Professorship for research on Computational Psychiatry (W3) (m/f/d)

Ruhr-Universität Bochum / Research Alliance Ruhr

The Ruhr area, one of Europe’s largest metropolitan regions, offers attractive career opportunities for excellent scientists and scholars from around the world. In 2021, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, TU Dortmund University and the University of Duisburg-Essen established the Research Alliance Ruhr to bundle their cutting-edge international research on the most urgent challenges facing humankind. There will be four research centers and a college. This is just the latest chapter in our long-standing collaboration as the University Alliance Ruhr (UA Ruhr), a community of 14,000 researchers and 120,000 students in the heart of German

As part of the Research Alliance Ruhr the newly founded Research Center “One Health Ruhr – from Molecules to Systems” invites applications for a

Professorship for research on Computational Psychiatry (W3) (m/f/d)

This full professorship is available at the Medical Faculty of Ruhr University Bochum (RUB), to be filled as soon as possible. The Medical Faculty at RUB covers all branches of modern medicine from bench to bedside and is close cooperation with other departments of the University such as psychology, biology, informatics with one focus on neuroscience. The Ruhr- University Bochum Hospital (UK RUB) is made up of qualified hospitals and specialist medical facilities in the Bochum, Herne and East Westphalia-Lippe region that cooperate with RUB. The UK-RUB stands for patient care at the highest level and excellent research and teaching in university medicine. With the formation of so-called translational germs, translational research is to be firmly anchored in the research profile of the Faculty of Medicine Bochum. The Dept. of Psychiatry within the LWL University Hospital is highly successful concerning research and education in the inner and outer benchmark. It is part of many neuroscientific initiatives of the RUB and is focused on neurobiological studies of the early course of disorders such as schizophrenia as well as affective disorders. In addition, the Dept. of Psychiatry is part of THINK, a state-of-the-art neuroscience research building that will host the new professorship. Recent applications of methods from computational neuroscience to mental diseases have led to ground-breaking discoveries in the emerging field of computational psychiatry. By integrating such cutting-edge approaches with research from clinical studies, neuroscience and psychology, this professorship is pivotal in aiding clinical psychiatric research by advancing the understanding how neural and environmental factors contribute to psychiatric disorders.

Your Responsibilities
The successful applicant should have a strong background in computational approaches and/or machine learning, with expertise in neuroscientific approaches like human neuroimaging, particularly with respect to psychiatric disorders. The candidate will be embedded into lively scientific interactions with clinical scientists in psychiatry, as well as theoretical, neuroscientific, and psychological research groups of the RUB. Our research landscape spans the RUB and the neighboring University of Duisburg-Essen (UDE) with a strong track record of acquiring major extramural support for collaborative research funds in cognitive and clinical neuroscience (e. g. SFB 1280 (RUB), TRR 289 (UDE), FOR 2812 (RUB), FOR 2974 (UDE), research building THINK (RUB), ELH Institute for 7T MRI (UDE)). We would welcome a research focus that contributes to these scientific fields and fosters collaborations across scientific disciplines and institutions. Your Qualifications
Among the prerequisites for the post are a doctoral degree in medicine, psychology, neuroscience or a related field, a positive evaluation as a junior professor, habilitation or equivalent scientific achievements, a strong aptitude for interdisciplinary scientific work, as evidenced by a strong track record in excellent publications, peer-reviewed extramural funding as principal applicant, and a collaborative spirit. Option: Since the specific setting of the professorship should be a translational one, an office and the usage of further facilities within the hospital will be provided. Scientific cooperation with other preclinical and clinical research groups of the Dept. of Psychiatry is expected as well as an integration within its teaching programs. Depending on qualification and interest of the candidate, a part-time clinical appointment would be possible.

Attractive Environment
The professorship is part of an initiative for an interdisciplinary integration of research in Cognitive Neuroscience at RUB and UDE. It is associated with 4h/week teaching per term. Beyond this, the hiring requirements of Sections 36 and 37 of the North Rhine-Westphalia Higher Education Act (Gesetz über die Hochschulen des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen, HG) apply. The professorship will be part of the newly established Research Center One Health Ruhr – from Molecules to Systems. The Research Center is linked to all three members of the University Alliance Ruhr and offers an excellent scientific environment and attractive cooperation opportunities with renowned international, national and regional partners. The Center One Health Ruhr will enable the investigations of the fundamental mechanisms of health and disease, from molecules to higherlevel systems with an understanding that humans can only stay healthy in an intact environment.

More Information
Further information about the Research Alliance Ruhr can be found at:
https://www.uaruhr.de/en/research/research-alliance-ruhr/rc-one-health-ruhr/