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Three 5-year positions as Assistant or Associate Professor
in Department of Neuroscience
Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences,
University of Copenhagen
The Department of Neuroscience at Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences invites applications for three 5-year positions as Assistant or Associate Professor. These positions are partly funded by a grant from the Lundbeck Foundation to support a new Master’s program in Neuroscience. The positions are to be filled by January 1st 2021 or as soon as possible thereafter.
Department of Neuroscience
Department of Neuroscience employs academic and technical staff divided amongst 22 active research groups within the fields of cellular and molecular neuroscience, integrative neuroscience, motor control, neuropharmacology, cerebral fluids biology, autonomic systems, circadian rhythms, and brain development. The department performs basic and translational research with the goal to advance our understanding of brain functions as well as brain diseases and their diagnosis and treatment. The department hosts a PhD program in neuroscience and offers courses targeted to both pre- and postgraduate students in medicine (more than 500 students/year) and odontology, as well as in the programs of human biology, human physiology, molecular biomedicine, and biomedical engineering. Information on the Department can be found at: https://in.ku.dk/.
New Master’s program in Neuroscience
The Assistant/Associate Professor positions have been opened because the department will be responsible for a new two-year Master’s degree program in Neuroscience that commences September 2020 (https://studies.ku.dk/masters/neuroscience/programme-structure/) . The program will gather 30 highly qualified, talented and committed international students with a bachelor degree in biomedicine, biochemistry, biology, pharmacy or related disciplines. During the first year, the students will complete a number of compulsory and elective courses giving them a thorough introduction into key areas of neuroscience such as neuronal cell biology, synaptic transmission, circuits and higher brain functions, brain diseases, and experimental designs and methods in neuroscience. In the second year, the students will carry out their thesis work in a subject according to their own preferences within the field of neuroscience. The courses will be taught by internationally acclaimed researchers and leading medical specialists mainly from the University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen University Hospitals, other Danish Universities, and the pharmaceutical industry. All courses will be taught in English.
Areas of research and teaching
We are seeking highly qualified candidates who will complement the current teaching and research expertise in our department within the three topics listed below. Although their research may be focused on a particular field, we expect that successful candidates already have or will be willing to acquire the competence to teach a broad range of disciplines not only around their own field of interest, but also related to neuroscience in general.
Learning and memory. This can include work on different experimental model systems from animals to humans with the goal of uncovering neurobiological mechanisms that underlie memory formation and retrieval. Examples include mechanisms involved in short- and long-term memory, working memory, and diseases and conditions that interfere with these processes. The work can span from molecular to behavioral approaches.
Emotions and affection. This may include research within the areas of mood, anxiety and psychotic disorders of thoughts and volition and expertise in experimental models related to these conditions. The research can be directed towards adaptative/maladaptive mechanisms at the level of synapses and circuits and may also include experimental and translational studies of pharmacological treatment of these disorders.
Sensory systems and perception. This may include research on visual, auditive, olfactory or somatosensory functions (mechanoreception and nociception). The methodological focus can be on cellular mechanisms of perception as well as on the central processing and involved circuits.
Job description
The appointees are expected to take a leading role in developing one of the respective research areas described above in the department and partake in teaching obligations related to these research areas.
The positions will strengthen teaching in our new Master’s program in Neuroscience and will involve not only theoretical and practical teaching but also course planning and further development of alternative teaching modalities such as e-learning. It is important that the candidate(s) will develop teaching also outside own research interests for the new master program in Neuroscience at the University
For example, teaching for medical and odontology students might also be part of the duties.
The Assistant and Associate Professors’ responsibilities will primarily consist of:
- Research, including publication/academic dissemination
- Research-based teaching, including associated examination
- Research leadership, including guidance and supervision of researchers
- Obligation to share knowledge with the rest of society, including participation in public debate
- Academic assessments
Required qualifications
Six overall criteria apply for assistant and associate professor appointments at the University of Copenhagen. The six criteria (research, teaching, societal impact, organisational contribution, external funding and leadership) are considered a framework for the overall assessment of candidates. Find information about each criteria here: https://employment.ku.dk/faculty/criteria-for-recognising-merit.
