<h1 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-font-kerning: 0pt"><font size="5">2 PhD positions Computational linguistics</font></span></h1>
<h1 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-font-kerning: 0pt"><font size="5">Radboud University</font></span></h1>
<h1 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center" align="center"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-font-kerning: 0pt"><font size="5">Vacancy number 23.09.09</font></span></h1>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="Times" size="3">The Centre for Language Studies (CLS) of the Radboud University Nijmegen invites applications for two PhD positions in computational linguistics (for 3,5 years).</font></span></p>
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<h2 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="Times" size="3">Job description</font></span></h2>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font size="3"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="Times">The PhD projects are part of a larger research program 'A computational model of language acquisition'. </font></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">The goal of this research programme is to advance our understanding of the emergence of phonetic, phonological and lexical representations during the early stages of first language acquisition, and ultimately develop a computational model of the first stages of language acquisition that only assumes very general perceptual and learning capabilities.</span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><font size="3">The PhD students will each investigate a pivotal aspect of language acquisition in depth. One PhD student (PhD1) will focus on models based on data mining and structure discovery that can explain how continuous signals develop into discrete representations of words, sub-word units, phonemes and features. PhD2 will focus on modelling the developmental phase in language acquisition when perception becomes more language specific and gradually a mental lexicon is established.</font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><font size="3">The successful candidate is expected to start as soon as possible. She or he</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><font size="3">will be working in a vibrant research environment, engaging in active research, and they will participate in the MPI research school.</font></span></p>
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<h2 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="Times" size="3">Organization</font></span></h2>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="Times" size="3">The Faculty of Arts consists of eleven departments in the area of language and culture, history, history of arts, linguistics and business communication, which together cater for about 2,700 students and collaborate closely in teaching and research. The project will be carried out at the research institute Centre for Language Studies as part of the Linguistic Information Processing and Grammar and Cognition research programmes.</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="Times" size="3">Website: <a href="http://www.ru.nl">www.ru.nl</a></font></span></p>
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<h2 style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="Times" size="3">Conditions of employment</font></span></h2>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="Times" size="3">Employment: 1,0 fte</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="Times" size="3">Duration of the contract: Initial contract for 1.5 years, with the possibility for an extension with two years.</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="Times" size="3">The starting gross salary is € 2.000 euro per month based upon a full-time employment.</font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><font size="3">Required skills:</font></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><font size="3">-</font><span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><font size="3">Degree in Computational Linguistics, Computer Science, Psycholinguistics, Artificial Intelligence, or Cognitive Science</font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><font size="3">-</font><span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><font size="3">Especially for PhD1: experience with methods for structure mining</font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><font size="3">-</font><span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><font size="3">Interest in first language acquisition</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><font size="3">-</font><span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><font size="3">Good command of the English language</font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><font size="3">Applications must include:</font></span></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><font size="3">-</font><span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><font size="3">copy of university degree (in English or Dutch)</font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt 0.5in; TEXT-INDENT: -0.25in; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'"><span style="mso-list: Ignore"><font size="3">-</font><span style="FONT: 7pt 'Times New Roman'"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><font size="3">a covering letter in which candidates explain why they have applied for the position, give details of their research interests/experience, background, programming skills and their knowledge of Linguistics and Psycholinguistics</font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><font size="3">Applications (with reference to vacancy number 23.09.09) can be made both by email and surface mail to the following address:</font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="Times" size="3">Radboud University Nijmegen </font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="Times" size="3">Faculty of Arts, Personel Department</font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="DE" style="mso-ansi-language: DE"><font size="3"><font face="Times">E-mail: <a href="mailto:vacatures@let.ru.nl">vacatures@let.ru.nl</a></font></font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><font size="3">The closing date for applications is February 15, 2009. The short-listed applicants will be</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB" style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><font size="3">interviewed by email and/or telephone in the last week of February 2009.</font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span lang="EN-GB"><font face="Times" size="3">For further information please contact Prof. Lou Boves (</font><a href="mailto:l.boves@let.ru.nl"><font face="Times" size="3">l.boves@let.ru.nl</font></a><font face="Times" size="3">) or Prof. Paula Fikkert (</font><a href="mailto:p.fikkert@let.ru.nl"><font face="Times" size="3">p.fikkert@let.ru.nl</font></a><font face="Times" size="3">). </font></span></p>
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