German Primate Center – Leibniz Institute for Primate Research (DPZ), Göttingen

The German Primate Center (DPZ) - Leibniz Institute for Primate Research in Göttingen conducts basic research on primate biology, molecular biomedicine, and neuroscience. It maintains four field stations and is a competence and reference center for research on and with primates. The DPZ is one of the 96 research and infrastructure facilities of the Leibniz Association.

The Embodied Cognition Research Group at the University of Göttingen and the German Primate Center invites applications for the position of a

interested in studying application of machine learning tools in cognitive and neurosciences.

This is a fixed-term, three-year position. The salary is in accordance with the German public service salary scale (65 % E13 TV-L).

The Embodied Cognition Group was established as part of the Collaborative Research Center 1528 Cognition of Interaction and is run by Neda Shahidi. In a new, DFG-funded three-year project (pending final approval), we seek to address key gaps in our understanding of the role of gaze-based communication in value-based decision-making in primates, specifically rhesus macaques, red-fronted Lemurs, and humans, using naturalistic, interactive scenarios. The goal is to understand how primates attribute perception to others do, based on their gazes and postures. Our approach dealing with complex brain and behavior data from these scenarios is using state of the art machine learning tools to extract interpretable latent dynamics.

We seek a highly motivated PhD student to develop a predictive computational model using recurrent neural networks to understand how overt cues influence decision-making and represented in cortical networks. The research work will be conducted at the German Primate Center; enrollment is possible in one of the PhD programs at the University of Göttingen (see www.gauss.uni-goettingen.de).

The project is highly collaborative and will benefit from working with experts in computer and data sciences, behavioral ecology, and psychology in Göttingen and across Germany.

Applicants are required to have

• Master's Degree in data sciences, neurosciences, engineering, biomedical sciences, physics, or related fields.
• Very good English skills, including scientific writing
• Advanced data analysis skills using Python
• Basic knowledge of animal cognition

We welcome diversity and therefore welcome applications from qualified people, regardless of their ethnic, cultural and social background, gender, religion, ideology, disability, age or sexual identity. Registered disabled applicants with equal aptitude and qualifications will be given preferential consideration. We kindly ask you to indicate a disability in your application

Please submit your written application under the key word "ECG PhD position" with a CV and a motivation letter (less than 300 words) addressing a) how pursuing a PhD on the topic of animal cognition will benefit your career? and b) which skills and knowledge, specifically from applications of machine leaning to real-world and experimental data, you will bring to advance this project?

Send your application until August 30th, 2025 to bewerbung(at)dpz.eu.

For more information about the DPZ, please visit http://www.dpz.eu.