Postdoc in Psychology

We are forming a new interdisciplinary research team for the ERC-funded Synergy Grant project CrowdING. How do crowds suddenly start to queue, form lanes, or huddle together—and what makes them switch from one behaviour to another? A team of social psychologists, physicists and computer scientists from The Netherlands and Germany aims to answer that question. The research is supported by large-scale laboratory experiments with numerous test subjects, modern analysis methods, and powerful simulations of crowd behaviour. The project is a collaboration of the University of Groningen’s department of Social Psychology (see below) and Forschungszentrum Jülich’s Institute for Advanced Simulation-7 (see https://www.fz-juelich.de/de/ias/ias-7).

There is an opportunity to join this new team as a postdoctoral researcher.

As a postdoctoral researcher, you will play a central role in the further development of social psychological research approaches and the integration of the results within CrowdING. You will develop your own research focus, support conceptual work, and contribute to scientific coordination within the project.

What are you going to do?

Your responsibilities include:

• Further development and integration of social psychological approaches to the analysis of crowd dynamics.
• Scientific support for a doctoral project.
• Collaboration in the planning, implementation, and analysis of crowd experiments.
• Publication of research results in international journals.
• Presentations at international conferences and participation in project workshops in Wuppertal and Groningen (NL).
• Exchange and close cooperation with partners from physics, computer science, and social psychology.

• Completed Master's degree followed by a doctorate in psychology or cognitive science.
• Research experience in the areas of crowds or group dynamics.
• Interest in collaborating with colleagues from the field of physics.
• Enjoyment of combining and expanding methodological approaches and developing new measures or models.
• Willingness to collaborate with doctoral students and interest in scientific supervision of doctoral students.
• Excellent command of the English language.
• Ability to work independently and manage joint research activities.
• A team player with strong communication skills.
• Demonstrable competences as conceptual capacity, environment orientation, presenting and result orientation.

Desirable skills, but not essential:

• Experience with agent-based modeling.
• Programming skills.

• 232 vacation hours per year, based on a 38-hour workweek (1.0 FTE). You can also work more or fewer hours in exchange for more or fewer free hours. For example, with a 40-hour workweek, you save 96 extra free hours, and with a 36-hour workweek, you lose 96 hours.
• End-of-year bonus of 8.3% and 8% holiday allowance.
• Extensive opportunities for personal and professional development.

The Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences (GMW) excels in research and teaching in the areas of behaviour, thinking, learning, and participation in society. More than 4,500 students and approximately 650 staff address social questions and challenges that people experience in daily life. Our core focus is on individual and societal resilience and how to strengthen it. We focus on current themes such as health and wellbeing, sustainable living, learning and development, inclusive society, safe and healthy upbringing, and work and collaboration. If you would like to learn more about the Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, visit rug.nl/gmw. 

The Department of Psychology has an excellent scientific reputation reflected, among others, in high rankings. The Social Psychology group is known for outstanding research in group processes (including collective action and crowd dynamics), inter-group relations, political and health psychology. This standing is reflected, among other things, in the impact of our research in the international academic community. But we also conduct highly impactful ‘applied’ work that focuses on some of the most pressing issues and topics nationally and regionally. Because of this, the group has established excellent connections with partners across the breadth of society. We offer teaching at all levels of the Bachelor and Master curriculum, including the faculty’s Research Master of Behavioral and Social Science. For more information about the group, see https://www.rug.nl/gmw/research/psychology/research-units/social-psychology/

Do you have any questions or need more information?

Questions about the content of the job?
Tom Postmes (Full Professor): T.Postmes@rug.nl

Questions about your application process?
Tom Postmes (Full Professor): T.Postmes@rug.nl