Research and Post-doctoral Students


The OUI welcomes research students and post-doctoral students to join an existing research group or a research field, for a period of 1-3 years.
 The application process is handled directly by the supervisor of the research project.
 The International Office is responsible for all academic and administrative aspects pertaining to foreign academic staff.
 
 
Available positions:

Anat Barnea

Natural Sciences

Field of Research: Animal Locomotion, Behavioral, Brain
Faculty Name: Anat Barnea
We study effects of behaviors and environmental conditions (e.g. light pollution, song, social setting, bird migration) on brain plasticity (neurogenesis, recruitment and survival of new neurons, and apoptosis) in birds’ brains. Our goal is to understand the relations between the environment and brain plasticity and investigate how brain plasticity relates to the life of animals. Hopefully, our studies will enable a better understanding of neuronal replacement in the brain and might also lead to ecological and medical applications. My laboratory is located at Tel-Aviv University.
 
Post-doctoral positions available.
 
Contact: anatba@openu.ac.il

Rica Gonen

Mathematics & Computer Science

Field of Research: Combinatorial markets, multi-sided markets, fair division, and voting schemes
Faculty Name: Rica Gonen
I am seeking students for post-doc/research assistant positions in computational game theory and computational social choice. My particular interests include combinatorial markets, multi-sided markets, fair division, and voting schemes. The requirements are excellent mathematical skills and creative imagination. Both international students and Israelis are welcome. Stipends are available for excellent students.
 
For more information contact: gonenr@openu.ac.il

Tal Makovski

Education and Psychology

Field of Research: Visual cognition, Attention, Visual working memory, Implicit visual learning
Faculty Name: Tal Makovski
Either a part-time or a full-time postdoctoral position is available at the Visual Cognition Lab of Prof. Tal Makovski at the Open University of Israel. The initial appointment is for one year, with the option to renew annually for 2-3 years. The position involves leading a research project testing the way people prepare for distraction. Applicants must hold a degree in psychology, neuroscience, or cognitive sciences. Strong background in research methods and statistical analysis, programming skills, and a record of research productivity are necessary. To apply, please send a brief statement of interest, CV, and the contact details of two referees to talmak@openu.ac.il.
 
Research area
Currently, our lab concentrates on two main lines of research. The first investigates how the visual system prepares for upcoming stimuli and specifically task-irrelevant distracting stimuli. I found that people are allocating more attentional resources when they know a distractor is coming even though they need to ignore it and this effect is quite robust and independent of the informative or emotional value of the upcoming stimulus.   
The second line of research examines the role of meaning in visual memory. Notably, our recent findings challenge the conventional notion of boundless memory capacity in visual long-term memory. We have demonstrated that this capacity is substantially constrained when it concerns objects lacking meaning. This finding has important implications for the way we think about visual representations and further blurs the distinction between visual short-term and long-term memory.