The NCCR Evolving Language (www.evolvinglanguage.ch) invites applications for a postdoctoral position in an interdisciplinary project on the evolution of language in a neuroscience perspective, focusing particularly on cross-cultural and cross-linguistic diversity in language processing.
The NCCR is a Swiss National Center of Competence in Research with the goal of creating a new discipline, Evolutionary Language Science, that targets the past and future of language. The center consists of scientists from traditionally separated academic domains, which allows us to harvest the diverse expertise from the humanities, social sciences, computational sciences, natural sciences and medicine towards a broadscale interdisciplinary collaboration.
The position is part of the Distributional Linguistics Lab headed by Prof. Balthasar Bickel. Collaboration is expected with neuroimaging experts in the Evolutionary Neuroscience of Language Lab headed by Prof. Martin Meyer in the same department (Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich) and in the larger neuroscience community in the NCCR.
Your responsibilities
Employment is at 80% FTE (including 20% teaching). The position is a training opportunity and the successful candidate is expected to use the remaining unpaid 20% for their own further training and skill development.
The successful candidate is expected to conduct experiments in various research stations and field sites across the world.
Your profile
We are looking for a candidate with a solid background in sentence planning and sentence comprehension, with good computational and statistical modeling skills. Familiarity with EEG is a strong asset but can potentially also be developed at the beginning of the postdoc. The ideal candidate is keen on engaging with evolutionary questions and aspects of the brain-language relationship.
The NCCR Evolving Language places great emphasis on teamwork and multidisciplinary perspectives. Strong communication and collaboration skills are essential. Excellent oral and written communication in English is required.
Information on your application
University of Zurich offers excellent opportunities and strong support for career development. Salaries are internationally competitive: Salary ranges, guidelines for employees in SNSF-funded projects (PDF).
The position comes in one-year contracts, renewable up to four years depending on performance.
We take gender balance and diversity seriously in our hiring decisions.
Review of applications will start November 22, 2024, and the position remains open until filled. To apply, please send us the following documents as a single PDF (in English):
- Cover letter (1.5 pages max, describing your previous experience, your research interests as part of the NCCR program with a motivation to apply for the present position)
- CV, including a publication list contact information (name, position, and e-mail address) of two references
- A maximum of two writing samples / publications of your own
For further information, please contact Lena Zipp