Department of Psychology
A new Postdoc position is offered at the Department of Psychology at the University of Essex, to work with Dr. Sebastian Korb and his team on an international and multidisciplinary project entitled ‘Neuromuscular electric stimulation and social cognition’.
The project, which is financed by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF), investigates the effects of facial somatosensory input on emotion recognition at the behavioural and neural level. Somatosensory input is delivered via neuromuscular electric stimulation, and brain activity in response to visually presented faces is measured with EEG/ERPs.
Duties of the Role
This is an exciting opportunity for a post-doctoral researcher to work in a stimulating environment with facial NMES, which will be used for the first time to induce highly-controlled proprioceptive input to investigate the role of facial feedback in face perception. The results are expected to contribute to the understanding of how the brain integrates visual and somatosensory information during face perception.
You will be expected to contribute to the delivery of the research objectives defined by the P 32367-B grant by the Austrian Science Fund, and related projects. Duties will include engaging in collaborative research activity; producing research outputs for publication at acceptable levels of volume and academic excellence and disseminating the results of research and scholarship through appropriate Knowledge Exchange activities; and contributing to the development and maintenance or research resources.
A full list of duties and responsibilities of the role can be found within the job pack.
Qualifications and skills required
The successful candidate will hold a doctoral level degree in a relevant discipline (cognitive or social psychology/neuroscience, ideally with a focus on emotion and/or face perception) or be close to completion of PhD.
Applicants are expected to have evidence of a developing research agenda, engagement in high-quality research activity and a developing research profile; a developing record of publications in internationally recognised, reputable journals appropriate to career stage and discipline norms; and strong communication skills, both written and verbal.
Good programming skills in Matlab and R, and experience with electrophysiological measures other than EEG (e.g. facial EMG) are desirable for this role.
Please note this is a full-time position (36 hours per week) on a fixed-term basis until 31 January 2024. The anticipated start date of the contract is 1st May 2022, or as soon as possible thereafter.
At the University of Essex, internationalism and diversity is central to who we are and what we do. We are committed to being a cosmopolitan, internationally oriented university that is welcoming to staff and students from all countries, faiths and backgrounds, where you can find the world in one place.
To support this commitment we have our Global Forum, a staff-led network that promotes and celebrates the rich cultural diversity among Essex staff, and our Colchester campus based Faith Centre, which hosts regular services, meetings and events organised by our chaplains and faith representatives. For more information see: https://www.essex.ac.uk/life/student-facilities/religion-and-faith
Please see the attached job pack, which contains a full job description and person specification, which outlines the full duties, skills, qualifications and experience needed for this role plus more information relating to the post. We recommend you read this information carefully before making an application. Applications should be made on-line, but if you would like advice or help in making an application, or need information in a different format, please email the Resourcing Team (resourcing@essex.ac.uk).
*More information: Working at the University