Postdoctoral Scientist - Schulze Lab

About the role:

We are seeking a Postdoctoral Scientist with hybridexpertisespanning systems neuroscience, computer-vision, pose-tracking, behavioral ML, and VR technology to join the Schulze Lab. In this role, you will integrate custom hardware and software with computational analysis pipelines to probe the neural circuits underlying collective behavior and social cognition. To design and apply your own virtual reality paradigms, you will be working closely with our lab's VR specialist and collaborate across the team to investigate the rich, naturalistic behavior we study in Danionella.

Further, you will use multi-animal tracking and behavioral classification to study latent structures and create brain-behavior maps.

This is an excellent opportunity for a scientifically driven researcher who is comfortable tinkeringand who is motivated to advance the understanding of how individuality, sex differences, and stress shape the brain and decision-making in groups.

The Schulze Lab addresses a central question: how do neural circuits compute the experience-dependent actions animals deploy in complex, social worlds? The lab studies how individual traits, internal state, and context interact to shape both personal behavioral trajectories and group-level outcomes. We put aparticular focus on the neural basis of inter-individual differences, sexually dimorphic and stress-related features expressed in social contexts such as schooling behavior.

We use data-driven approaches for realistic closed-loop controlled VR-experiments, combined with two-photon calcium imaging and molecular phenotyping at single-cell resolution to investigate brain-wide circuits in the adult vertebrate brain. Further, we use LICONN for ultra structural analyses. More information about the Schulze lab can be found here:the Schulze Lab page.

In addition, the HHMI Janelia Research Campus provides a highly collaborative, resource-rich environment for our work.

• A competitive compensation package, with comprehensive health and welfare benefits.
• Access to Janelia’s facilities and engineering support for imaging, custom-hardware, scientific computing, Unity-based visual environments, in-situ hybridization, and dissection.
• A highly collaborative, interdisciplinary research campus with close ties to labs working acrosssystemsneuroscience, computation, modeling, and tool development.
• One-on-one mentorship.
• Support to attend and present at scientific conferences.
• Amenities that enhance work-life balance such as on-site childcare, free gyms, available on-campus housing, social and dining spaces, and convenient shuttle bus service to Janelia from the Washington D.C. metro area.

• Design VR systems and paradigms to present naturalistic, socially rich stimuli.
• Write software to integrate ML-based/agentic approaches for multi-animal studies.
• Develop and execute experiments investigating the neural circuits underlying inter-individual differences, sexually dimorphic and stress-related traits in social behavior.
• Analyze the multivariate whole-brain activity, behavioral, and stimulus data using computational approaches. Interpret results in the context of project goals.
• Prepare technical reports, protocols, and quantitative analyses, andmaintainfamiliarity with current literature insystemsneuroscience and VR-based behavioral neuroscience.
• Collaborate with the lab’s VR specialist and other members of the Janelia community.

• A Ph.D. in neuroscience, computer science, engineering, or a closely related field.
• A hybrid background bridging software-hardware integration and computational as well as ML skills with a solid grounding in systems neuroscience.
• Demonstrated experience building or working with complex…