No subject

[Ken Miller]

                      POSTDOCTORAL POSITIONS
                    COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE
             UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO

I will soon be beginning a new lab at UCSF, and anticipate several positions
for postdocs beginning in 1993 and 1994 (prospective graduate students are
also encouraged to apply to the UCSF Neuroscience Program).  The lab will
focus on understanding both development and mature processing in the
cerebral cortex.  Theoretical, computational, and experimental approaches
will be taken.  Candidates should have skills relevant to one or more of
those approaches.  The most important criteria are demonstrated scientific
ability and creativity, and a deep interest in grappling with the details of
neurobiology and the brain.

Past work has focused on modeling of development in visual cortex under
Hebbian and similar ``correlation-based" rules of synaptic plasticity.  The
goal has been to understand these rules in a general way that allows
experimental predictions to be made.  Models have been formulated for the
development of ocular dominance and orientation columns.  A few references
are listed below.

Future work of the lab will extend the developmental modeling, and will also
take various approaches to understanding mature cortical function.  These
will include detailed biophysical modeling of visual cortical networks,
many-cell recording from visual cortex, and use of a number of theoretical
methods to guide and interpret this recording.  There will also be
opportunities for theoretical forays in new directions, in particular in
collaborations with the other Neuroscientists at UCSF.  Facilities to
develop new experimental directions that are relevant to the lab's program,
for example slice studies and use of optical methods, will also exist.

I will be part of the Keck Center for Systems Neuroscience at UCSF, which
will be a very interactive environment for Systems Neurobiology.  Other
members will include: 
* Alan Basbaum (pain systems); 
* Allison Doupe (song learning in songbirds); 
* Steve Lisberger (oculomotor system); 
* Michael Merzenich (adult cortical plasticity); 
* Christof Schreiner (auditory system);
* Michael Stryker (visual system, development and plasticity);
Closely related faculty members include Roger Nicoll (hippocampus, LTP);
Rob Malenka (hippocampus, LTP); Howard Fields (pain systems); and Henry
Ralston (spinal cord and thalamus).

Please send a letter describing your interests and a C.V., and arrange to
have three letters of recommendation sent to

Ken Miller
Division of Biology 216-76
Caltech
Pasadena, CA 91125
ken at cns.caltech.edu

Some References:

Miller, K.D. (1992). ``Models of Activity-Dependent Neural Development."
Seminars in the Neurosciences, 4:61-73.

Miller, K.D. (1992).  ``Development of Orientation Columns Via Competition
Between ON- and OFF-Center Inputs."  NeuroReport 3:73-76.  

MacKay, D.J.C. and K.D. Miller (1990).  ``Analysis of Linsker's simulations
of Hebbian rules," Neural Computation 2:169-182.

Miller, K.D. (1990).  ``Correlation-based mechanisms of neural development,"
in Neuroscience and Connectionist Theory, M.A. Gluck and D.E.  Rumelhart,
Eds.  (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale NJ), pp.  267-353.

Miller, K.D., J.B. Keller and M.P. Stryker (1989).  ``Ocular dominance
column development: analysis and simulation," Science 245:605-615.

Miller, K.D., B. Chapman and M.P. Stryker (1989).  ``Responses of cells in
cat visual cortex depend on NMDA receptors," Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA
86:5183-5187.