PhD in the Gonzalo Cogno Group

About the job

For a position as a PhD Candidate, the goal is a completed doctoral education up to an obtained doctoral degree.

led by Soledad Gonzalo Cogno, is a computational neuroscience group recently established at .

The institute is part of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at NTNU. It was established as a Centre of Excellence in 2002, 2012, and again in 2023. Our new Centre of Excellence, will be funded for 10 years by the Norwegian Research Council. The scientific goal of the Kavli Institute for Systems Neuroscience is to understand neural circuits and systems in the cortex and to identify neural-population mechanisms underlying high-level cognitive functions.

Exact startup times are flexible, although the position is expected to start during fall 2024 or early 2025.

Your immediate leader is Soledad Gonzalo Cogno.

Duties of the position

Using as steppingstone the recently reported ultraslow periodic sequences of neural activity (see Gonzalo Cogno et al., 2023, Nature), the successful candidate will develop computational models to determine the mechanisms by which ultraslow oscillations in the MEC are generated, and how those are organized into periodic sequences. The models will be informed by large-scale neural population recordings (the data will be collected by other team members). The candidate will present their resusults at national and international conferences. The candidate will be required to complete the coursework mandated by the PhD program in neuroscience at NTNU.

Required selection criteria

• A background in Physics, Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, Engineering or related subjects.
• Master's degree in Neuroscience, Physics, Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, Engineering, or related subjects.
• You must meet the requirements for admission to the faculty's doctoral program
• Strong mathematical background
• Coding experience
• Excellent communication skills in English are imperative, both orally and written.
• Your education must correspond to a five-year Norwegian degree program, where 120 credits are obtained at master's level.
• You must have a strong academic background from your previous studies and an average grade from the master's degree program, or equivalent education, which is equal to B or better compared with NTNU's grading scale. If you do not have letter grades from previous studies, you must have an equally good academic basis. If you have a weaker grade background, you may be assessed if you can document that you are particularly suitable for a PhD education.
• Master's students can apply, but the master's degree must be obtained and documented before the starting date.

The appointment is to be made in accordance with and

Preferred selection criteria

Personal characteristics

In the evaluation, emphasis will be placed on education, experience and personal suitability in relation to the qualifications specified in the advertisement. We will place great emphasis on :

We offer

Salary and conditions

As a PhD candidate (code 1017) you are normally paid from gross NOK 532 200 per annum before tax, depending on qualifications and seniority. From the salary, 2% is deducted as a contribution to the Norwegian Public Service Pension Fund.

The period of employment is 3 years.

Appointment to a PhD position requires that you are admitted to the PhD program in Neuroscience, within three months of employment, and that you participate in an organized PhD program during the employment period.