PhD student position in the Emmy -Noether project " FEAR PROFILES "
The position is part of an Emmy Noether grant awarded to Dr. Tina Lonsdorf. More information on
Tina Lonsdorfs group, which she leads since 2013, can be found under www.lonsdorflab.com .
The position is part of the project FEAR PROFILES which aims to utilize population heterogeneity
(variance ) as a unique opportunity and promising starting point to advance mechanistic insights into
fear and anxiety related processes . The project goes way beyond tradi tional confirmatory or refusive
inves tigations on a -priori th eories and focuses on variance that has been largely neglected as ‘residual
variance’ or studied in isolation to date .
The project will be conducted by a team including the PI, a post -doctoral researcher , a PhD student
and a study psychologist . The PhD student will thereby implement a series of systematic, multi -
methodological and -variate studies that combine well -established experimental paradigms with
cutting -edge technical tools and methodo logical advances (such as parallel EMG -fMRI data
acquisition, Virtual Reality). Experimental paradigms focus for instance on fear, anxiety as well as their
generalization , avoidance as well as habituation processes and emotional memory .
We are located at the Department of Systems Neuroscience (Head: Prof. Christian Büchel ), which is
part of the University Medical Center Hamburg -Eppendorf in Hamburg (Germany).
The Department of Systems Neuroscience offers an interdisciplinary and international research
environment, a research -dedicated 3 -T MR Scanner (PRISMA), Virtual -Reality laboratories as well as
excellent facilities for behavioral testing and psychophysiological studies. In addition, the institute
offers excellent training opportunities ( https://goo.gl/pU44vP and https://goo.gl/uvt2L5 ) as well as a
local graduate school. We are also part of the international Max Planck School of Cognition .
Optimal starting date for the position is 15.2.2019 but starting date is negotiable . The position is
initially granted for 3 years with the possibility of extension for a fourth year (3+1 years). There is the
option of continuing on a post -doctoral (full) position in the project afterwards. Salary depends on
experience and is based on German regulations (TVL13, 65 %). Applications will be accepted until the
positions are filled . The first review of applications will be in the beginning of October 2018. The group
is committed to maintaining a diverse and inclusive environment.
The optimal candidate will have:
• Complet ed a Master of Science in Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, Psychology or related
fie lds. Candidates will be considered if they are close to finish their Master.
• Strong interest in affective neuroscience, fear/anxiety research and individual differences.
• Experience with programming skills (e.g., Matlab, R) is advantageous.
• Experience in co nducting and analyzing neuroimaging or behavioral experiments is
advantageous.
• Experience with Virtual Reality, psychophysiology or Mplus (latent variable modeling program)
is a plus.
• Enjoys to analyze large datasets composed of different modalities.
• Excellent skills in English (written and oral)
Please send your application as a single pdf document to t.lonsdorf@uke.de . Please include the
following documents: CV including contact details, copy of masters degree, a brief research statement
as well as contact information of two academic referees.