<html><head><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"></head><body style="overflow-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;"><div><br></div><div>on behalf of: Prof. Shervin Safavi, Dresden University of Technology + Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><span id="docs-internal-guid-c1b3fd00-7fff-6efa-4c8a-0bdfd63bbb87"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; text-align: center; margin-top: 9pt; margin-bottom: 9pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-weight: 700; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">PhD position (m/f/x) (TVL-65%, 3 years)</span></p><br><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; text-align: justify; margin-top: 9pt; margin-bottom: 9pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Computational Machinery of Cognition (CMC)” lab (</span><a href="http://cmclab.org/" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">cmclab.org</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">) based in the Faculty of Medicine of TU Dresden will offer 1 PhD position (m/f/x) (TVL-65%, 3 years). The release of the official call will be after the completion of the administration process, however, interested applicants can send us their application as instructed below.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; text-align: justify; margin-top: 9pt; margin-bottom: 9pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The overarching research theme of the CMC Lab is understanding the computational machinery that supports our cognitive processes. Cognition spans a wide range of functions (from perception to action and planning), and it is one of the most remarkable capabilities of the brain. In the CMC lab, we want to understand the computations (in particular, inference, and decision processes) that support our cognition and the biophysical machinery that implements these computations. We develop normative and biophysical modeling of cognitive functions, test these models with neural and behavioral data (in collaboration with experimental labs), and develop methods for multi- and cross-scale analysis of neural data to better capture the neural markers of these processes. We value the culture of collaboration, thus we extensively collaborate with labs in Dresden and other labs nationally and internationally (e.g., MPI for Biological Cybernetics and MPI for Intelligent Systems, Harvard Medical School).</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; text-align: justify; margin-top: 9pt; margin-bottom: 9pt;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The project will focus on developing reinforcement learning (RL) models to understand internal cognitive processes (in particular perception, and perceptual multistability; for example, see, Safavi and Dayan, </span><a href="https://www.cell.com/neuron/fulltext/S0896-6273(22)00669-9" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Neuron 2022</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span><a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.12.06.627286v1.abstract" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">BioRxiv 2024</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">). In the course of the project, we, together, will develop decision-theoretic models, for instance, based on partially observable Markov decision processes (POMDP), and assess them with psychophysical experiments, and will have the possibility to analyze neural data recorded from animals while doing similar tasks to understand the neural implementation of these computations. We will also collaborate with </span><a href="https://www.mpg.de/12309370/biological-cybernetics-dayan" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Peter Dayan</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (MPI for Biological Cybernetics) and </span><a href="https://universe.unibas.ch/org-units/94/research-groups/43244/overview" style="text-decoration: none;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; color: rgb(17, 85, 204); font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Philipp Sterzer</span></a><span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", sans-serif; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> (University of Basel). </span></p></span><br><div><a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qyuPbNznU9u0tLOuja_SuA0W3bTrz63LXlcwJ9mEi_4/edit?tab=t.0">More information.</a></div></body></html>