Two postdoctoral positions are available in the group of Sophie Deneve, Ecole Normale supérieure Paris.  Positions are for one year, renewable one year, and comes with competitive salary and generous equipment and travel funds.  The team is part of the “Group for neural theory” (http://iec-lnc.ens.fr/group-for-neural-theory/) and surrounded by top-level theoretical and experimental labs.

Candidates are expected to have a solid training in the field of computational neuroscience, proven quantitative and programming skills and a strong interest in integrative/cognitive neuroscience. Starting dates are flexible, but should preferentially occur before September 2015.

Possible projects include:

Starting from the hypothesis that biological networks are optimally tuned to maximize coding efficiency and robustness, we will design new tools to analyze their dynamics and function.  We will identify functionally relevant, low-dimensional structures in large neural datasets (spontaneous and stimulus-driven multi-unit activity in retina, visual cortex, and/or in Zebrafish whole brain recordings).

Sensory neurons are often described in terms by their receptive fields.   On the other hand, “generative models” (and more generally, efficient coding) assume that neurons collectively try to predict their stimuli. In such scenarios, prior assumptions, metabolic constrains and context deeply reshape neural selectivity. We will consider implications for learning, attentional modulation and/or hierarchical neural processing.  

Candidates should send their application to sophie.deneve@ens.fr by March 31, 2015. Please mention “postdoctoral candidate” in the subject of the email.  Application should take the form of a single PDF file, containing a CV, motivation letter, names and email addresses of 2 to 3 referees.  No official letter of recommendations are required, as the referee will be contacted directly.