JACOBS UNIVERSITY BREMEN

Two PhD student positions are available in a project "Organization of excitable dynamics in hierarchical networks" supervised by Marc-­‐Thorsten Hütt and Claus Hilgetag at Jacobs University in Bremen/Germany.

Project Outline: We plan to characterize different types of hierarchical networks and identify the topological parameters that most strongly shape their functional dynamics. Moreover, we will determine which of the parameters are invariant to coarse-­ and fine-­ graining of the networks due to their hierarchical structure, and investigate how different excitable mechanisms at the node level affect the global network dynamics. For a large and biologically important class of excitable networks, we thus want to obtain a deep theoretical understanding of how network topology and dynamical processes interact.

For further information on the topic, see: Müller-­‐Linow, M., Hilgetag, C. and Hütt, M.-­‐Th. (2008) Organization of excitable dynamics in hierarchical biological networks. PLoS Computational Biology 4, e1000190.
http://www.ploscompbiol.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pcbi.1000190

Jacobs University Bremen is an international, private, independent research university offering accredited degree programs in engineering, the natural sciences, humanities and social sciences.

Successful candidates will have a background or strong interest in Computational Biology or Neuroscience and solid programming skills (e.g., Matlab/Mathematica/C++/Python).

Interested students are encouraged to submit a CV, contact details of two references and a short statement of research interest electronically to: m.huett [at] jacobs-­‐university.de or c.hilgetag [at] jacobs-­‐university.de

To be assured of full consideration, applications must arrive by April 16, 2010.
Please feel free to contact us for informal inquiries and additional information.