Postdoctoral Position at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin

The Max Planck Research Group ”Naturalistic Social Cognition” at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, Berlin, Germany, (Research Group Leader: Dr. Annie E. Wertz) is seeking applicants for a Postdoctoral Research Position.

The position will preferably begin February 1, 2018, although the start-date is negotiable.

The postdoctoral researcher will work on projects investigating social learning in infancy and early childhood, with an emphasis on how young children learn about plants in a naturalistic garden setting. We seek candidates with expertise in behavioral coding methods and experience conducting studies with infants and/or young children; strong data analysis skills are required. Familiarity with complex naturalistic datasets is preferred. Previous experience with Datavyu or related behavioral coding programs is particularly desirable; as is a solid background in at least one programming language (e.g., Ruby, MatLab, or R).

The MPRG “Naturalistic Social Cognition” (www.mpib-berlin.mpg.de/babylab) investigates the ways in which infants and young children think about and learn from others using an interdisciplinary evolutionary approach. Our research projects include both laboratory studies and naturalistic observations, as well as collaborative cross- cultural and comparative studies. We are an international research team where the working language is English. We offer excellent infrastructure, support staff, and equipment.

The Max Planck Society is committed to increasing the number of individuals with disabilities in its workforce and therefore encourages applications from such qualified individuals. Furthermore, the Max Planck Society seeks to increase the number of women in those areas where they are underrepresented and therefore explicitly encourages women to apply.

The postdoctoral position is for two years with a potential one year extension; candidates must already hold a doctoral degree. Applicants should submit preferentially a cover letter describing research interests and future goals, a complete CV, and a representative publication (published or working paper) as a single PDF file, with your name as the file name, to Frau Heidi Nassimi (sekwertz@mpib-berlin.mpg.de). Please arrange to have two letters of recommendation sent separately via email to Frau Nassimi.

Applications will be considered until the position is filled. Applications review will begin on October 13, 2017. For further inquiries about the position, please contact Dr. Annie E. Wertz (wertz@mpib-berlin.mpg.de).