Postdoctoral researcher in experimental psychology concerning semantics of generic sentences

Are you a high potential young researcher with a PhD degree either in Experimental Psychology or Psycholinguistics, with an interest in natural Natural Language interpretation, and would you be interested to join the Logic and Language programme at our institute to investigate the meaning of generic and conditional sentences? If so, we invite you to apply for this position.

This postdoc position is part of the NWO Open Competition project 'From Learning to Meaning: A new approach to Characterizing Sentences and Stereotypes'. You will join the group of Robert van Rooij. The aim of the project is to investigate empirically what is the meaning of generalising expressions like generic and conditional sentences. The methods used are (i) experimental psychology (lab-based and online experiments) and (ii) distributive semantics to find biases in large corpora. The postdoc is expected to work on (i).

What are you going to do?

You will be expected to fulfil the following tasks:

• collaborate with the other researchers working on the project (the PI and a PhD candidate, to be hired at a later date);
• assist with the supervision of PhD candidates and MSc students;
• regularly present research results at international workshops and conferences, and publish them in conference proceedings and journals;
• participate in and contribute to the organisation of research activities and events at the institute, such as workshops and colloquia;

While this is primarily a research position, you will have the opportunity to contribute to teaching activities.

What do we require?

You have:

• a PhD degree in Cognitive Science, Psycholinguistics, or a related discipline;
• a strong background in experimental psychology as witnessed by publications in relevant conference proceedings or journals;
• in-depth knowledge of one of the following areas is a plus:

 1) Bayesian Statistics,
 2) Natural language semantics,
 3) Logic;

• a strong passion for research and the wish to learn new skills through working with or assisting in guiding PhD and MSc students;
• excellent communication skills in English, both oral and written.

Our offer

Starting date: as soon as possible.

Your appointment is for a period of 30 months, with an initial one-year probation period. This will be extended for a further 18 months on positive evaluation.

Your full-time gross monthly salary would be between €2,709 and €4,274 gross per month, depending on your experience (salary scale 10). Your annual salary will be supplemented with 8 % holiday allowance and 8.3 % end-of-year bonus.  The Collective Labour Agreement of Dutch Universities applies.

Are you curious about our extensive package of secondary employment benefits? Then find out more about working at the Faculty of Science.

Questions?

Do you have questions about this vacancy? Or would you like to know more about our organisation? Please contact:

• Robert van Rooij

About the Faculty of Science

The Faculty of Science has a student body of around 6,500, as well as 1,600 members of staff working in education, research or support services. Researchers and students at the Faculty of Science are fascinated by every aspect of how the world works, be it elementary particles, the birth of the universe or the functioning of the brain.

The Institute for Logic, Language and Computation (ILLC) is an interdisciplinary research institute that aims at bringing together insights from various fields concerned with information and information processing, such as computational linguistics, computer science, artificial intelligence, logic, philosophy, mathematics, linguistics, cognitive science and music cognition. Its central research area is the study of fundamental principles of encoding, transmission and comprehension of information. It offers an international research environment with world-class faculty in all of its areas of specialization.

Job application

The UvA is an equal-opportunity employer. We prioritise diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for everyone. We value a spirit of enquiry and perseverance, provide the space to keep asking questions, and promote a culture of curiosity and creativity.

At the ILLC we strive for a better gender balance amongst our staff. We therefore strongly encourage women to apply for this position.

Applications should include (in one single .pdf file, using your surname as the file name):

• a cover letter, including a description of your research interests and accomplishments, as well as an explanation for why you are applying for this position (at most two pages);
• a detailed curriculum vitae (CV), including your list of publications;
• links to three selected publications available online, with a short motivation for the selection made (mature drafts of papers or papers currently under submission are also acceptable);
• a link to your PhD thesis available online (if available already) or an indication of the current status of your PhD thesis;
• the names, affiliations, and email addresses of three people we can contact for letters of reference for you.

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