Post Doctoral Associate-Schwerdt Lab

About the role

The Schwerdt Lab is seeking a Postdoctoral Associate to lead computational analysis, data collection, and animal experiments to dissect dopamine's complex function in cognition, motivation, and learning.

Responsibilities

• Lead computational analysis, data collection, and animal experiments to dissect dopamine's complex function in cognition, motivation, and learning.
• Apply multiple cutting-edge techniques (chronic electrochemistry, high-density electrophysiology such as Neuropixels, optical fiber photometry with fluorescent dopamine sensors) to measure neural activity in task-performing monkeys trained to perform eye or arm-reaching decision-making tasks to maximize rewards while learning the valence contingencies of various cues and contexts.
• Work with neurosurgeons and clinicians to perform translational engineering and science to elaborate these dopamine functions in humans.
• Perform dopamine neurochemical recordings synchronously with electrophysiological neural recording (e.g., spikes and oscillations) to further elaborate the interactive dynamics between dopamine and neuronal activity and more accurately characterize behaviorally relevant neural activity patterns.
• Work as a team with the principal investigator, other undergraduate and graduate students, and laboratory technicians.
• Prepare and write high-quality journal papers for peer-review and scientific dissemination, present significant research progress in scientific workshops and/or conferences, and participate in grant writing.

Requirements

• Hold a Ph.D. in a STEM field.
• Have some background, ideally working with dynamical systems, machine learning, animal behavior, and/or other forms of computational work and data analysis.
• Experience in one or more of the following: non-human primate electrophysiology; neuroscience; behavioral training and task design; computational analysis, modeling, and programming in MATLAB; data science, statistics, machine learning, or other advanced mathematical, computational, and analytic techniques to analyze neural data; animal handling and surgeries; and/or grant writing.

Qualifications

Candidates should hold a Ph.D. in a STEM field.

Skills

• Advanced primate neurophysiology and brain activity mapping (e.g., electrochemistry, electrophysiology, microstimulation, neurosurgery, task design).
• Microfabrication.
• Systems neuroscience.

Benefits

N/A

Pay

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Schedule

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