Ledig stilling på Universitetet i Oslo

Blindern og Urbygningen (Foto: Wikimedia og Colourbox)

Position in neuroinformatics / brain imaging

Deadline: 20.10.2021

Universitetet i Oslo

The University of Oslo is Norway’s oldest and highest ranked educational and research institution, with 28 000 students and 7000 employees. With its broad range of academic disciplines and internationally recognised research communities, UiO is an important contributor to society.


The Department of Psychology is one of seven units of the Faculty of Social Sciences, and has 75 permanent and 70 temporary members of scientific staff. Degrees are offered at bachelor and master level, plus a clinical training programme, and the PhD programme has 140 students.

Faculty of Social Sciences, Department of Psychology, Center for Lifespan changes in Brain and Cognition LCBC

The position

A full time, permanent engineering position (SKO1087 Head engineer/lab engineer) is available in the Research Center for Lifespan Changes in Brain and Cognition (LCBC) at the Department of Psychology, University of Oslo. The position will be depending on external funding.

Work tasks

The position is suited for a person with strong programming competence and interest in signal and image processing. Imaging of the human brain by MRI and PET is central to LCBC research, and the main tasks will include:

  • Data preprocessing and higher-level analyses
  • Development and maintenance of the data processing pipelines and databases
  • Automated and manual quality control of data, and development of QA pipelines
  • Contributions to implementation and testing of new processing procedures

Main tools used for analyses are FreeSurfer and FSL in addition to custom made procedures, and the center cooperates with the developers of these programs. Custom-made tools are run in Python, Matlab or R, and the lab environment is mainly Linux.

The candidate is expected to work closely with other researchers at LCBC as well as international collaborators.

The candidate

The successful candidate has a master’s degree or similar in a relevant field, such as biomedical engineering, informatics, physics, mathematics or neuroscience, although other backgrounds, such as psychology or medicine, may be acceptable given extraordinary skills and interests.

What we expect from the candidate:

  • Strong competence in Python, Matlab, R or similar
  • Excellent command of English, orally and in writing
  • Ability to solve problems independently, and ask for help when needed

In assessing applications, the qualifications stated above will guide the process. After the initial screening process, interviews with selected candidates may be arranged where the applicants’ personal prerequisites and cooperative skills will be emphasized.

The research center

LCBC is an active, international multi-disciplinary research center, led by Professor Kristine B. Walhovd, with a staff of ~20 full time positions, including four faculty (ass.) professors, two researchers, several Post Docs and PhD candidates, three programmers/engineers and RAs, extensive supporting personnel and several affiliated international researchers. We have staff from several different countries, and English is the language of the lab. The center has an interdisciplinary approach, with researchers from different fields such as psychology, medicine, neuroscience, physics, informatics, mathematics and engineering. LCBC was in 2015, as one of five, appointed status as a “world leading” research group at the University of Oslo. We encourage the interested applicant to visit www.oslobrains.no for more details about LCBC and our research.

LCBC constitutes an extremely active and stimulating learning environment for the skilled and interested candidate.

The research

Cognition - the ability to attend, remember and reason - is pivotal to all aspects of human life. Yet cognitive functioning varies considerably among and within human beings across the lifespan. The main aim of LCBC research is to explain, predict and promote cognitive function from birth to old age, in health and disease. In addition to studies of development and aging, we also research diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and biomedical risks such as prenatal drug exposure.

Cognitive measures, imaging of brain activity and structure, genetics, molecular biology and registry information are systematically applied across large samples of participants from 4 to 90+ years. Neuroimaging is central to all LCBC projects, and we thus devote large resources to infrastructure and manpower dedicated to imaging of the brain. We have our own 3T Siemens Prisma MRI scanner, situated at the Department of Radiology of the Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet.

We offer

  • Salary NOK 499 500 - 543 500 per annum depending on qualifications in a position as Head engineer, position code 1087 (Overingeniør SKO 1087)
  • attractive welfare benefits and a generous pension agreement, in addition to Oslo’s family-friendly environment with its rich opportunities for culture and outdoor activities. For more information about Oslo, please see here.

The application must include

The application must include:

  • Letter of application, 1-2 pages, explaining the motivation for applying Curriculum Vitae summarizing education, positions and academic work or code repositories
  • Copies of educational certificates, complete list of publications and, if applicable, publications/academic work that the applicant wishes to be considered by the evaluation committee
  • Names and contact details of at least two references (name, relation to candidate, e-mail and telephone number).

International applicants are advised to attach an explanation of their University’s grading system. All documents should be in English. The application (evt.) with attachments must be delivered in our recruiting system.

Interviews with the best qualified candidates will be arranged.

Formal regulations

The University of Oslo has an agreement for all employees, aiming to secure rights to research results a.o.

According to the Norwegian Freedom of Information Act (Offentleglova) information about the applicant may be included in the public applicant list, also in cases where the applicant has requested non-disclosure.

Inclusion and diversity are a strength. The University of Oslo has a personnel policy objective of achieving a balanced gender composition. We also want to have employees with diverse expertise, combinations of subjects, life experience and perspectives. We will make adjustments for employees who require this.

If there are qualified applicants with special needs, gaps in their CVs or immigrant backgrounds, we will invite at least one applicant in each of these groups to an interview.

Contact information

  • HR Consultant: Silje Forsland: mailto:silje.forsland@psykologi.uio.no
  • Head Engineer: Inge Amlien mailto:inge.amlien@psykologi.uio.no

Apply for position

Powered by Labrador CMS