<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div class=""><p class="has-medium-font-size" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); line-height: 1.7;"><span class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; font-style: italic;">Dear Colleagues, </span></span></p><p class="has-medium-font-size" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68); line-height: 1.7;"><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: 700;" class="">the Vogels lab has two open postdoctoral positions. </span></p><p class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">TL;DR, if you liked our last NeurIPS paper <a href="https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.24.353409v1" class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;">https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.24.353409v1</a> and you think you can contribute and imagine, oh, the places we’ll go from here,…from one of the most liveable cities in the world, …</p><p class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">DO apply. </p><p class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">—</p><p class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">We are looking for at least two scientists to join the <a href="http://vogelslab.org" class="">vogelslab.org</a> as postdocs at the @ISTAustria near Vienna. </p><p class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">The successful candidate will join an ongoing ERC funded project to discover families of spike-induced synaptic plasticity rules by way of numerical derivation. </p><p class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">Together, we will define and explore search spaces of biologically plausible plasticity rules expressed e.g., as polynomial expansions or multi layer perceptrons. We aim to compare the results to various experimental and theoretical data sets, including functional spiking network models, human stem-cell derived neural network cultures, in vitro and in vivo experimental data. </p><p class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">We are looking for someone who can expand and develop our multipurpose modular library dedicated to optimization of non-differentiable systems. Due to the modularity of the library, the candidate will have extensive freedom regarding which optimization techniques to use and what to learn in which systems, but being a team player will be a crucial skill. </p><p class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">A conceivably successful candidate will have a strong expertise in numerical simulations, and specifically spiking neuron models, and some knowledge in the field of synaptic plasticity. A strong background in applied maths, especially in numerical optimization would be desirable. Some of the questions we ponder: How to express high dimensional rules in </p><p class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">However, we can hire more than one person, and we would also be interested in someone who can contribute to design, implementation and maintenance of a library dedicated to performing numerical optimization in non-differentiable systems on large scales. We are thinking about how to simulate spiking neural networks with complex, unsupervised and supervised plasticity rules efficiently, in parallel, on a cluster. </p><p class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">Depending on your (flexible, possibly immediate) starting date we can offer up to 4-year contracts with competitive salaries, benefits, vacation time and ample budget for materials and travel in a tranquil and inspiring environment. The Vogelslab, and the IST Austria is located in Klosterneuburg, a historic city northwest of Vienna. The campus is located in the middle of the beautiful landscape of the Vienna Woods, 30 minutes from downtown Vienna, the capital of Austria<span class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span>that consistently scores in the top cities of the world for its high standard of living.</p><p class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);"><span class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If you are interested, send an email with your application to Jessica . deAntoni [at] <a href="http://ist.ac.at" class="">ist.ac.at</a>. </span></p><p class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">Your application should include </p><ul class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em 3em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; list-style-position: initial; list-style-image: initial; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">your CV,</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">your most relevant publication,</li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">contact information for 2 or more references, and </li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" class="">a cover letter with a short description of you & your career, and a brief discussion of what you think is the greatest weakness of the above mentioned NeurIPS paper (and maybe how you would go about fixing it). </li></ul><p class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">We are looking to build a diverse and interesting environment, so if you bring any qualities that make our lab (and computational neuroscience at large) more diverse than it is right now, please consider applying. </p><p class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">We will begin to evaluate applications at the end of April and aim to get back to you with a decision within 5 weeks of your application. </p><p class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.7em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; caret-color: rgb(68, 68, 68);">We are also looking for people with a strong background in maths and machine learning, and an intense interest in neuroscience. Specifically, we will focus on (<a href="http://www.neurotheory.ox.ac.uk/~timv/pub/VogelsScience2011.pdf" class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;">GABAergic,</a> <a href="http://www.neurotheory.ox.ac.uk/~timv/pub/Hennequin2017.pdf" class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;">codependent</a>, and <a href="https://fzenke.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/ZenkeGanguli2018_SuperSpike.pdf" class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;">machine-learning inspired</a>) synaptic plasticity, and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-018-0276-0" class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;">modulated</a> neural <a href="http://www.neurotheory.ox.ac.uk/~timv/pub/HennequinNeuron2014.pdf" class="" style="box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; transition: all 0.2s ease-in-out;">network dynamics.</a> Finally, we are keen to hear from women and members of underrepresented groups in neuroscience.</p><div class="">Please email me with any questions or thoughts.</div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Best wishes, </div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class="">Tim Vogels</div></div><div class=""><br class=""></div><div class=""><br class=""></div>---<br class=""><div class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div dir="auto" style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; line-break: after-white-space;" class=""><div>Tim Vogels</div><div>Professor</div><div>Neurotheory</div><div>IST Austria</div><div><a href="http://vogelslab.org" class="">vogelslab.org</a><br class="">+43 2243 9000 2170</div><div class=""><br class=""></div></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></div></body></html>