8 March: fyi -- research positions, NL
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Two Vacancies, for a Psycholinguist and a Computational Linguist (PhD
or Postdoc)
Tilburg University (The Netherlands) is looking for two new
enthusiastic and competent colleagues, one at PhD and one at Post-doc
level:
PhD RESEARCHER
Vacancy number 500.08.06, 4 years, fulltime
POST-DOC RESEARCHER
Vacancy number 500.08.07, 3 years, parttime (80%)
These positions are part of the larger project "Bridging the gap
between psycholinguistics and computational linguistics: The case of
referring expressions,??? funded by a Vici grant from the Netherlands
Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), awarded to Emiel Krahmer.
In spring 2009, a second PhD and a second Post-doc researcher will be
hired, to complete the research team for this project.
Summary of the project
Real-life scenes contain many different objects, each of which can be
referred to in many different ways. When a speaker wants to point out
one of these objects to an addressee, the speaker usually has no
problems in quickly producing a referring expression, supported with
appropriate gestures and facial expressions, singling out the intended
object (???Do you see the man in blue raincoat over there????). How do
speakers do this? Both in psycholinguistics and computational
linguistics, researchers have addressed aspects of this question, but
we still have a rather incomplete understanding of how the human
production of referring expressions works. In this project, we try to
bridge the gap between the two disciplines. Such a bridge has both
theoretical and methodological advantages. Psycholinguistics has
important insights to offer in the human production of referring
expressions and a methodology involving carefully constructed and
controlled experiments; computational linguistics offers a well-
established approach involving corpus analysis and computational
modeling. Together they can be harnessed to achieve new scientific
insights in the human production of referring expressions, which in
turn may result in a better understanding of speech production in
general. This also has societal and technological relevance, since
such insights are important for developing software characters with
human-like appearances and with verbal and non-verbal communicative
capabilities (???virtual humans???). For more information about the
project, we refer to http://fdlwww.uvt.nl/~krahmer/Vici.pdf.
Requirements
- For one position, we seek a candidate with a background in
psycholinguistics, communication & information sciences, social
sciences or some related area, with experience in doing experiments,
and preferably with a proven interest in either speech production, non-
verbal communication, scene perception or adaptation.
- For the other position we are looking for a researcher with a
background in computational linguistics, computer science or some
related area, with programming experience and preferably with a proven
interest in natural language generation or modeling human language
production.
- Both positions can be filled at the PhD and at the Post-doc level.
- The PhD candidate has a (research) master degree in one of the
mentioned area's, a strong interest in doing research, excellent
writing skills and a good command of English.
- The Post-doc candidate has a PhD in one of the mentioned areas,
excellent writing skills, a good command of English and an excellent
track record of internationally refereed publications. Teaching
experience, and a willingness to participate in the curriculum (e.g.,
thesis supervision) is considered an advantege.
Information
For more information please contact Emiel Krahmer via email
(E.J.Krahmer@uvt.nl ) or phone (+31.13.466.3070).
Terms of employment
The PhD candidate will receive a starting salary of ??? 2.000 gross per
month in the first year, up to ??? 2.558 in the 4th year. The selected
candidate is expected to have written a PhD thesis by the end of the
contract (which may be based on articles). The Post-doc candidate will
be ranked as a researcher with a starting salary (based on fulltime)
of minimally ??? 2.916 gross per month. Furthermore, the usual
facilities (desk, computer, options model) are offered, as well as
support with housing, immigrations, etc.
Applications
Applications should include cover letter, Curriculum Vitae, and names
of two references. Application letters should be sent before the
application deadline of April 20, 2008, by regular mail to mr. P. van
Balen, Human Resources, Faculty of Humanities, Room D304, Tilburg
University, P.O. Box 90153, NL-5000 LE Tilburg, The Netherlands or by
email to solliciterenfdl@uvt.nl. In your letter, please refer to the
relevant vacancy code. It is the policy of the university to increase
the number of women employed. Also members of ethnic minority groups
and handicapped people are expressly invited to apply.
More details
http://www.tilburguniversity.nl/vacancies/500080607.html
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