We are always on a lookout for talented and motivated students or junior researchers to join our ranks. If our research caught your interest, and your skills fit the focus of the group, feel free to drop us an email. Include a brief description of why you are interested in joining us, and your CV. Please have a look here at an (incomplete) list of examples of available projects. We also welcome students with their own project ideas, as long as they are aligned with the resarch focus of the group.

Open positions

📢 🧠 We are seeking a highly motivated 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁-𝗱𝗼𝗰 to join our team to work on 𝗯𝗶𝗼-𝗶𝗻𝘀𝗽𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗿𝗲𝗰𝘂𝗿𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗻𝗲𝘂𝗿𝗮𝗹 𝗻𝗲𝘁𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵𝗶𝘁𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀. Funded by the JUNIOR Post-Doc Fund, this position offers an exciting opportunity to conduct cutting-edge research at the intersection of systems neuroscience, computational modeling and AI.

Send an email at jan.antolik@mff.cuni.cz if interested. Deadline 5th August 2025.

Project description

Modern deep learning has revolutionized visual neuroscience by greatly enhancing the ability to predict cortical neuron responses to novel visual stimuli. However, current approaches face two key limitations. First, they typically predict only average neural responses, failing to capture the rich temporal dynamics within recurrent neural populations. Second, they rely on generic architectures optimized for training efficiency rather than reflecting the biological systems they aim to model. As a result, these models operate as black boxes, limiting our ability to interpret their representations in terms of biological visual processing. These shortcomings constrain their potential to uncover principles of vision or inform clinical applications such as brain-machine interfaces.

To overcome these challenges, we will develop novel, modular, multi-layer recurrent neural networks (RNNs) that directly reflect the architecture of the primary visual cortex. Our models will map individual neurons across visual processing stages to their artificial counterparts, explicitly incorporating key biological features: functionally specific lateral recurrence, excitatory and inhibitory cell types, complex adaptive neuron transfer functions, synaptic depression, and more. We will first train these RNNs on synthetic data generated from a state-of-the-art biologically realistic spiking model of the visual cortex developed in our lab. Once validated, we will apply the models to publicly available mouse and macaque datasets, as well as data from our experimental collaborators.

What do we offer

The position is fully funded for 2 years, and comes with a salary equivalent to ~2400 EUR/month. We offer a dynamic international working environment and collaborations with world-leading experimental labs (Stanford, University of Pennsylvania, Institute de la Vision Paris etc.).

Candidate profile

PhD degree. Strong background in modern machine learning techniques. Prior experience with training recurrent neural networks, and neuroscience or related disciplines is an advantage, but not strict requirement.

Other funding opportunities

PhD funding

• The PhD program of Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University. Any student that passes the entrance exam can be enrolled in this funded PhD program. A successful candidate can expect an equivalent of gross income of 28000 Czk, which at the time of writing (10.10.2020) is approximatly 1050 euros per month. For more details contact Ján Antolík. Additional funding schemes, such as teaching, mobility grants, or intra-university project grants allow for further increases of the salary.

Post-doctoral fellow funding

• Charles University is making yearly calls for visting post-doctoral fellows, that come with 2 year contracts and attractive salary.

• Charles University CHARLESTON program provides similar conditions to MSCA post-doc awards for selected applicants in selection process similar to MSCA post-doc.

• The Faculty of Mathematics and Physics makes calls for visiting post-doctoral fellows with similar conditions. These calls are irregular, contact me for the current status.

• We can help you write a project for the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship. As Czech Republic is one of the Widening Countries, there are additional Widening Fellowships available within the MSCA-PF calls, as well as Czech national funding of the applications with high evaluation but no funding. This significantly increase the chance of the application being funded.

• Likewise, we can help you write a project for the EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship. Extra fellowships for Czech Republic also exist withing this funding scheme, further increasing the chances of success.

• Finally, we can help you write a grant for the Czech Granting Agency (GACR) Incoming Post-doc grant that funds 2 year post-doc stays at Czech institutions.

Bilateral funding

• For students from France: Barrande Funding Scheme

• For students from V4: Visegrad Scholarship Program