The independent research group Vision and Computational Cognition (led by Dr. Martin Hebart) at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, invites applications for PhD students.

Our research group seeks to understand how humans recognize and categorize visually-perceived objects. Towards this goal, we use a wide range of behavioral and neuroimaging methods, including visual psychophysics, online crowdsourcing, functional MRI and magnetoencephalography (MEG). The emphasis lies on identifying and characterizing reproducible and interpretable behavioral and brain activity patterns that serve as a basis for our understanding of mental and neural representations of objects.

The Max Planck Institute is equipped with excellent neuroimaging research facilities (several Siemens 3T and 7T MRI scanners, 306-channel MEG, EEG, virtual reality, eye-tracking) and offers dedicated support staff. Leipzig has been called “Germany’s new cultural hot spot“ (The Guardian) and is located just a little over an hour south of Berlin.

The successful applicant will have a passion for visual and cognitive neuroscience, with good analytical and quantitative skills, and the ability to work both independently and as part of a team. Candidates are expected to have experience in the analysis of behavioral or neuroimaging data (e.g. fMRI, MEG, or EEG) and have good programming skills in Python, Matlab,or R. Experience with machine-learning methods (e.g. Scikit-Learn, PyTorch, TensorFlow), data/code sharing platforms (e.g. GitHub, Docker), or basic web programming (HTML, JavaScript) are desirable. Scientific publications are not required; however, applicants are expected to demonstrate scientific writing skills.

The expected starting date is flexible but no earlier than February 1st, 2020. The position is funded for three years, with the possibility of an extension for an additional year.

For the full job advertisement including more information about the group, qualifications, required documents and application procedures, please go to http://www.cbs.mpg.de/vacancies (subject heading: “PhD 14/19”). All applications received by November 15th, 2019 will be considered.