Research Group Leader

The Multimodal Language Department at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in the Netherlands (Director: Prof. Asli Özyürek) is seeking applications for a Max Planck Group Leader (W2 BBesG) who will lead their own research program and complement the Department’s research profile on Multimodal Communication in Humans and Virtual Agents, using an interdisciplinary approach at the intersection of linguistics, behavioral corpus studies, conversational analysis, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics and computational methods.

The ideal candidate is expected to investigate the complex interplay of visual bodily behavior (e.g., hands, face, gaze), utterances, and prosody and the intricate temporal relations with each other, focusing especially on interactions (e.g., in dialogue or multiparty conversations) and cognitive as well as social neural mechanisms that govern their use and processing. In doing so, the candidate is also expected to use our in-house motion capture and virtual reality techniques (e.g., head-mounted VR and LED-based VR CAVE) to conduct experiments in visually-grounded interactive conversational settings, and to use computational methods to simulate and understand the complexity of multimodal signal use in interaction.

It will be an extra asset (but not essential) if the candidate can or is interested in extending this work to applied platforms, such as human-robot interactions, and virtual agents using generative AI models.

The Group Leader is expected to develop an independent research program within the Department. For this, they will receive their own annual budget that will fund research staff (to cover one postdoctoral researcher or two PhD students) and running costs, an annual conference and travel budget, and access to state-of-the‑art research and training facilities.

The Group Leader will be supported to apply for external grants if they wish to supplement their core research funds, but this is not a requirement of the post. There are no required teaching responsibilities, but they will have the opportunity to teach in the Master’s courses at Radboud University if they wish.

This is a tenure‑track position. The initial appointment is for six years, with the possibility of a permanent position after international review (tenure‑track). A part‑time position is negotiable.

A strong background and experience in bridging linguistic, psycho linguistic, neurolinguistic, corpus‑based, and computational approaches to multimodal communication in humans and virtual agents.

A PhD in cognitive neuroscience, cognitive science, computer science, linguistics, psychology, or a related discipline.

A proven ability to publish in high‑quality journals and to conduct innovative and cutting‑edge research on multimodal communication and cognition in humans and in virtual agents.

Seniority and proven supervision, research leadership, management experience, and grant acquisition- as the post requires supervision of students, research staff, and/or early career postdoctoral researchers.

Evidence of having established interdisciplinary networks and achieved prominence in the field.

Evidence of the ability or potential to develop an independent research program that complements the research in the Department and contributes to its long‑term goal to understand the social and cognitive underpinnings of multimodal language in humans and how they interact with one another and with virtual agents.

Evidence of the potential to make a substantial contribution to the Institute’s mission, and to develop collaborations with other departments at the Institute, other institutes within the Max Planck Society and Germany, and/or external partners, and especially the potential to strengthen ties with Radboud University and Donders Institute in particular.

Evidence of a commitment to Open Science, Scientific Integrity and Ethics, and to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.

The position is available from 1 January 2027. The start date is flexible.

Full‑time position (39 hours per week) with an initial term of appointment of 6 years and with the possibility of a permanent…