs, and a subset of the proposals will be selected. The proposals will be evaluated according to the following six metrics (which will be weighted equally): - Relevance to the Cosyne community - Integration of experimental and theoretical issues - Current interest in the topic in the scientific community - Potential for new research directions and interactions to emerge - Distinctive scope/approach compared to other workshops (including previous years’) - Diversity and equity in the proposed speaker (we are looking for representation of women or nonbinary individuals, individuals from other underrepresented groups, and a balance of established and early career researchers) WORKSHOP FULL PROPOSALS - Deadline 07 November 2022 Past years have involved pre-proposal submissions, but this year we will process only full submissions, with a deadline of 07 November 2022. To submit your Cosyne 2023 Workshop Proposal, please visit Cosyne.org -> Workshops -> Call for Proposals In order to foster discussion within Workshops and reduce overlap between workshops, organizers should inform invited speakers that a speaker can take part in no more than two Workshops. The proposals will include: - Name(s) and email address(es) of the organizers (2 organizers per session is strongly recommended, but 3 will be allowed). - A title. - A brief description of 1) what the workshop will address and accomplish, 2) why the topic is of interest, 3) who is the targeted group of participants. - Names and email addresses of speakers, who should already have agreed to participate should the proposal be accepted. - Proposed workshop length (1 or 2 days). Most workshops will be limited to a single day. If you think your workshop needs two days, please explain why. - A brief resume of the workshop organizer(s) along with a short list of workshop-relevant publications (about half a page total). - A description of how you have addressed diversity and equity in your workshop. Experience has shown that the best discussions during a workshop are those that arise spontaneously. A good way to foster these is to have short talks and long question periods (e.g. 30+15 minutes), and to have plenty of breaks. We recommend keeping the number of talks small (i.e., fewer than 10 talks per day). WORKSHOP COSTS Detailed registration costs, etc, will be at www.cosyne.org. Please note: Cosyne does NOT provide travel funding for workshop speakers. Organizers should let invited speakers know that they are expected to pay for workshop registration fees. Participants are encouraged to register early, in order to qualify for discounted registration rates. One complimentary (free) organizer registration is provided per workshop. For workshops with two organizers, the free registration can be given to one of the organizers or split evenly between them. COSYNE 2023 WORKSHOP CHAIRS Anna Schapiro (U Penn) and Andrew Saxe (Oxford) COSYNE WORKSHOPS CONTACT workshops [at] cosyne.org ----------------------------------------------------- COSYNE MAILING LISTS ----------------------------------------------------- Please consider adding yourself to Cosyne mailing lists (groups) to receive email updates with various Cosyne-related information and join in helpful discussions. See Cosyne.org -> About-> Mailing lists for details.

Oct. 4, 2022

Prestigious research fellow position in Neuromorphic computing

by Michael Schmuker

The University of Hertfordshire is hiring a Vice-Chancellors Research Fellow (VCRF) in Neuromorphic Computing, a prestigious position that provides the successful candidate with the opportunity to build a research career. The VCRF in Neuromorphic Computing will be embedded in a leading team of researchers who advance computational olfactory neuroscience, mapping the chemical space of odorants, electronic gas sensing, and gas-based robotic navigation. The successful candidate will therefore have the unique opportunity to develop an internationally leading research agenda in this field. We are looking for candidates who already have established a track record related to either neuromorphic computing, or electronic olfaction, or computational neuroscience, that should be documented by publications in peer-reviewed journals. Please see the advert and apply here: https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/CTN846/vice-chancellors-research-fellow-in-neuro… <https://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/CTN846/vice-chancellors-research-fellow-in-neuro…> Closing date 11th Oct. Please get in touch for informal inquiries: m.schmuker(a)herts.ac.uk <mailto:m.schmuker@herts.ac.uk> Best wishes, Michael -- Dr Michael Schmuker AFHEA Professor of Neural Computation Biocomputation Group University of Hertfordshire http://biomachinelearning.net

Oct. 4, 2022

Swartz postdoctoral fellowship in theoretical neuroscience at Harvard

by Blum, Kenneth I.

