Location: Amsterdam
Max hours per week: 38
Max salary: PhD-sudent € 2.770-3.539, Postdoc € 3.226-5.090
Duration of agreement: PhD-student 4 years, Postdoc max 3 years (for both positions: first for 1 year, the contract will be extended in case of proper functioning)
Apply until: June 1, 2024

Information
We have a vacancy for a PhD-student/ Postdoc in the Roelfsema laboratory at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience in Amsterdam to better understand the interactions between lower and higher visual cortical areas in the monkey.

What you will be doing?
Theories of vision aim to explain how the visual brain transforms the image on the retina into neural codes that allow us to understand objects and to guide our behavior. In this project, we will use high-density electrophysiological recordings at various levels of the visual cortex of monkeys to improve our understanding of the interactions between neurons at several levels of the visual cortical processing hierarchy in monkeys. We relate the neuronal activity recorded in monkeys to AI models for object recognition and scene segmentation.

Who are we looking for?

We are looking for a highly motivated, self-driven candidate with a MSc degree (or equivalent) in neuroscience or a related discipline; or an MSc degree in a quantitative discipline (e.g. physics/biophysics, mathematics, engineering) with strong interest and experience in neuroscience. Post-doctoral candidates should have, or should soon expect to obtain, a PhD in a relevant field and should have experience in collecting and analyzing neurophysiological data from awake, behaving animals. A high level of written and spoken English and good programming skills are essential.

Fixed-term contract: 3-4 years (PhD-student max 4 years, Postdoc 3 years).

Terms of employment
For the PhD-student position the salary range is € 2.770 to maximum € 3.539 (in the 4th year). For the Postdoc position the minimum salary depends on education and experience and is € 3.226 and maximum € 5.090 gross per month for a full-time appointment. PhD-student is scale P and the Postdoc position is scale 10 of the Collective Labour Agreement Dutch Universities/KNAW. The salary is exclusive 8% vacation allowance, 8.3% year-end bonus, travel allowance, internet allowance, home working allowance and pension accrual with ABP.

The KNAW offers its staff an excellent package of secondary benefits. A package that meets the different needs of employees depending on their stage of life, lifestyle or career ambitions. For example, by working an extra two hours a week, it is possible to increase the number of days off from 29 to 41 days a year (with full-time employment).

For a complete overview of the terms of employment, please refer to the web page: werken bij de KNAW.

Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience in Amsterdam

The Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience is the country's leading fundamental neuroscience research institute, in the international and progressive city of Amsterdam. It provides a critical mass of scientists (spanning more than 27 nationalities) and neuroscience facilities, in a highly interactive, dynamic, multi-cultural environment, with English as the working language.

Vision & Cognition

General information about the group can be found at https://nin.nl/research-groups/roelfsema:
The Vision and Cognition group is led by Prof. Dr. Pieter Roelfsema, Research of this group is directed at understanding cortical mechanisms of visual perception, memory and plasticity. One of our goals is to create a visual cortical prosthesis to restore vision in blind people.