Every year Inria International Relations Department has a few postdoctoral positions in order to support Inria international collaborations. This particular project is designed to be part of the Inria Brazil program. Inria Brasil is an international program created in 2020 in the frame of the partnership with LNCC (Laboratório Nacional de Computação Cientifica- Brazilian Scientific Computing Laboratory) acting as Hub for Brazilian research and innovation ecosystem. The goal is to develop research collaborations between Inria, LNCC and Brazilian key players in R&D (universities, research centers and companies), in all scientific fields of interest of Inria.
The postdoctoral contract will have a duration of 24 months. The default start date is November 1st, 2026 and not later than January, 1st 2027. The postdoctoral fellow will be recruited by Inria Centre at Université Côte d'Azur, in the Inria Branch at the University of Montpellier, but it is recommended that the time is shared between France and Brazil.
This postdoctoral project is part of a triangular international collaboration between France and Brazil, bringing together complementary expertise in longitudinal brain imaging, stochastic processes, and topological signal processing. The postdoc will be based in France, at the Inria Branch of the University of Montpellier, working in the MathNeuro team, with access to a unique longitudinal aging dataset (containing in particular fMRI and PET scan) hosted by the NIH (USA), with whom we have signed a data transfer agreement. The project will involve a close collaboration with Prof. Gandhi Viswanathan (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte), a leading expert in Lévy dynamics applied to biological systems, and Prof. Fernando A. N. Santos (Universidade Federal de Pernambuco / University of Amsterdam), a specialist in topological signal processing. This project is part of a wider research programme on digital health applied to healthy and pathological aging, also involving neuroscientists (Prof. S. Rodrigues, Bilbao, Spain) and clinicians (Prof. T. Fülöp, Sherbrooke, Canada).
The originality of the project lies in combining topological and stochastic approaches to characterize brain dynamics across aging. By jointly analyzing the topological and geometrical invariances of brain-state trajectories, their associated phase transitions and their temporal transport properties, the project aims to uncover novel dynamical biomarkers of healthy and pathological aging. The 24-month project will include regular research stays in Brazil to interact with our main collaborators on this project.