The Swartz Program at Harvard University seeks applicants for a postdoctoral fellow in theoretical and computational neuroscience Based on a grant from the Swartz Foundation, a Swartz postdoctoral fellowship<https://cbs.fas.harvard.edu/research/theory/#swartz> is available at Harvard University with a start date in the fall of 2023. Postdocs join a vibrant group of theoretical<https://websites.harvard.edu/cbs/research/theory/> and experimental neuroscientists and theorists in allied fields at Harvard’s Center for Brain Science<https://websites.harvard.edu/cbs/>. The Center for Brain Science includes faculty doing research on a wide variety of topics, including neural mechanisms of rodent learning, decision-making, and sex-specific and social behaviors; reinforcement learning in rodents and humans; human motor control; behavioral and fMRI studies of human cognition; circuit mechanisms of learning and behavior in worms, larval flies, and larval zebrafish; circuit mechanisms of individual differences in flies and humans; rodent and fly olfaction; inhibitory circuit development; retinal circuits; and large-scale reconstruction of detailed brain circuitry. Applications will be considered beginning October 1, 2022 and continuing until the position is filled. Interested applicants should immediately send a CV, statement of research interests, and arrange for three letters of reference to be sent to Haim Sompolinsky (haim(a)fiz.huji.ac.il<mailto:haim@fiz.huji.ac.il>) or Kenneth Blum (kenneth_blum(a)harvard.edu<mailto:kenneth_blum@harvard.edu>). Applications should have “Swartz Fellowship” in the subject line. Harvard University is an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, gender identity, sexual orientation, pregnancy and pregnancy-related conditions, or any other characteristic protected by law.

Oct. 4, 2022

Online Symposium on Computational Approaches to the Mind

by Nadine Spychala

Dear all, we invite you to participate in a *one-day online-only symposium* on *21st October 2022 *- free of charge and open to all: Rethinking Computational Approaches to the Mind - Fundamental Challenges and Future Perspectives - This event will bring together researchers with expertise in various areas such as complexity science, machine learning & artificial intelligence, information theory & data science, as well as computational/theoretical neuroscience & philosophy to explore different computational approaches in the study of the “mind” (in brains and/or machines): 1. What are those approaches essentially about? 2. What are major benefits & caveats? 3. Do different approaches speak to, complement, or contradict each other? 4. What are the *current challenges* in computational approaches to understand the mind, and what could bring progress? The event is organized within the “Sensation and Perception to Awareness: Leverhulme Doctoral Scholarship Programme <https://www.sussex.ac.uk/sensation/>” at the University of Sussex, and will comprise a set of talks followed by a panel discussion. Find more info - including how to register - on our event website <https://computationalmind.github.io/>. Feel free to spread widely in your networks. We look forward to a day of exciting talks and discussions! Nadine Spychala, Tomasz Korbak, & Federico Micheli (event organizers)

Oct. 4, 2022

Jobs at the Allen Institute: linking neuronal function, cell types, and connectivity