Furthermore, each applicant for an assistant professorship must be able to document:
- A PhD degree or equivalent.
- A strong research background achievable in a position as postdoc or equivalent in one of the respective research areas described above.
- A significant publication record in high-level, international, peer-reviewed journals.
- A track-record of successful external research funding
- Documented university level competencies in delivering high-quality undergraduate/graduate research-based teaching
- Excellent interpersonal and communicative skills.
Furthermore, each applicant for an associate professorship must be able to document:
- A PhD degree or equivalent.
- A strong independent research background achievable in a position as Assistant Professor or equivalent in one of the respective research areas described above.
- A significant publication record in high-level, international, peer-reviewed journals.
- A significant track-record of successful external research funding
- Documented university level competencies in delivering high-quality undergraduate/graduate research-based teaching
- Excellent interpersonal and communicative skills.
We also expect that successful candidate(s) are able to explain and reflect upon own teaching practice and portfolio. The candidate is specifically invited to describe how her/his background and teaching experience relates to the new Master’s program in Neuroscience and to present plans for further development of the program.
Terms of employment
Salary and other terms and conditions of appointment are set in accordance with the Agreement between the Ministry of Finance and AC (Danish Confederation of Professional Associations) or other relevant professional organisations.
The position is covered by the Job Structure for Academic Staff at Universities 2020.
Questions
For further information, please contact Head of Department Ulrik Gether, gether@sund.ku.dk https://sund.ku.dk/.
Foreign applicants may find this link useful: https://www.ism.ku.dk/ (International Staff Mobility).
Application
The application must be submitted in English and it must be specified whether it is directed at the Assistant or the Associate professor level, or at both levels. The application must contain following documents:
- Application, including motivations for applying for this position (maximum 2 pages)
- Curriculum vitae, including
- Education
- Positions held at universities/research institutions in or outside Denmark
- List of commissions of trust and other academic/administrative duties.
- Grants received, personal or as co-PI (must be clearly indicated), including career development grants
- Research supervision
- A description of international network, relations and activities
- Outreach activities, i.e. popular lectures or other activities engaging the general public
- Diplomas (Master and PhD degree or equivalent)
- Full list of publications and info about total number of publications (peer reviewed/non-peer reviewed), H factor and number of citations (Google Citation or Web of Science)
- Research plan (max 3 pages)
- Uploads of maximum 5 publications to be considered in the assessment
- Teaching plan, including a detailed description how to contribute and develop the New Master Program in Neuroscience
- Teaching portfolio (Guidelines: https://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/job-application-portfolio/)
Application procedure
After the expiry of the deadline for applications, the authorized recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the Appointments Committee. All applicants are then immediately notified whether their application has been passed for assessment. The Dean then appoints an expert assessment committee in order to make an assessment of the selected applicants for the specific posts. Selected applicants are notified of the composition of the committee and each applicant has the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that relates to the applicant him/herself. You can read about the recruitment process at https://jobportal.ku.dk/.
Please note that the applicant will be contacted if the assessment committee requires further documentation.
The applicant will be assessed according to the Ministerial Order no. 242 of 13 March 2012 on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities.
The University of Copenhagen encourages all interested applicants to apply for this position.
Please submit the application with the required attachments. Only online applications will be accepted. The closing date for applications is 23.59 p.m. CET, 8 October 2020.
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Kontakt
Info
Join the Department of Neuroscience
The Department of Neuroscience offers excellent opportunities for highly motivated and talented master students, PhD students and postdocs to participate in neuroscience research.
Please take time to look through the descriptions of our research groups to find the area of research that best correlates with your scientific interest and background.
You are welcome to send an unsolicited application including a letter of interest, CV and letter of references directly to one of our research group leaders.
