The Department of Mathematics of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam welcomes applications for 2 fully-funded, 4-year PhD positions in Analytical and Computational Methods for Mathematical Neuroscience. Students will be supervised by Daniele Avitabile, and have a unique opportunity to work in collaboration with a network of international collaborators.
One PhD student will be appointed to work on uncertainty quantification methods for large-scale brain dynamics. The project lies at the intersection between mathematical neuroscience and computational mathematics. We will study and implement numerical methods for spatio-temporal patterns in a novel class of neural field models, which are relevant to understand epileptic seizures, visual hallucinations and short-term working memory. You will be based in the Department of Mathematics at VU Amsterdam, where you will be co-supervised by Svetlana Dubinkina, and will collaborate closely with Gabriel Lord, at Radboud University. The ideal candidate for this project has a passion for numerical methods (numerical analysis, scientific computing) and is keen to make an impact in a novel application for the neurosciences. Previous knowledge of neuroscience concepts is not a prerequisite, but a firm interest in learning about neuroscience models and applications is essential.
A second PhD student will work on slow-fast analysis for spatially-extended neural fields. Single-cell biophysical neural models are written in terms variables evolving at disparate time scales (typically fast timescales for voltage dynamics, and slow scales for other intracellular processes). Timescale separation has a strong influence on the generation of single-cell neural rhythms, such as mixed mode oscillations or bursting, but much less is known at network level. This project develops slow-fast dynamical system theory and numerics for large-scale neural networks. The ideal candidate has a passion for dynamical system theory and is keen to apply bifurcation analysis to spatially-extended systems. Previous knowledge of neuroscience concepts is not a prerequisite. The project will be co-supervised by Jan Bouwe van den Berg. International collaborators for this project include Mathieu Desroches (INRIA, Sophia Antipolis, France), Grégory Faye (University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France) and Martin Wechselberger (University of Sydney, Australia).
The preferred starting date for both positions is 1 September 2021, or before.
The department has a strong desire to hire more female colleagues. Therefore, women are especially encouraged to apply.
Your duties
- doing research towards writing a PhD thesis
- teaching tasks (roughly 15% of your time), which typically consist of supervising exercise classes and correcting homework