Research Fellow, School of Psychology

Job Purpose

Applications are invited for a full-time Postdoctoral Research Fellow to work with Dr Maria Wimber (www.memorybham.com/maria-wimber) in the School of Psychology, University of Birmingham. The successful candidate will work on a 5-year project funded by the European Research Council (ERC) that aims to track, in real time, how the human brain reconstructs memories of past events when cued to remember. The project uses a combination of electrophysiological (from scalp EEG/MEG to single neurons) and neuroimaging methods, together with state-of-the-art pattern analysis techniques. The main focus of the postdoctoral researcher will be on the intracranial recordings from the human hippocampus, tracking memories in single- and multi-neuron activity patterns. In addition, combined EEG-fMRI recordings will be conducted to investigate similar phenomena on a whole-brain level in healthy participants. The postdoctoral researcher will be involved in all stages of designing and conducting experiments, analysing behavioural and imaging data, and preparing the results for academic publication, presentation at academic conferences, and for public engagement activities.

Person Specification

• PhD in cognitive or computational neuroscience, ideally in an area related to human memory; PhD finished by start date of the post
• Excellent publication record indicating the researcher’s ability to conduct and complete research projects
• Experience with analysing electrophysiological data, ideally including the use of intracranial recordings and/or advanced pattern analysis techniques (RSA, classification approaches)
• Experience with designing electrophysiological and/or functional neuroimaging experiments
• High level of proficiency in relevant programming languages (e.g., Matlab, Python) and experience with programming psychological experiments (using PsychToolbox, PsychoPy or similar)
• Experience with the use of toolboxes for electrophysiological and neuroimaging analysis (FieldTrip, SPM or similar)
• Strong background in theories of human cognition, ideally human memory
• Excellent understanding of statistics
• High level of analytical capability and independent thinking
• Ability to communicate complex information clearly, including proficiency in written and spoken English language