[visionlist] Phd Position - Icelandic Vision Lab/EPFL, Lausanne

[Árni Kristjánsson]

PhD position at the Icelandic Vision Lab and EPFL, Lausanne.

Project title: How the visual system predicts the future from past experience.

The Icelandic Vision Lab (www.visionlab.is <http://www.visionlab.is/>) advertises a 3-year PhD position, fully funded by a grant from the Research Fund of the University of Iceland. The successful candidate will work under the supervision of Professor Árni Kristjánsson (University of Iceland) and Dr. David Pascucci (at the EPFL, Lausanne). People with backgrounds from various disciplines will be considered, e.g. Neuroscience, Biology, Psychology, Mathematics, Engineering. A Masters degree in relevant disciplines is required. Experience of research relevant to the topic is a big plus.

The PhD work has three main objectives, focusing on the role of temporal context in visual perception: 1) To evaluate the involvement of naturalistic priors and environmental expectations in biasing human perceptual decisions; 2) To understand the inferential rules that govern perceptual decision making and their adaptability to manipulations of sensory sequences; 3) To investigate the adaptive benefits and costs of perceptual biases from temporal context.

The project will involve behavioral studies and computational modelling. The work will involve a collaboration between the laboratories that the principal investigators run at the University of Iceland and EPFL in Lausanne. The primary place of work will be the Icelandic Vision Lab in Reykjavik but the work will include extensive collaboration with the laboratory of Psychophysics at EPFL in Lausanne.

Experience with experimental psychology software (PsychoPy/Psychtoolbox), programming (Python/MATLAB/C/C++), statistical software such as R, computational modelling in vision, are all definite benefits but promising candidates showing enthusiasm and willingness to learn these methods will also be considered. 

The Icelandic Vision Lab offers a stimulating academic environment, and is headed by professors Árni Kristjánsson, Heiða María Sigurðardóttir and Árni Gunnar Ásgeirsson. The laboratory has an extended network of collaborations, from all over the world and is in many ways unique in this international aspect. The planned collaboration will involve potential periods abroad at EPFL, one of the leading universities in Europe.

The successful candidates will join this vibrant community of graduate students, post-docs and faculty who all work on varied aspects of visual perception. The lab is well funded with grants from the Icelandic Research Fund, The European Research Council and the Research Fund of the University of Iceland. There is good access to necessary equipment for the studies. The lab has high-end equipment eye movement studies, for EEG, as well as extensive experience with high quality psychophysical studies.


Iceland consistently ranks as one of the best places in the world to live: (http://worldhappiness.report/ed/2019/ <http://worldhappiness.report/ed/2019/>), life satisfaction is among the highest in the world (http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/topics/life-satisfaction <http://www.oecdbetterlifeindex.org/topics/life-satisfaction>), and the country is consistently rated the most peaceful in the world (http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/most-peaceful-countries/). Iceland also ranks at the top of the world in terms of gender equality (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/12/gender-gap-equality-women-parity-countries/). Applicants of any gender are strongly encouraged to apply.

 

Starting September 1st, 2021, we will start evaluating applications, but no firm deadline is set at this point.

 

Please send applications containing CV’s and statements of your interest, explaining relevant experience to IVLapplications2020 at gmail.com <mailto:IVLapplications2020 at gmail.com>.

 

Árni Kristjánsson PhD
Professor of Vision Sciences
School of Health Sciences
University of Iceland
ak at hi.is
www.visionlab.is
www.hse.ru/en/org/persons/229440460

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