UC San Francisco has been awarded a grant from the Sloan Foundation to
establish a Sloan Center for Theoretical Neurobiology. The Sloan
Center offers fellowships for pre- and post-doctoral training in
neuroscience, for individuals with strong backgrounds in theoretical
disciplines such as physics, mathematics, or computer science. Prior
biological or neuroscience training is not required. The goal is to
train neuroscientists who can combine theoretical abilities with a
genuine understanding of the methods and knowledge of modern
neuroscience.
In the Sloan Center, young scientists with strong theoretical
backgrounds will receive scientific training in experimental
approaches to understanding the operation of the brain, and will learn
to integrate their theoretical abilities with these experimental
approaches to form a mature research program in integrative
neuroscience. The actual research undertaken by the trainees may be
theoretical, experimental, or a combination.
The resident faculty of the Sloan Center and their research interests
are:
Allison Doupe: Development of song recognition and production in
songbirds.
Stephen Lisberger: Learning and memory in a simple motor reflex, the
vestibulo-ocular reflex, and visual guidance of smooth
pursuit eye movements by the cerebral cortex.
Michael Merzenich: Experience-dependent plasticity underlying learning
in the adult cerebral cortex and the neurological
bases of learning disabilities in children.
Kenneth Miller: Mechanisms of self-organization of the cerebral cortex;
circuitry and computational mechanisms underlying cortical
function; computational neuroscience.
Roger Nicoll: Synaptic and cellular mechanisms of learning and memory
in the hippocampus.
Christoph Schreiner: Cortical mechanisms of perception of complex
sounds such as speech in adults, and plasticity of speech
recognition in children and adults.
Michael Stryker: Mechanisms that guide development of the visual
cortex.
All of these resident faculty are members of UCSF's W.M. Keck Center
for Integrative Neuroscience, a new center (opened January, 1994) for
systems neuroscience that includes extensive shared research resources
within a newly renovated space designed to promote interaction and
collaboration. The unusually collaborative and interactive nature of
the Keck Center will facilitate the training of theorists in a variety
of approaches to systems neuroscience.
In addition to the resident faculty, there will also be a series of
visiting faculty who will be in residence at UCSF for times ranging
from 1-8 weeks each year. These faculty, and their research
interests, include:
Lawrence Abbott, Brandeis University: Neural coding, relations between
firing rate models and biophysical models, self-organization
at the cellular level;
William Bialek, NEC Research Institute: Physical limits to sensory
signal processing, reliability and information capacity in
neural coding;
Sebastian Seung, ATT Bell Labs: models of collective computation in
neural systems;
David Sparks, University of Pennsylvania: understanding the
superior colliculus as a "model cortex" that guides eye
movements;
Additional visiting faculty will be determined in the coming months.
Postdoctoral trainees need not select a preceptor before gaining
admission to the Sloan Center training program. Over the first three
months of their time here, they will develop a research plan and
select, from the seven resident faculty, the research advisor or
advisors with whom they will work.
Pre-doctoral applicants may be enrolled in a Ph.D. program in a
theoretical discipline at another institution. In this case, the
fellowship would support a cooperative training program between that
institution and UCSF that is acceptable to both institutions.
Applicants should indicate a faculty member at their home institution
who we may contact who would sponsor their research at the Sloan
Center. Alternatively, pre-doctoral applicants with strong
theoretical training may seek admission into the UCSF Neuroscience
graduate program as a first-year student. Applicants seeking such
admission must apply by January 5, 1995 to be considered for fall,
1995 admission.
With the exception of this deadline for the UCSF Neuroscience Graduate
Program, there are no deadlines for admission to the Sloan Center.
Applicants will be considered at any time and may begin at any time.
However, as there are a limited number of positions, earliest possible
application is encouraged.
TO APPLY, please send a cv, a statement of previous research and
research goals, and up to three relevant publications, and arrange to
have two letters of recommendation sent to us. Send applications to:
Steve Lisberger
Sloan Center for Theoretical Neurobiology at UCSF
Dept. of Physiology
University of California
513 Parnassus Ave
SF, CA 94143-0444
If you need more information:
(1) Consult our WWW site, http://keck.ucsf.edu/sloan.html
This doesn't contain much more than this message at present, but
will be expanded in the coming weeks.
(2) E-mail to sloan@phy.ucsf.edu. You may request our brochure, which
will be available in a month or so; however, the information in the
brochure will also be posted at the WWW site.
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