[visionlist] 3 PhD and 3 postdoc positions in Leuven

[Johan Wagemans]

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 at 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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