"Postdoctoral Fellowship in Neural Science (Prof. Sukbin Lim)"

The Neural Science program at NYU Shanghai offers a global and interdisciplinary environment for advanced research. The program emphasizes rigorous, hands-on research—ranging from systems neuroscience to computational modeling and cognitive sciences—supported by strong mentorship and collaborative culture.

Professor Sukbin Lim is seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral Fellow to join the research lab in theoretical and computational neuroscience. The research will focus on how neural networks generate cognitive functions such as learning, memory, and decision-making. It will study the dynamics of local circuits and their interactions—such as sensory–memory and memory–decision-making pathways—and develop computational approaches to reverse-engineer these mechanisms. The lab maintains close collaborations with experimental groups, providing opportunities for integrative and interdisciplinary research. For examples of recent projects, see Yang et al., eLife 2024; Gu et al., Neuron 2025; Gu et al., bioRxiv.

The Postdoctoral Fellow’s responsibilities include the following:

• Model Development & Analysis: Design and implement computational models to study local circuits and their interactions for cognitive functions. Explore how network architecture and dynamics give rise to observed behavioral and neural phenomena.
• Data Integration & Collaboration: Work closely with experimental collaborators working on neurophysiology and human psychophysics to align computational models with behavioral and neural data. Generate testable hypotheses regarding neural mechanisms.
• Research Communication: Maintain open and constructive discussions with the supervisor and team members to shape research directions and ensure scientific rigor. Prepare manuscripts for high-impact journals and contribute to grant proposals and collaborative reports by providing computational and theoretical expertise.

Terms of employment at NYU Shanghai are comparable to NYU New York and other U.S. institutions.

Candidates should have the following qualifications:

• Hold a Ph.D. by the start date of the position in computational and theoretical neuroscience, or a related discipline with strong quantitative training in Mathematics, Physics, Data, and Computer Sciences;
• Experience in modeling, data analysis, and statistical methods of networks/complex systems is required. Experience with computational models of recurrent neural networks would be a plus;
• Strong programming skills (e.g., Python, MATLAB or C/C++) are required. Experience with scientific libraries would be a plus.

The position is for an initial appointment of one year, with possible extension up to two years. The appointment start date for non-Chinese applicants is subject to immigration regulations.