by Anton Arkhipov

Dear Colleagues, We are hiring for multiple positions in a new ambitious project supported by the NIH U01 grant from the BICAN consortium (please see the announcement<https://www.nimh.nih.gov/news/science-news/2022/nih-brain-initiative-launch…>). Combining optical physiology in vivo with spatial transcriptomics and electron microscopy, we aim to link cell types of the mouse cortex with their function. The project is led by Marina Garrett (Allen Institute), Jack Waters (Allen Institute), Jerry Chen (Boston University), and Anton Arkhipov (Allen Institute). Scientist – Imaging: The person in this position will lead experimental imaging work to utilize and improve the spatial transcriptomics platform used in this project. https://alleninstitute.hrmdirect.com/employment/job-opening.php?req=2212881 Scientist – Analysis of Connectome and Functional Activity: This scientist will focus on linking the connectome and morphologies of cortical neurons to their activity in vivo, using the Electron Microscopy (EM) volume of 1 mm3 of the mouse visual cortex obtained by the Allen Institute. https://alleninstitute.hrmdirect.com/employment/job-opening.php?req=2209286 Scientist - Neurophysiology Data Analysis: This scientist will focus on the analysis of the visual physiology data from 2p calcium imaging in vivo to study neural coding and circuit dynamics. https://alleninstitute.hrmdirect.com/employment/job-opening.php?req=2231731 Software Engineer - Tools for Neurophysiology Data Analysis: The software engineer will build software tools and infrastructure to support processing and analysis of multi-modal image-based datasets in this project. https://alleninstitute.hrmdirect.com/employment/job-opening.php?req=2232755 Scientist - Neural Data Analysis: This scientist will focus on linking the 2p calcium imaging and spatial transcriptomics modalities for individual cells, including tasks like co-registration and exploration of statistical relationships between the functional and transcriptomics types. https://alleninstitute.hrmdirect.com/employment/job-opening.php?req=1937290 Please consider applying and reach out if you have any questions. And we will appreciate it if you help us spread the word about these opportunities! Best wishes, Anton. Anton Arkhipov Associate Investigator T: 206.548.8414 E: antona(a)alleninstitute.org<mailto:antona@alleninstitute.org> [Text Description automatically generated] alleninstitute.org<https://alleninstitute.org> brain-map.org

Oct. 4, 2022

NIH-funded Postdoc or Software Developer position on multiscale brain modeling

by Shailesh Appukuttan

*(posting on behalf of Dr. Salvador Dura-Bernal)* An NIH-funded Postdoc or Software Developer position is now available in the Dura-Bernal Lab <http://dura-bernal.org/> at the State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate Health Sciences (Brooklyn, New York). The position is focused on multiscale modeling of the brain, more specifically, developing a co-simulation interface between the NetPyNE <http://www.netpyne.org/> and The Virtual Brain <http://dura-bernal.org/www.thevirtualbrain.org> (TVB) tools, which will link the molecular, cellular, circuit and whole-brain network scales. The resulting multiscale models will help interpret experimental data ranging from single cell recordings and LFP up to EEG and fMRI. For details please visit: http://dura-bernal.org/postdoc-2022 or email salvador.dura-bernal(a)downstate.edu

Oct. 3, 2022

Extended deadline (Nov 30): Biological Cybernetics Special Issue: What can Computer Vision learn from Visual Neuroscience?

by Jeffrey L Krichmar

Dear Colleagues, Due to numerous requests, we have extended the deadline for submitting a paper to the Biological Cybernetics Special Issue: What can Computer Vision learn from Visual Neuroscience? New Submission deadline: November 30, 2022 https://www.springer.com/journal/422/updates/20421374 This special issue invites original research and review articles related to topics in biological vision that can potentially benefit computer vision systems. The following is a non exhaustive list of topics in biological vision that can also benefit computer vision systems. • Active vision’s role in visual search, scene understanding, social interactions, etc. • Learning in the visual system. Learning in biology is continual, few-shot, and adversarially robust. • The roles of recurrent and top-down connections in the visual cortex. • Spike based spatiotemporal processing and its implications for neuromorphic vision. • Motion perception in dynamic environments. • Neural coding schemes in the visual system (e.g., sparse coding, predictive coding, and temporal coding.) • The roles of attention mechanisms in biological vision. How to submit: Please submit your manuscript using the journal online submission system following the Biological Cybernetics submission guidelines. Guest Editors: Kexin Chen - Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine Hirak J. Kashyap - Department of Computer Science, University of California, Irvine Jeffrey L. Krichmar - Department of Cognitive Sciences, Department of Computer Science, University of California, Irvine Xiumin Li - College of Automation, Chongqing University, Chongqing, China If you have any questions, please reach out to one of the guest editors. Best regards, Jeff Krichmar Department of Cognitive Sciences 2328 Social & Behavioral Sciences Gateway University of California, Irvine Irvine, CA 92697-5100 jkrichma(a)uci.edu http://www.socsci.uci.edu/~jkrichma

Sept. 30, 2022