Are you an ambitious researcher fascinated in human spatial behaviour? Are you interested in exploring innovative ways to model cognitive geography? Do you want to further your career in one of the UKs leading research-intensive Universities?

Geographical analysis is built on an implicit assumption that events take place over a Euclidean plane. Yet we know from studies of spatial cognition and psychology, that this assumption is partly flawed by human perception and biases. As such, the policies and local services we plan, based on simplistic, straight-line distances, neglect the true understanding people have of the world around them. Geography must do better at putting humans at the core of their analysis.

This ground-breaking project – supported through funding from the Philip Leverhulme Prize for Geography and the Alan Turing Institute – will explore new ways of modelling geographic space. The project will bring together thinking from behavioural geography, artificial intelligence, neuroscience, and psychology, combining theory, new data, and novel computational methods to produce new models of geographic space, reflecting how people really recall, plan, and behave in real-world geography. The project will produce new ways of conceiving spatial data, enabling a new wave of quantitative cognitive geography.

We are looking for a researcher to support the work on advancing theory and methods relating to cognitive geography. You will work closely with the PI, Prof Ed Manley, and several world-renowned external collaborators and research centres (notably the Leeds Institute for Data Analytics and the Alan Turing Institute), to develop new ideas and approaches for modelling cognitive geography. You will have an approach to research and level of technical expertise that allows you to move comfortably across computational methods (including reinforcement learning, machine learning, and agent-based modelling) and geographic theory. You will have experience of working with novel behavioural data and developing new models of behaviour. You will gain experience in a rapidly emerging, interdisciplinary field that will benefit a future career in academia or data science.

We will consider flexible working arrangements. Please get in touch to discuss.

Ed Manley, Professor of Urban Analytics

Email: [email protected]