Monday, February 27, 2017

Post-doctoral position in sensorimotor learning and control of speech production


The Laboratory for Speech Physiology and Motor Control (PI Ludo Max, Ph.D.) at the University of Washington (Seattle) announces an open post-doctoral position in the areas of sensorimotor integration and sensorimotor learning for speech production. The position will involve experimental work on both typical speech and stuttering. The lab is located in the University of Washington's Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences and has additional affiliations with the Graduate Program in Neuroscience and the Department of Bioengineering. See http://faculty.washington.edu/ludomax/lab/ for more information.

The successful candidate will use speech sensorimotor adaptation paradigms (with digital signal processing perturbations applied to the real-time auditory feedback or mechanical forces applied to the jaw by a robotic device) to investigate aspects of learning and control in stuttering and nonstuttering adults and children. In addition, the candidate will use electroencephalographic (EEG) techniques to investigate auditory-motor interactions during speech movement planning in the same populations.

The position is initially for one year (a second-year extension is possible contingent upon satisfactory performance and productivity) with a preferred starting date in the spring or early summer of 2017. Applicants should have the Ph.D. degree by the start of the appointment. Review of applications will begin immediately. Candidates with a Ph.D. degree in neuroscience, cognitive/behavioral neuroscience, motor control/kinesiology, biomedical engineering, communication disorders/speech science, and related fields, are encouraged to apply.

We seek a candidate with excellent verbal and written communication skills who is strongly motivated and has substantial computer programming experience (in particular MATLAB and/or R).


For more information, please contact lab director Ludo Max, Ph.D. (LudoMax@uw.edu). Applications can be submitted to the same e-mail address. Interested candidates should submit (a) a cover letter describing their research experiences, interests, and goals, (b) a curriculum vitae, (c) the names and contact information of three individuals who can serve as references, and (d) reprints of relevant journal publications.

The University of Washington is an affirmative action and equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, among other things, race, religion, color, national origin, sex, age, status as protected veterans, or status as qualified individuals with disabilities.

Friday, February 24, 2017

Post-Doc Position in the Department of Speech, Language & Hearing Sciences, Sargent College, Boston University


The Guenther Lab at Boston University is seeking applications for a postdoctoral associate in computational neuroscience and neuroimaging of speech in normal and disordered populations. The Guenther Lab is one of the world's preeminent speech, neuroscience laboratories, and the associate will work with a team of experts in neuroimaging, computational modeling, and neural data collection and analysis within the Guenther Lab, the Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging at Massachusetts General Hospital, and the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Required Skills:
PhD in cognitive or computational neuroscience, biomedical engineering, speech, language and hearing science or related field. Strong written and oral communication skills required as well as experience with neural data analysis. Preference to candidates with strong computer programming (Matlab, Python, C++) and statistics backgrounds. Knowledge of speech motor control processes and/or computational modeling methods are desired. Salary will be aligned with experience and NIH guidelines. Two year commitment required. 

The position is available immediately. Interested applicants should forward a CV, cover letter, and two letters of recommendation to Frank Guenther (guenther@bu.edu).

We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We are a VEVRAA Federal Contractor.

Job Location: Boston, Massachusetts, United States


Position Type: Full-Time/Regular

Monday, February 20, 2017

Pre- and post-doctoral research positions in MEG research in the NYU Neuroscience of Language Lab (PIs Pylkkänen & Marantz in New York or Abu Dhabi)


The NYU Neuroscience of Language Lab (http://www.psych.nyu.edu/nellab/) has openings for research scientists, which could be realized either as pre-doctoral RAships or as a post-doc. The RAs could be based either in our Abu Dhabi or New York labs. A post-doctoral fellow would be based in Abu Dhabi.


A BA/BS, MA/MS or PhD in a cognitive science-related discipline (psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, etc.) or computer science is required. 


The hired person would ideally have experience with psycho- and neurolinguistic experiments, a background in statistics and some programming ability (especially Python and Matlab). A strong computational background and knowledge Arabic would both be big plusses.  