We encourage talented and enthusiastic young researchers to pursue a graduate degree (PhD) at the Department of Neuroscience.
We invite you to take contact to the laboratory in which you aim to conduct your thesis work and pursue funding opportunities together with the head of the laboratory group. See full list of researchers at the Department of Neuroscience.
To learn about the requirements for the PhD degree at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, visit the PhD School’s website.
All graduate students at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences are required to enroll in a graduate program. We encourage the PhD students at Department of Neuroscience to enroll in the graduate program in neuroscience, NeuroGrad. To learn about the requirements and activities of NeuroGrad, visit our website.
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Student Opportunities
We invite highly motivated, dedicated and skilled students to contact us for an interview. We have long-term experience with supervision of bachelor and Master’s students with different backgrounds (human biology, medicine, molecular biomedicine, biology, biochemistry). Competent and committed supervision has our highest priority and projects are designed to full-fill the criteria of the individual study.
We value scientific excellence, creativity, knowledge sharing, helpfulness and dedication in our laboratories. We offer a dynamic and international research environment involving a large network of collaborators around the world.
Bachelor and Master’s projects are available in the following areas:
In the Lauritzen lab we work on a range of projects all related to the brain physiology and blood vasculature. Our focus is how the brain is kept healthy with aging and in disease. We have many years of experience in in vivo physiology in mice using basic electrophysiological and laser-optic techniques, transgenic mice, and 2-photon microscopy. If you have some time to invest you can get experience with microsurgery and live imaging of brain cells and vessels through cranial windows.
If this might interest you please contact Barbara Lykke Lind or Martin Lauritzen
Are you interested in knowing how neurotransmitters are released by vesicular exocytosis within one millisecond of the arrival of an action potential? Are you interested in using patch-clamp and advanced fluorescence techniques to study neurotransmitter release in real time? Do you want to know how this machine is working – and how it is regulated, for instance during learning? Do you want to know how mutation or other insults to the release machinery lead to diseases such as epilepsy, schizophrenia or intellectual disability? Do you want to come up with ideas how to counteract such mutations/insults, and find new ways to treat disease?
If one or more of these questions sound interesting to you please contact Jakob B. Sørensen
Are you interested in molecular and cellular neurobiology? Do you want to understand how neurons control activity and availability of neurotransmitter receptors and transporters in the synapse? Are you interested in understanding how mutations in these proteins contribute to CNS-diseases such as depression, ADHD, Parkinson’s disease, schizophrenia and addiction? Do you want to know how you become addicted to drugs such as cocaine or amphetamine?
If one or more of these questions sound interesting to you please contact Ulrik Gether
Would you like to know how membrane proteins like neurotransmitter transporters work at the molecular level? Are you interested in using crystallography and advanced fluorescence techniques to study their transport function? Do you want to characterize how drugs act on neurotransmitter transporters? Are you interested in finding new ways to discover drugs for treatment of e.g. cocaine addiction and depression?
If one or more of these questions sound interesting to you please contact Claus Juul Løland or Ulrik Gether
Are you interested in how neuronal scaffolding proteins regulate synaptic signaling processes? Would you like to know if scaffolding proteins could be a new target for treatment of CNS-diseases such as stroke and addiction? Would you like to understand the role of membrane-shaping protein domains (e.g. BAR domains) in neuronal scaffolding? Do you want to know how BAR domain proteins control protein trafficking not only in neurons but also in other cells such as endocrine cells?
If one or more of these questions sound interesting to you please contact Kenneth L. Madsen or Ulrik Gether
Several patients suffering from neurodegenerative diseases self-medicate with cannabis to get rid of symptoms such as tremor and spasms. Our aim is to understand how cannabis affects the neural networks responsible for motor control. We are looking for a motivated student to be part of an exciting research project involving pharmacology, behavioural tests and electrophysiology.
For more information, please contact Eva Carlsen or Jean-François Perrier