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<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="" style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(22, 21, 21); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;">The </span><span class="" style="font-size: 10pt; border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;">BlankLangLab <span class="" style="color: rgb(22, 21, 21);">in </span>UCLA’s Psychology
Department<span class="" style="color: rgb(22, 21, 21);"> has openings for PhD students (tuition + stipend provided) to study the functional organization of language processing in the human mind, using functional neuroimaging and/or computational modeling
approaches, combined with behavioral experiments. Main projects in the lab combine naturalistic (data-driven) and task-based (hypothesis-driven) paradigms to study:</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="" style="color: rgb(22, 21, 21); font-size: 10pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">* The internal architecture of the cortical language network, its relationship to other functional
brain networks, and its re-organization in post-stroke aphasia.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="" style="color: rgb(22, 21, 21); font-size: 10pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">* The structure of distributed representations of word meaning, the knowledge they implicitly capture
about conceptual organization and linguistic phenomena above the word level, and the statistical properties of natural language input that carry this knowledge.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="" style="color: rgb(22, 21, 21); font-size: 10pt; text-indent: -0.25in;">* The correspondence between distributed meaning representations derived from neural data and computational
models.</span><span class="" style="color: rgb(22, 21, 21); font-size: 10pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="" style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(22, 21, 21); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;">In addition, I am excited to discuss related research directions with students
who are interested in topics that I am not actively working on.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="" style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(22, 21, 21); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;">QUALIFICATIONS: The successful candidates will have (i) experience in scientific
research (not necessarily in psychology / neuroscience), including statistical analyses; and (ii) basic programming skills (preferably in Matlab / Python).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="" style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(22, 21, 21); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;">FUNDING: The graduate program guarantees departmental funding for 5 years
(the annual stipend is currently $27K; tuition and most fees are also paid). This support model assumes that students are able to become California residents starting their second year; see here: </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.ucop.edu/residency/10-things-grads.html" class="" style="font-size: 10pt;">https://www.ucop.edu/residency/10-things-grads.html</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.ucop.edu/general-counsel/_files/ed-affairs/uc-residence-policy.pdf" class="" style="font-size: 10pt;">https://www.ucop.edu/general-counsel/_files/ed-affairs/uc-residence-policy.pdf</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="" style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(22, 21, 21); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;">APPLICATION: Prospective students should apply to the Cognitive Area of the
graduate program by Dec 1, 2018 (details below). </span><span class="" style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(22, 21, 21); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;">I particularly welcome applications from members of traditionally underrepresented groups, as
I am strongly committed to diversity in science.</span><span class="" style="font-size: 10pt; color: rgb(22, 21, 21); border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0in;"> I encourage you to contact me (<a href="mailto:psych_iblank@ad.ucla.edu" class="">psych_iblank@ad.ucla.edu</a>)
if you plan to apply, especially if you have any questions.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="" style="color: rgb(22, 21, 21); font-size: 10pt;">ADDITIONAL INFORMATION. See here:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.psych.ucla.edu/faculty/page/idanblank" class="" style="font-size: 10pt;">https://www.psych.ucla.edu/faculty/page/idanblank</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.psych.ucla.edu/graduate/prospective-students" class="" style="font-size: 10pt;">https://www.psych.ucla.edu/graduate/prospective-students</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://www.psych.ucla.edu/graduate/areas-of-study/cognitive-psychology" class="" style="font-size: 10pt;">https://www.psych.ucla.edu/graduate/areas-of-study/cognitive-psychology</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://grad.ucla.edu/programs/life-sciences/psychology/%23program-requirements" class="" style="font-size: 10pt;">https://grad.ucla.edu/programs/life-sciences/psychology/#program-requirements</a></p>
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Idan Blank<br class="">
Post-doctoral associate<br class="">
McGovern Institute for Brain Research<br class="">
Massachusetts Institute of Technology<br class="">
43 Vassar St., Room 46-3037c, Cambridge, MA, 02139</div>
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