[visionlist] Postdoc opportunity at Hopkins and Georgetown

[Dilks, Daniel D]

Call for a Postdoctoral Researcher for collaborative project:
The developmental course of cerebral lateralization in space and language Johns Hopkins University and Georgetown University Medical School

We seek an outstanding Postdoctoral Researcher for a newly-funded 4-year NSF grant, collaborative between PIs Barbara Landau (Johns Hopkins University) and Elissa Newport (Georgetown University Medical School). The project aim is to understand the developmental course of cerebral lateralization for space and language among healthy children between ages 4 and 11 years.

Qualifications: The postdoctoral researcher will be hired full time to work on the project (3 years active), starting in the fall-winter of 2023. The successful candidate will hold a Ph.D. in Cognitive Science, Cognitive Neuroscience, and/or related fields, with theoretical and technical understanding of language and spatial representation and its development from birth through adulthood. The position is ideal for the candidate who values theoretical approaches to the development of brain and mind and is extremely well-trained in both behavioral and brain imaging (fMRI) approaches to cognition across domains. The researcher will work with PIs Landau and Newport, and Co-PI Anna Greenwald to adapt and use multiple existing imaging (fMRI) tasks to measure cortical lateralization over development and do the same for multiple behavioral tasks that will test for performance correlates as lateralization changes. The suite of tasks will be administered to child participants ranging from 4 to 11 years of age, with each child undergoing a set of imaging and behavioral tests that tap both spatial and language functions. Analytic techniques will include modeling development of lateralization over age across different tasks, and within-subject for the full range of tasks, to determine whether changes in lateralization are parallel across domains or vary by domain, and how these changes relate to behavioral performance. In addition to the central questions guiding the project, there will be room for intensely probing specific questions about the relationships between tasks within the language system (e.g. syntax/ prosody) and across language and space (e.g. words/faces).

Work environment: All testing of participants (both imaging and behavioral) will be carried out at Georgetown Medical School, in the Center for Brain Plasticity. More generally, however, the postdoctoral researcher will be expected to take advantage of the resources at both universities (JHU, Georgetown) as appropriate, including seminars and lab meetings held jointly on a regular basis as well as colloquia held at each location. The candidate should be one who values the opportunity to join a highly collaborative and interdisciplinary team and they should be prepared to lead in the research project as well as activities designated for NSF broader impacts. Salary and benefits are competitive.

Application: Please send a CV and cover letter detailing interests and accomplishments, as well as the names and contact information of three referees to landau at jhu.edu and/or eln10 at georgetown.edu.

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