Connectionists: Fully-funded PhD project on networks in Mark Humphries’ lab, University of Nottingham (Oct 2022 start)

[Mark Humphries]

A fully-funded 3.5 year PhD project is available in the Mark Humphries’ lab at the University of Nottingham, UK.

Broad classes of network models, like small-world networks and scale-free networks, have taught us much about the world. But we suspect a major class of networks has been missed. This project will introduce and explore a new class of model weighted networks, “divergent” networks, in which the structure described by the links and their weights do not match. Most theoretical work on weighted networks assumes that they do, so little is known about the properties of these divergent networks. We will close that gap by quantifying the existence and extent of divergence in a range of real-world networks, including brain connectomes at both single neuron and inter-area level; by creating generative models for these networks; and by exploring how divergence alters a network’s dynamics across a range of dynamical systems implemented on the nodes, including neural models.

The student will be joining the Humphries lab (https://www.humphries-lab.org/), who draw on network theory and dynamical systems approaches to understand neural coding and computations. They will also be co-supervised by Prof Stephen Coombes (School of Maths), an expert in dynamics on networks.

Suggested reading:
Humphries, M. D., Caballero, J. A.*, Evans, M.*, Maggi, S.* & Singh, A.* (2021) Spectral estimation for detecting low-dimensional structure in networks using arbitrary null models. PLoS ONE, 16(7): e0254057.

Enquiries: mark.humphries at nottingham.ac.uk<mailto:mark.humphries at nottingham.ac.uk> (send a CV with queries please)

Application deadline: July 29th 2022

Further details, and how to apply: https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/divergent-networks-a-new-class-of-complex-systems/?p145584

Funding information:
EPSRC DTP studentship, 3.5 years duration.
Start: October 2022
Studentship will pay Home (UK) University tuition fees (minimum £4,596 per year) and a minimum stipend of £16,062 per year for your living costs. International students are welcome to apply, but note the studentship does not cover international tuition fees (currently £26,000 per year).



Professor Mark Humphries | Professor of Computational Neuroscience

My book "The Spike: An Epic Journey Through the Brain in 2.1 Seconds" is out now in hardback, ebook, and audiobook! https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691195889/the-spike

Lab: humphries-lab.org<https://www.humphries-lab.org/>

Twitter: @markdhumphries

Public blog: https://medium.com/the-spike



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