Senior Research Scientist Position, Head of MR Physics Group

The Max Planck Institute for Human Development is seeking applications for a Senior Research Scientist Position, Head of MR Physics Group (W2; 41 hours / week) The position is available from October 1, 2024, or later, for an initial contract period of five years. This is a tenure track position. The tenure evaluation usually comes towards the end of the contract in the 4th or 5th year. However, timing of tenure evaluation is flexible and can occur in close proximity to the appointment in case of outstanding seniority and experience. Job Description One of the institute's research areas is focused on investi gating age-related and experience-dependent metabolic and structural differences and changes of the human brain. Another research area studies long-term effects of living en viron ments and runs inter vention studies in which partici pants are exposed to specific environ ments for a short period of time, investi gating the impact on brain function, to obtain causal evidence. Applicants should be inte rested in the develop ment, adaptation, and appli cation of MR brain imaging methodo logy that is geared towards conducting ground breaking longi tu dinal, cross-sectional, and inter ventional studies across the lifespan (including infants, children, and older adults). To reliably assess indi vidual differences in change, longitudinal and inter vention studies must approximate constancy of measure ment conditions across time. Hence, we are looking for candidates who have a strong background in ensuring optimal stability of the MRI system. The success ful candidate will be responsible for the institute's core MR facility and at the same time lead a research group that offers reliable and valid functional and structural MR measures for use in a longi tudinal and age-comparative research context. Requirements Successful applicants hold a doctoral degree in physics (strongly preferred), chemistry, biology, neuro science, or related fields. Experience in MR sequence pro gramming for echoplanar and structural imaging, image recon struction and artifact miti gation especially for high-field MRI is a requirement, along with a strong track record of relevant publi cations in both MR methods and applications. The successful candidate will more over have a strong interest and demonstrated experience in colla borating with and suppor ting scientists from the field of cognitive neuroscience. A track record of inde pendent work, mento ring experience, and leader ship is required. Pro ficiency in written and spoken English is essential. Appli cants also need to be fluent in computer programming (e.g., MATLAB, C), including practical experience in deve loping and main taining open-source MRI software tools. An interest in the compa rison of sequences across diffe rent field strength and in quanti tative MRI would be helpful. The Max Planck Institute for Human Development () offers an excellent infra structure including support staff. It provides an international research environ ment, with English being the working language. The institute houses a 3T MR scanner (Tim Trio, Siemens Health Care), which is equipped with a phosphorus RF unit and coils, and is in the process of acquiring a mobile 1.5T, a second 3T MR, and a 7T MR. The Max Planck Society is committed to increasing the number of indivi duals with disabi lities in its workforce and therefore en courages appli cations from such individuals. Further more, the Max Planck Society seeks to increase the number of women in those areas where they are under repre sented and there fore explicitly encourages women to apply. Applications (including a cover letter describing your research interests and a curriculum vitae) should be sent as a single PDF file to Dr. Imke Kruse (). Please submit applications by September 30, 2024, to ensure consideration. The data protection declaration for the processing of personal data within the scope of your application can be found here: