Postdoctoral Fellow

**Job no**: 514501

**Work type**: full time

**Location**: Sydney, NSW

**Categories**: Post Doctoral Research Associate
- **One of Australia’s leading research & teaching universities**:

- **Vibrant campus life with a strong sense of community & inclusion**:

- **Enjoy a career that makes a difference by collaborating & learning from the best**

**At UNSW, we pride ourselves on being a workplace where the best people come to do their best work.**

The School of Psychology at UNSW is the leading Psychology school in Australia. It is located in the Faculty of Science and is recognised nationally and internationally for its excellence in research and teaching. It offers world class undergraduate psychology degrees, as well as postgraduate professional Masters training in Clinical and Forensic Psychology, an online Graduate Diploma program, and a PhD research program with over 120 students. 40 academic staff conduct experimental research in many areas of Psychology, including behavioural and cognitive neuroscience, perception, learning, memory and cognition, as well as health, social, developmental, clinical and forensic psychology.

The Postdoctoral Fellow is expected to work in the Decision Neuroscience Laboratory on research projects investigating the neural bases of the cognitive control of voluntary action. The position will investigate how the structure of the nervous system supports this specific capacity, and how neurodegenerative disorders of the basal ganglia affects it. The role involves implementing novel statistical analyses of behavioural and neural data derived from rodent experiments, computationally modelling the underlying neural systems, and designing and implementing further experiments to refine our understanding of decision-making processes.

**About the role**
- **$112k - $132k** plus 17% Superannuation and annual leave loading
- Fixed term - 12 months
- Full-time (35 hours)

The postdoctoral fellow will report to Dr. J Bertran Gonzalez and has no direct reports.

**Specific responsibilities for this role include**:

- Design, implement and direct experiments in adult rats and mice.
- Develop software for acquisition and processing of complex behavioural data including continuous animal pose. Develop software for acquisition and processing of neuronal data, including streaming photometry signals and microscope-based image and video streams.
- Develop pipelines for neuronal and behavioural data synchronisation, statistical analysis and visualisation.
- Build computational models of action control through integration of behavioural and neuronal data.
- Disseminate research results through writing of scientific papers and reports for international journals and progress reporting to other researchers and industry partners.
- Participate in the definition of research directions and actively contribute to the coordination of research activities and research outputs to meet project milestones.
- Participate in and/or present at conferences and/or workshops relevant to the project as required.
- Jointly supervise honours and HDR students.
- Align with and actively demonstrate the UNSW Values in Action: Our Behaviours and the UNSW Code of Conduct.
- Cooperate with all health and safety policies and procedures of the university and take all reasonable care to ensure that your actions or omissions do not impact on the health and safety of yourself or others.

**About the successful applicant**
**(Selection Criteria)**

To be successful in this role you will have:

- PhD in Computational Neuroscience / Psychology / Computer Science or related discipline and/or work experience
- Demonstrated ability to conduct independent research with limited supervision.
- Demonstrated in-depth computational skills including software development (ideally in Python and/or Matlab), building of analysis pipelines and data processing and visualisation.
- Demonstrated skill in neural signal processing and in image processing.
- Demonstrated laboratory skills in studying and manipulating animal learning, measuring animal behaviour and measuring the influence of primary motivational variables, particularly their physiological and behavioural impact in rodents.
- Demonstrated ability to build computational models of neuronal function.
- Ability to set up, conduct and analyse live neuronal recording experiments.
- In-depth knowledge of the structural and functional basis of decision-making in the rodent brain.
- Strong track record of publications and conference presentations relative to opportunity.
- Proven ability to work in a team, collaborate across disciplines and build effective relationships.
- Strong interpersonal skills with demonstrated ability to communicate and interact with a diverse range of stakeholders and students.
- Demonstrated ability to supervise honours and postgraduate research students.
- A thorough understanding of experimental design and statistical methods.
- An understanding of and commitmen