A 3 year PhD studentship is available (pending approval) at the School of Computing Science of Newcastle University (www.cs.ncl.ac.uk), in the area of computational neuroscience with a focus on the analysis of the activity of the crab stomatogastric ganglion (STG).


The project will involve the use of high resolution voltage-sensitive dye imaging of the STG together with simultaneous electrical recording of neurons, and computational analysis of the imaging data. The aim of the project is to identify neurons on the basis of their optically recorded activity profiles and to describe the behaviour of the ganglion in terms of probabilistic transition rules of recorded neural activity patterns. The project may include collaboration with labs from the US and Germany. The project will also be associated with the Newcastle Institute of Neuroscience (http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ion/).
The funding for the studentship is provided by the EPSRC. The studentship covers subsistence (about £12,940 per year) and academic fees. The studentship is normally available for EU citizens who are resident in the UK.
Applicants should have, or expect to obtain, a First Class BSc, or higher degree, in Computer Science, Physics, Mathematics, Statistics, Biology or other related field with a strong interest in computational analysis of biological systems.
Deadline for application is 15 April 2008. Applicants should follow the normal electronic admissions procedure: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/postgraduate/apply/. In the application form, where you are asked to indicate the research area/project, please mention that you wish to be considered for a PhD Research Studentship.
For further enquiries please email: Dr Peter Andras (www.staf.ncl.ac.uk/peter.andras/) at peter.andras@ncl.ac.uk.

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