PHD POSITIONS IN COMPLEX SYSTEMS & BRAIN SCIENCES

CENTER FOR COMPLEX SYSTEMS & BRAIN SCIENCES

FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY

 

Applications are currently being accepted for funded PhD training in Complex Systems & Brain Sciences. The aim of this 5-year graduate program is to train scientists to perform cutting-edge brain research that combines computational modeling, laboratory biology, and medical imaging. Students learn how this combination can yield powerful insights into the operation of the human brain as a complex dynamical system. Individuals with undergraduate degrees in any pertinent discipline are invited to apply. The program offers multi-year stipends and tuition remission.

 

Our students learn to fully participate in multi-disciplinary approaches to brain research. Past graduates have pursued careers at academic institutions such as Harvard, Brown, Emory, NYU, the Salk Institute, and the Neurosciences Institute, at private industry companies such as IBM and Mathworks, and at research institutions such as NIH, US Air Force, NASA, and NRL.

 

Research opportunities are available using behavioral, computational, and neuroscientific methods. Research projects will focus on approaches to understanding the brain as a complex system, with possible concentrations in areas such as computational neuroscience, cognitive neuroscience, systems neuroscience, neurorobotics, molecular neurobiology, cellular physiology, and neuronal regeneration. A new 3T scanner and multi-channel EEG recording systems will be available for neuroimaging research. Opportunities also exist for research collaborations with the new Marcus Neuroscience Institute at Boca Raton Regional Hospital (BRRH).

 

Desirable qualifications include:

* training in neuroscience

* training in cognitive science

* training in complexity, network science, or graph theory

* quantitative training in physics, mathematics, computer science, or related fields

* programming experience (Matlab, C/C++, python, R)

* English speaking and writing skills

 

FACULTY

 

Elan Barenholtz: Psychophysical and computational approaches to visual and multisensory perception and recognition.

 

Janet Blanks: Gene therapy, retinal degeneration, neuroprotection in the retina, mammalian retinal development and differentiation.

 

Steven Bressler: Cognitive neurodynamics: cognitive dynamics in large-scale cortical networks.

 

Armin Fuchs: Analysis of large scale brain activity patterns and combining noninvasive recording technologies, i.e. EEG, MEG and functional MRI.

 

Howard Hock: Mechanisms for detection of motion information serving different perceptual functions; role of global-to-local feedback in formation of global motion patterns; computational models for motion detection and perception of bistable motion; motion mechanisms spared by cortical brain damage; motion percepts diagnostic for perceptual grouping of object surfaces.

 

Sang Hong: Color vision, motion processing, visual awareness, facial expression perception, and multi-sensory integration using psychophysical, eye-tracking, and fMRI methodologies.

 

Scott Kelso: Mechanisms of self-organization underlying the coordination of brain and behavior.

 

Howard Prentice: Ischemic adaptations, neurodegenerative disease, brain anoxia, mitochondrial dysfunction and aging processes.

 

Wen Shen: Electrophysiology of channels and receptors, transporters in neurodevelopment and adult system, signal transduction in retinal circuits.

 

Summer Sheremata: Visual short-term memory and attention.

 

Robert Stackman: Neurobiology of learning and memory, spatial navigation, brain representations of space, mouse models of Alzheimer's disease.

 

Emmanuelle Tognoli: EEG coordination dynamics of human behavior: large-scale integration within and between brains.

 

Robert Vertes: Neurophysiology/neuroanatomy. Functional organization of the brainstem and its role in controlling activity of the forebrain.

 

Jang Wu: Neurotransmitters and neurological disorders.

 

Qualified students are encouraged to apply to the program by following the instructions at the Center for Complex Systems & Brain Sciences web site (http://www.ccs.fau.edu/). Applications should be submitted by February 15, 2016.

 

The Center for Complex Systems & Brain Sciences at Florida Atlantic University is located in Boca Raton, situated between West Palm Beach and Fort Lauderdale, with easy access to the rich cultural life of the Miami-Dade metropolitan area.

 

Steven L Bressler, PhD
Interim Director and Professor