A postdoctoral position is available in the computational neuroscience group of Ralf Haefner in the department for Brain & Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester (NY). 

The focus of our group is on understanding the neural basis of perceptual decision-making. Based on the assumption that the brain performs probabilistic inference using an internal model of the world, we ask questions such as: What is the nature of the internal model? How is it learnt? How are posterior beliefs represented by spiking responses of populations of neurons? What algorithm does the brain use to compute its beliefs? How do cognitive priors influence sensory processing? What is the role of attention in a probabilistic inference framework? What is the role of feedback connections to sensory areas more generally?

In order to answer these questions, we perform studies ranging from purely theoretical at the interface of neuroscience and machine learning, to neural data analysis, to psychophysics. Our collaborations with electrophysiology labs inside our department (Greg DeAngelis, Jude Mitchell) and externally (e.g. Born lab at Harvard Medical School, Cumming lab at NIH) allow for the testing of theoretical models using state-of-the-art cortical population recordings in behaving animals and, if desired, the opportunity to record your own data. We also collaborate with the theoretical groups of Jakob Macke (Caesar Institute, Bonn) and Stefano Panzeri (IIT in Trieste).

For past work indicative of future directions see...

Haefner et al. NatNeuro 2013: http://www.nature.com/neuro/journal/v16/n2/full/nn.3309.html

Smolyanskaya et al. Neuron 2015: http://www.cell.com/neuron/abstract/S0896-6273(15)00561-9

Haefner et al. Neuron 2016 (accepted): http://arxiv.org/abs/1409.0257

…and our presentations at the upcoming COSYNE 2016:

Poster II-17 (Main Meeting, Fri): Chicharro et. al at

Poster III-1 (Main Meeting, Sat): Lange et al. at

Talk in “choice-related feedback” Workshop (Tue), Haefner et al.

We’re looking for a motivated candidate with strong mathematical and programming skills. The ideal candidate would also be familiar with (or quick to pick up) machine learning techniques, especially relating to inference in probabilistic models, and/or any relevant neuroscience background.

The successful candidate with join a highly collaborative department with a strong tradition in probabilistic modeling across a wide range from sensory processing to linguistics (https://www.bcs.rochester.edu/research/index.html ). The city of Rochester is located on the shore of Lake Ontario in upstate New York on the edge of the finger lakes region, and has a high quality of life (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rochester,_New_York ).

Start date and duration are flexible. Please send applications including a brief research statement, a CV and names of 2-3 references by email. I'll be at COSYNE for both conference and workshops and available to meet there in person.

Ralf Haefner
Assistant Professor
Brain & Cognitive Sciences
University of Rochester (NY)
rhaefner@bcs.rochester.edu