A 3 year PhD student position starting on March-April 2021 is offered to work with Dr. Catalina Vich at Universitat de les Illes Balears (UIB), together with Dr. Jonathan Rubin at University of Pittsburgh (UPitt), and Dr. Tim Verstynen and Dr. Eric Yttri at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). 

The PhD student will be involved in an international project between USA and Spain to investigate circuit-level mechanisms of adaptive decision-making. They will engage in research on learning algorithms in spiking networks with an emphasis on cortico-basal ganglia-thalamic networks and the role of dopamine, as well as on the relation between spiking dynamics and abstract decision-making frameworks. 

Required skills from the PhD student:

We are looking for highly motivated and self-driven candidate with strong interest and experience in computational neuroscience and significant computational expertise. To be accepted in the PhD program, a MSc degree is required preferably in mathematical biology, computational biology or related disciplines. Students who do not hold a MSc degree but hold an undergraduate degree of 300ECTS are also encouraged to apply.

A high level of written and spoken English and good programming skills (python and C) are essential. 

The accepted candidate will be mentored, supervised and trained by C.Vich, J. Rubin and T.Verstynen, and they will have to occasionally visit the USA team (when pandemic safety restrictions are lifted).

The Universitat de les Illes Balears (https://www.uib.eu) is located in Mallorca, the highest island of the Balearic Islands, at the foot of the Tramuntana mountains, an area declared a World Heritage Site by the UNESCO, as well as being just a few kilometres from Mallorca’s finest beaches. It is also ranked among the top 5 Spanish universities in innovation and technological development and in research quality. 

The university is well connected with the main city, Palma, and other villages. It has good transport links to the whole of the archipelago. In fact, it has a bus and underground service with good timetables and frequencies.

The accepted student will be a member of the group of Dynamical Systems (SSDD, http://www.ssdd.uib.es) and the institute of Applied Computing and Community Code (IAC3, http://iac3.uib.es), with ample opportunities to interact with other young researchers in the fields of physics and mathematics in a highly interactive, dynamic, and multi-cultural environment.  

Salary

Salary will be arranged in accordance to the University salaries for this purpose, which is around 16.000€/year (before TAX).

To apply

All applicants have to send their Curriculum Vitae, two letters of recommendation and an application letter expressing their interest to Dr. Catalina Vich at catalina.vich@uib.es with subject “Phd position”. An interview may take place during the selection process. Documents can be written in either English, Catalan or Spanish.

Applications will be accepted until the 15th of February. An objective rubric system will be used to score applications for the position, to avoid implicit bias. An online interview might be request.

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, sexual orientation, nationality, disability, etc. Demographic and cultural diversity will be considered in the selection of the trainee.