The Max-Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, investigates the attentional, cognitive and affective mechanisms of aesthetic perception and evaluation.

The Institute currently offers the position of a

Lab Manager m/w/d
in full time (39 h per week)

in the Department of Neuroscience.
The candidate will work as a part of the team led by Lucia Melloni. The lab is broadly interested in understanding the neural underpinnings of how we see (perception), how and why we experience what we see (consciousness) and how those experiences get imprinted in our brain (learning and memory) – as well as the interplay between these processes. We use multiple methods to get at those questions, ranging from electrophysiological and neuroimaging methods over behavioral techniques to online surveys.

The lab manager will play a dual role in the lab working on studies characterizing individual preferences for aesthetic perception in addition to managing laboratory activities, such as planning research events and meetings, maintaining lab websites, preparing stimuli, programming experimental tasks, processing and analyzing data, reviewing literature, and editing manuscripts.
This is an excellent opportunity for a passionate and highly motivated individual who would like to rapidly gain experience with advanced neuroscience techniques. The ideal candidate will make creative contributions to the research program and, as such, have opportunities to co-author manuscripts resulting from the research. This position is ideal for someone interested in going to graduate school in the fields of neuroscience or psychology.

The Lab Manager's responsibilities will include:

• Leading scientific projects under the supervision of Lucia Melloni. Responsibilities include: conceptualization and development of experimental paradigms, data acquisition and data analysis as well as writing up of the scientific project.
• Administrative activities for the lab, including handling ethics applications and grant submissions, and lab materials such as wiki, lab manuals, etc.
• Scientific support such as stimulus creation for experiments, subject recruitment (contacting potential participants, distribution of flyers, etc.), assistance with data collection (setting up behavioral experiments, assisting with behavioral, M-EEG and fMRI experiments)
• Data entry and analysis
• Review of relevant literature and writing summaries
• Organization of the scientific literature (cataloguing of scientific materials in the office, managing an electronic reference management system, etc.)

Requirements:

• Bachelor or MSc in a relevant field (preferably Neuroscience, Psychology, Computer Science, Engineering or a related field)
• Good command of English and German (English is the primary language of the group, and therefore fluency in English is required)
• Familiarity with programming languages such as R, Matlab, Python, or other programming languages
• Proficiency with office programs (Word, Excel, etc.)
• Previous experience in conducting research in psychology or cognitive neuroscience is highly desired
• Above all, we seek a candidate who is self-motivated, highly organized, and a good team player and who, ideally, seeks to eventually pursue a career in academia.

The position is for a period of two years, with an extension possible. Salaries are determined following the salary scale E 10 of the German TVÖD (Bund)*, depending on experience. Starting date is August 1, 2019 (or as soon as possible thereafter).
The Max Planck Society is committed to increasing the number of individuals with disabilities in its workforce and therefore encourages applications from such qualified individuals. Furthermore, the Max Planck Society seeks to increase the number of women in those areas where they are underrepresented and therefore explicitly encourages women to apply.

Please submit your application, including a CV and a cover letter describing your background, experience and motivation - preferably in pdf format, and the names of two references that have previously agreed to be contacted no later than June 24, 2019, to: job@aesthetics.mpg.de