3 PhD and 3 postdoc positions in Leuven

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November 6, 2008

We have open positions available for three PhD students and three postdocs to start anytime between 1 January 2009 and 31 October 2009. The positions are funded by a large and prestiguous grant (Methusalem program of the Flemish Government), awarded to Johan Wagemans for research on ?Perceptual organization in the context of a dynamical and hierarchical visual brain? It involves projects in collaboration with Ralf Krampe, Hans Op de Beeck, Gert Storms, and Karl Verfaillie, all colleagues at the Department of Psychology at the University of Leuven.

The PhD positions are for a period of 4 years. Starting salary will be in the range of 1500 euro per month after taxes. The main assignment of the PhD students is to conduct and publish research related to the topics of the project and to complete a PhD thesis. Teaching and administration load will be minimal. Candidates should have a Master degree in experimental, cognitive, biological or mathematical psychology, or in a related field. They should have experience in conducting research, preferably on topics related to the research program described below.

The postdoc positions are for a period of one, two or three years, depending on the candidate?s preference and on our evaluation of the candidate?s capacities (funding is secured for 7 years and can even be extended afterwards). More senior postdocs with academic ambitions are also encouraged to apply. They can be given professorial rights, including the right to be co-supervisor of PhD students and the right to apply for grants as principal investigator. Starting salary depends on prior academic experience, but will probably range between 2000 and 2700 euro per month after taxes. The main assignment of the postdocs is to conduct and publish research related to the topics of the project and to co-supervise the work of PhD students. Teaching and administration load will be minimal. Candidates should have a PhD in experimental, cognitive, biological or mathematical psychology, or in a related field. They should have published in international journals on topics related to the research program described below.

Research program

The general aim of our research program is to understand the processes and mechanisms of perceptual organization in the context of what we know about the dynamical and hierarchical way in which the brain functions. More specifically, we want to understand (1) the different processes and representations involved in the formation of groups, patterns, shapes, objects, and events, by means of a systematic and thorough study of the many different ways in which multiple elements interact in space and time; (2) the mid-level processes and representations involved in perceptual organization in relation to low-level and high-level processes and representations; and (3) the dynamics of perceptual organization at different time scales, incl. the interactions between different processes and representations during on-line stimulus processing, developmental questions, and plasticity issues.

The major focus is on perceptual Gestalts but in some cases they are studied in close interaction with sensorimotor behavior like multi-finger sequencing and postural control, and with cognitive tasks like category learning and categorization. The dominant methodological approach is experimental psychology and psychophysics but we will also use advanced fMRI techniques and combined fMRI-EEG measurements, and we will develop and test quantitative models.

The majority of the research topics address basic research questions but we will also devote considerable time and effort to three diverse applications with high societal or cultural importance. More specifically, we will study (1) the nature of visual processing in autism, with a special emphasis on deficits in automatic Gestalt formation and on enhanced processing of visual details; (2) the interactions between perceptual and motor processes in the elderly, to understand better how we can reduce or prevent decline in cognition and action with age; and (3) the spontaneous and subtle use of perceptually appealing Gestalt phenomena and the relation to aesthetic pleasure in visual arts.

Leuven: the city and the university

The city of Leuven is an agglomeration of five communities (Leuven, Heverlee, Kessel-Lo, Wilsele, and Wijgmaal) with around 90,000 inhabitants. Add to this 35,000 post-secondary and 11,000 high-school students and it should come as no surprise that the streets are filled with young faces and that the city lives at a student’s rhythm: hectic weeks at the beginning of the academic year and relative calm during vacation and examination periods. The city is an old, medieval city with many colleges, cosy squares, shopping streets, and lots of restaurants and cafes. The city center is quite friendly for pedestrians and cyclists. Leuven is at 25 km from Brussels, with frequent direct train connections, also to the international airport at Zaventem and to the TGV station of Brussels South (Midi).

The university of Leuven is one of the oldest in the Low Countries (founded in 1425) and ranked amongst the best in Europe. International PhD students and postdocs have regularly acclaimed it one of the best places in the world to live and work. For example, our university was listed fifth in this year?s ranking of international institutions as Best Places to Work for Academia (source: http://www.the-scientist.com/bptw/).

Some useful links to find out more about the city and university of Leuven:
http://www.kuleuven.be/english/living.html
http://www.kuleuven.be/vesta/
http://www.kuleuven.be/about/history.html

More information

More information about our research can be found at http://ppw.kuleuven.be/labexppsy/newSite/. Some of us will attend the Annual Meeting of the Psychonomic Society in Chicago, Nov 13-16 (Ralf Krampe and Gert Storms) and of the Society for Neuroscience in Washington DC, Nov 15-18 (Hans Op de Beeck) and you can talk to us there. Questions and applications should be sent to johan.wagemans@psy.kuleuven.be before 1 December 2008. All applications should include a full CV and the names of at least two academics who can be contacted for a reference. Feel free to forward this message to anyone who might be interested in applying for one of the positions.

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Scholarship Tags: Leuven, PhD, positions, Postdoc