Link to original advert here

The Department of Management at Aarhus University, invites applications for a 2-year postdoctoral position offering applicants an exciting opportunity to join a new research project on the role of the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine system in learning and decision making. 

The starting date is 1st October 2018 or subject to mutual agreement. 

The research project

This project is funded by Lundbeckfonden (www.lundbeckfonden.com) and aims to advance our understanding of the locus coeruleus-norepinephrine (LC-NE) system and neural gain by 

(i) developing new and inexpensive methods for indexing LC-NE activity in learning and decision making tasks using pupil size (pupillometry) and eye movements, 

(ii) cross-validate the new method with magnetoencephalography (MEG) signatures of neural gain, and 

(iii) using these methods to investigate the role of the LC-NE system in balancing the exploration and exploitation in reinforcement learning.

Overall, the project aims to advance our understanding of how decision makers balance exploration and exploitation and how they attend to and learn from the environment in doing so. The exploration-exploitation trade-off is relevant in a wide range of situations, for instance, in managerial decision making concerning new investments or in consumer decision making between known and unfamiliar products. Our aim is to build a better understanding of the cognitive processes behind these real world decision problems. The project is a joint collaboration between Jacob L. Orquin at Aarhus University and Ray Dolan at the Max Planck UCL Centre, University College London (UCL) (https://www.mps-ucl-centre.mpg.de/en).

Job description

The successful candidate is expected to contribute to the overall objectives of the project by being involved in all phases of the project, including formulating research questions, experimental designs, analyses, and writing articles. The position is research-oriented, but may involve teaching assignments depending on the interests of the candidate. The candidate will be based at Aarhus University, but will receive an Honorary contract at University College London as parts of the project will be carried out at the Max Planck UCL Centre and Wellcome Centre for Human Neuroimaging at UCL. The candidate will be affiliated at Aarhus University and the Max Planck UCL Centre, London. It is therefore a requirement that the candidate is willing to be in London for a certain period of the project.   

Qualifications 

Candidates must hold a PhD relevant to the academic areas of the project and have experience with data analysis and programming of experiments in at least one programming language such as R, Python, or Matlab. Experience with one or more of the following research areas is desirable: i) eye tracking and pupillometry ii) neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI or MEG iii) computational modeling such as reinforcement learning iv) basic or applied decision making theory. 

Who we are 

The Department of Management is one of the six departments at Aarhus BSS, one of the four faculties at Aarhus University. Aarhus BSS unites the research fields of business and social sciences bringing them closer together to reflect the close relationship between society and the business community. As part of a Top-100 university, Aarhus BSS, and specifically the Department of Management, has achieved the distinguished AASCB, AMBA and Equis accreditations.

The department’s research and teaching environment is highly international and culturally diverse with a mix of Danish and international academic staff members and PhD students. We employ more than 160 academic staff including researchers, PhD students, research associates and cover a broad range of disciplines within management, e.g. marketing, corporate communication, international business, organization, HR, strategy, management accounting, innovation management, entrepreneurship, project management, and information systems. We aim to conduct high-quality research, and we give high priority to publishing our research in leading academic journals and presenting it at recognized conferences. In addition, we have a dynamic exchange of international researchers, who stay at the department for short or long periods of time. 

For more information about the Department of Management, please visit: http://mgmt.au.dk/.  

Further information

For further information about the position and the department, please contact Jacob L. Orquin, Tel.: +45 22178621, Email: jalo@mgmt.au.dk. 

If you need help uploading your application or have any questions about the recruitment process, please contact HR supporter Jeannette Petersen, Tel.: +45 87152456, Email: jeannette.petersen@au.dk.

International applicant? Find information about entering and working in Denmark here.

Place of work

Aarhus BSS

Department of Management

Bartholins allé 10

DK-8000 Aarhus C

Denmark