We are seeking to appoint a highly motivated, adventurous, interdisciplinary neuroscientist to help us understand how humans prioritise information in support of the decisions they make. We focus on visual perception, attention and individual differences, and will be using psychometrics assessments and psychophysics measurements as well as concurrent EEG-fMRI recording.

This role falls in the remit of CHAI, a new £2.4M research project funded by the UK EPSRC and led by the Internet of Things and Security Centre (ISEC) at the University of Greenwich, in collaboration with University College London (UCL), the University of Bristol and Queen Mary University of London, as well as industrial partners. As a follow up to the €1.5M EU project “Cocoon: Emotion psychology meets Cyber Security” (2016-2020) led by us, which measured and established how users of connected Internet-of-Things devices react to cyber security risks, “CHAI: Cyber Hygiene in AI-enabled domestic life” (2021-2024) examines the particular threats posed by Artificial Intelligence. CHAI addresses the challenge of figuring out how to best help users protect themselves against the security risks they will face in a world supported by AI (see: http://bit.ly/chai-introduction-video).

The role advertised relates to the fundamental research on human decision making that will inform the technical and pedagogical developments of our partners in the project. The remit is intentionally flexible to allow emerging opportunities for collaborations and includes funding for networking and training.

You will have:

  • excellent computer and statistical skills, including a programming language (Python)
  • experience analysing neuroimaging data, including EEG and/or fMRI
  • the motivation to pursue research at the interface between academia and industry

​​​​​​​This work will be carried out in the Centre for Integrative Neuroscience & Neurodynamics (CINN), in the School of Psychology and Clinical Language Sciences, at the University of Reading. CINN is a research platform currently gathering over 100 research staff and students. It is host to a research-dedicated 3T PRISMA Siemens MR scanner, MR compatible EEG (Brain Products) and TMS (MagVenture) equipments, eye-tracking and versatile computing clusters (incl. cloud management and GPUs), all of which available to the project.

Other research projects in the lab currently include the development of a novel Bayesian framework for the analysis of data in psychology and neuroscience, neuroimaging of visual perception and attention, as well as projects with industrial partners on topics as varied as machine learning and brain-computer interfaces for a wide range of sectors.

CINN and the School of Psychology are a tight-knit community, committed to open research and reproducibility, at the forefront of what is done in the UK in many ways. The post holder will have the opportunity to participate in many initiatives, and propose new ones, including training events on reproducibility, and best practices in neuroimaging, data analysis and coding, including Software Carpentry workshops.

The University of Reading was the first University in the UK to publicly commit to open research. It is one of the first institutional members of the UK Reproducibility Network, and a member of the data and software Carpentries. The University is signatory to the Leiden Manifesto for Research Metrics (http://leidenmanifesto.org), is  committed to having a diverse and inclusive workforce, supports the gender equality Athena SWAN Charter and the Race Equality Charter, and is a Diversity Champion for Stonewall, the leading LGBT+ rights organisation in the UK. Applications for job-share, part-time and flexible working arrangements are welcomed and will be considered in line with the project’s needs.

Contact: Dr Etienne Roesch (PI)

Closing date: 19-Apr-2021; Interview date 03-May-2021

For further information, or to apply, please visit: https://jobs.reading.ac.uk/displayjob.aspx?jobid=7590