PhD studentship

The Measurement Techniques in Vision Laboratory at City University London provides a lively research environment with a unique mixture of statisticians, vision scientists, ophthalmologists and computer scientists. See:

A full time PhD studentship is now available in this lab focussing on the following project:

Analysis of eye movements for detecting visual and neurological disorders
People make several eye movements per second, and where they look is a measure of what they perceive of the world. New eye tracking instruments allow for eye movement data to be accurately gathered while people look at a film or TV. In a short period of time it is possible to collect a mass of data which can formulate an individual 'eye movement fingerprint' akin to the level of high-dimensional data that might be found in a proteomic or genetic data; we hypothesise that this could be a potential biomarker for visual or neurological decay. This project will examine this hypothesis by interrogating the huge volume of data that we have collected in around 100 elderly individuals, some of whom have visual and neurological disorders. The plan is to adapt statistical methods and bioinformatics to analyse the data.

The studentship: Training in bioinformatics, statistics, computer science or mathematics (undergraduate first class honours, or preferably an MSc) would be ideal. We seek an inventive, able scientist who can demonstrate real enthusiasm for this exciting project. Detailed knowledge about vision or eyes will not be required, but a flair for computing and creatively analysing data is essential.

Results from this PhD will lead to presentations at conferences in the US and Europe; travel funding is available. The 3-year studentship is open to UK and EU candidates only and is worth £16K per annum (tax free), with all fees for PhD registration paid. (Non EU students would have to subsidise the relevant fees).

_Contact_:
Applications (CV, including two referees and a statement of interest about the project) should be submitted by email to: d.crabb@city.ac.uk

Professor David Crabb.
Department of Optometry and Visual Science, City University London, Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB
Tel: +44 (0)20 7040 0191
Email: d.crabb@city.ac.uk

Informal enquires are strongly encouraged.
Deadline for applications: August 26th 2011