A position is available from 1st December 2012, or as soon as possible thereafter, in the area of vision and camouflage.  The project is an inter-disciplinary collaboration between vision science (Harris, St. Andrews; Lovell, Abertay, St. Andrews) and evolutionary biology (Ruxton, St. Andrews; Cuthill, Bristol).  We will study the phenomenon of ‘counter-shading’: the fact that many species are patterned dark above, and light below.  Several ideas exist for why counter-shading might have evolved. In this project we test several of them, physically modeling animal shape, patterning and the light environment to test whether counter-shading has the right physical characteristics to have evolved as camouflage.  We will go on to measure whether physically correct counter-shading acts on perceptual systems as camouflage, by measuring visual performance in the human visual system. 

The appointment will be made for 12 months in the first instance with the possibility of extension subject to annual review, and up to 2.5 years. You should have a good first degree, and a PhD in human vision, computer vision, colour science, evolutionary biology, physics or engineering. Experience of scientific programming, ideally for visual psychophysics experiments, or for object rendering, is essential (using Matlab, and/or VSG), as is computational modelling of biological systems. Experience of designing and running vision experiments and/or vision modelling, will be highly desirable, as would experience in photogrammetry and/or 3D geometry. The project is funded via the BBSRC and will be carried out in the Vision Laboratory (Prof. Julie Harris) at St. Andrews.

The appointment will be from 1 December 2012, or as soon as possible thereafter.

Informal enquiries can be directed to:  Professor Julie Harris, Telephone: 01334 462061 or Email: jh81@st-andrews.ac.uk

Interviews will be held between 1 and 10 October 2012.

Ref No: ML1186

Closing Date: 6 September 2012

Further Particulars ML1186AR FPs.doc

School of Psychology and Neuroscience
£30,122 - £35,938
Start: 1 December 2012 or as soon as possible thereafter
Fixed Term: 1 year in the first instance