The pre/post-doc's role will depend on the specific qualifications of the person hired, but will in all cases involve MEG research on structural and/or semantic aspects of language. 


In Abu Dhabi, salary and benefits, including travel and lodging, are quite generous. We are looking to start these position in summer 2017. Evaluation of applications will begin immediately. 



To apply, please email cover letter, CV and names of references to Liina Pylkkänen at liina.pylkkanen@nyu.edu and Alec Marantz at marantz@nyu.edu. For the RAships, please indicate if you have a preference for either Abu Dhabi or New York. 

Friday, February 10, 2017

Postdoctoral Fellowship: The Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at Purdue University

Postdoctoral Fellowship: The Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at Purdue University invites applications for a postdoctoral fellowship from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, National Institutes of Health beginning July 1, 2017. Applicants must be U.S. citizens or have permanent resident status. This will be a two-year appointment. Individuals may seek training in any of the following overarching areas: (1) Foundational; (2) Developmental Disorders; (3) Neurological and Degenerative Disorders. Potential mentors include: Alexander Francis, Stacey Halum, Michael Heinz, Jessica Huber, David Kemmerer, Keith Kluender, Ananthanarayan (Ravi) Krishnan, Laurence Leonard, Amanda Seidl, Preeti Sivasankar, Elizabeth Strickland, Christine Weber, and Ronnie Wilbur. Applicants are encouraged to contact appropriate individuals on this list prior to submitting an application. A description of the research areas of these potential mentors can be found at http://www.purdue.edu/hhs/slhs/research/areas.html. Application materials should include a statement of interest including desired research trajectory, three letters of recommendation, a curriculum vitae, and copies of relevant publications.  These materials should be sent to Elizabeth A. Strickland, Project Director, at estrick@purdue.edu.  Deadline for submission of applications is February 28, 2017. Purdue University is an equal opportunity/equal access/affirmative action employer fully committed to achieving a diverse workforce.   www.purdue.edu/hhs/slhs

Tuesday, February 7, 2017

Interdisciplinary Postdoctoral Position in Basal Ganglia-Cortical Coding of Speech

Description:

Two postdoctoral positions are available in the University of Pittsburgh Departments of Neurosurgery and Psychology. The research involves the use of invasive deep brain electrical recording and stimulation in patients with Parkinson’s disease to study subcortical contributions to speech production. One of the Postdoctoral Associates will work closely with a mentorship team led by Dr. Mark Richardson and the other will work closely with a mentorship team led by Julie Fiez.  Support for this position comes from a recently awarded BRAIN Initiative grant (Research Opportunities Using Invasive Neural Recording and Stimulating Technologies in the Human Brain, U01), for which Dr. Richardson is the PI. Other co-Investigators include Tom Mitchell and Lori Holt (CMU), Diane Litman, Rob Turner, Sue Shaiman and Mike Dickey (Pitt), Stan Anderson and Nathan Crone (JHU).

Research Description:

An abstract of the U01 grant can be found here: https://goo.gl/IzfOFn

A major strength of this project is the complimentary nature of extensive, multi-disciplinary expertise from team members at the University of Pittsburgh, Johns Hopkins University and Carnegie Mellon University. This combined expertise allows us to employ a novel combination of classical analytic methods and more recent machine learning methods for supervised and exploratory analyses to document the neural dynamics of basal ganglia and cortical activity during speech production.

Job Responsibilities:

Assume an integrated role in all aspects of 1) administration of behavioral protocols, 2) intraoperative speech data collection, with advisory role for pre- and post-surgical data collection, 3) data analysis performed independently, including application of speech processing and machine learning algorithms to analyze collected data, and 4) manuscript and grant writing.

Qualifications:

Ph.D. in computational neuroscience, computer science, linguistics, psychology, neuroscience, communication science, engineering, bioengineering, or equivalent; previous research experience in computational neuroscience, neurolinguistics, or speech-language processing desired, along with expertise in MATLAB, acoustic signal processing and behavioral studies of human speech.




Interested Candidates please send a Cover Letter and CV to Corrie Durisko at cgaglia@pitt.edu​