Postdoctoral position at Stanford

[Terry Sanger]

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP AVAILABLE
PEDIATRIC MOVEMENT DISORDERS LABORATORY
STANFORD UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER

I am seeking a postdoctoral fellow to work for one to two years in the 
pediatric movement disorders laboratory in the Stanford University 
Medical Center Department of Neurology.  The laboratory uses 
motion-capture technology to investigate the nature and causes of 
abnormal arm movements in children with movement disorders such as 
dystonia and chorea.  Many of these children suffer from cerebral 
palsy, neurodegenerative diseases, or other neurological disorders 
affecting movement. The goal of the laboratory is to understand and 
quantify movement disorders by using computational neuroscience 
techniques to model the internal generation of both normal and abnormal 
movements.  I hope that through an understanding of the nature of 
abnormal movements it may be possible to select appropriate 
medications, measure the response to therapy, and engage plasticity 
mechanisms to assist with retraining dysfunctional movements.

Laboratory technology includes an 8-channel Polhemus motion tracker, 16 
channel surface EMG, synchronized digital video capture, and amplifiers 
and data interface for surface evoked potential measurements.  
Real-time 3-d skeleton video reconstruction as well as auditory 
feedback is available for target accuracy or biofeedback experiments.  
In addition to conducting experiments on motion capture and biofeedback 
retraining, the fellow will be able to implement a system and initiate 
experiments for studying adaptation to unexpected force fields applied 
with a haptic interface.

There is considerable flexibility in the design of experiments.  I seek 
a motivated candidate with particular interest in understanding 
pathological movement in children.  Background should include an 
understanding of computational approaches to human movement and 
plasticity, as well as experience in human subjects research.  
Familiarity with Matlab and a basic statistical analysis package is 
important.  Additional programming (Win32) or electronic design 
experience is extremely helpful.

The position is available immediately.  Salary is set by Stanford 
University rules depending on level of training, and is approximately 
$40-45,000 per year.  Please send a CV and letter of interest to:

Terry Sanger, MD, PhD
Pediatric Movement Disorders Laboratory
Stanford University Medical Center
300 Pasteur, Room A345
Stanford, CA 94305-5235
(650)736-2154  fax: (650)725-7459
sanger at stanford.edu