Postdoc

We are always interested in hearing from potential postdocs. Please contact Cian early and we can work on figuring out funding. Options include:

• applying for a research grant from the UK government (BBSRC, MRC, EPSRC) or charity (e.g. Wellcome Trust, Leverhulme Trust) with you as a named postdoc.
• you applying for your own postdoctoral fellowship, some schemes are:
  • Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowships (up to 4 years funding, open to final year PhD students or early postdocs)
  • Marie Cure individual fellowship (1-2 years funding, need a PhD at time of application. Especially suitable if you want to move to UK from elsewhere in Europe or the rest of the world.)

PhD

General openings

If you would like to do a PhD in the group, we have projects available on neural data science; computational modelling of synaptic plasticity, learning and memory; and synaptic and neural circuit dysfunction in autism. In each case we try to link bottom-up biology with top-down theoretical neuroscience or machine learning ideas. Most projects involve collaborations with experimentalists in UK, or Europe, or the US. Example directions we are working on:

• The rules of synaptic plasticity: heterosynaptic learning in dendritic neurons.
• Gene expression in neurons: stochasticity and multi-timescale signalling in neuronal protein synthesis.
• Neural variability in autism: origins of circuit variability and its relationship to sensory processing dysfunction in autism.

UK PhDs take 3-4 years and usually start in September (although this is flexible). Please contact me to discuss funding options, which vary a lot depending on your country of origin. Usually you would need a good Bachelors or Masters degree in computer science, biology, physics, engineering or maths before taking on a computational neuroscience PhD - but other backgrounds are possible. However, the most important thing is not your background, but that you enjoy research work, are curious, and want to understand how the brain works. Our School’s application deadline will be early 2024, contact Cian in Nov/Dec 2023.

MSc and BSc

If you are a student on an Ulster University BSc or MSc degree programme in Computer Science/AI/Data Science, please contact me early in the academic year to discuss possible computational neuroscience projects. Projects can vary in their 1) level of computational/mathematical difficulty, 2) level of biological detail, and 3) whether they are more focused on computational modelling (simulating the brain) versus statistical data analysis/machine learning.

cian_neuro       ODonnellGroup       cian.odonnell@bristol.ac.uk