Post-graduate (PhD) opportunities with Mark Johnson's group at Macquarie University

A word about terminology: Australia uses British names for its programs. If you've finished your Bachelors degree (usually a four-year degree with Honours) or your Masters degree, you can apply to enter a post-graduate or higher degree research (HDR) program to get a PhD. Once you've got a PhD you'd want a post-doctoral research position.

We have opportunities for bright, motivated PhD students and researchers. This page lists current openings. In addition to the opportunities listed below, if you're very good (i.e., have a strong computational and mathematical background, and have published in a reputable journal or conference) we can often find funding in addition to the opportunities described below.

Post-graduate (PhD) student research positions

We're recruiting PhD students to work on computational linguistics and machine learning. We're looking for strong candidates with good mathematical and computational skills interested in applying their expertise to understand human language comprehension, acquisition and its instantiation in the brain, as well as applying it to a variety of information extraction and retrieval tasks.

A strong background in mathematical analysis (especially multivariate calculus), linear algebra and computer science (algorithms and data structures, as well as programming experience) is essential, as is native or near-native English proficiency. Prior experience in machine learning and/or statistics is very desirable but not essential.

Various funding sources are available for both Australian and overseas candidates. I especially encourage overseas applicants to apply for an scholarships targetted specifically for international students (see the Macquarie University Higher Degree Research web site). The International Postgraduate Research Scholarship (IPRS) is particularly valuable; applications for these are due at the end of August each year. The IPRS are very competitive; you'll need a good honours or masters degree as well as one or more publications to be in the running for one of these.

Macquarie University is currently strongly encouraging joint PhDs and cotutelles with a large number of non-Australian universities. You need to find a co-supervisor at a partner university and agree on a research topic, and you'll spend at least a year of your PhD at each of the universities. Currently cotutelles are much less easier to get than the IPRS.

We regularly have other opportunities available; closing dates for specific projects are listed below.

The areas we are currently targeting are:

• Computational models of syntactic and semantic language understanding: (especially on-line processing of both text and speech). These projects require a good background in statistical parsing and/or language modelling. Possible projects include named entity recognition and linking, relation extraction, coreference resolution, semantic role labelling, syntactic parsing and semantic analysis.

• Machine learning and natural language processing for financial applications: This project involves applying natural language processing and machine learning to financial problems. Examples include data mining from financial documents, stock announcement classification and fraud detection. This project is supported by the Capital Markets Commonwealth Research Centre (CMCRC); see their web site for application instructions. You'll have to apply to both Macquarie University and to the Capital Markets Commonwealth Research Centre, as the generous scholarship associated with this project is awarded by the CMCRC. You should contact the CMCRC more information.

• Machine learning and computational neurolinguistics: This project involves applying statistical models and machine learning methods to neural imaging data from our on-campus MEG and fMRI facilities. We're especially interested in applying computational linguistic models such as parsers to understand neural activity during language processing, and developing new methods for applying machine learning techniques to address questions of basic scientific interest. This project will involve working closely with neuroscientists as well as machine learning experts.

• Computational models of language acquisition: (especially non-parametric Bayesian models). This project involves developing new models of language acquisition and applying them to child language development data. It involves working with language acquisition researchers as well as computational linguists and machine learning experts. For example, you could work on extending adaptor grammar models of acquisition, or apply them to new languages or new domains (see Mark Johnson's publications for recent work in this area). This paper and this paper are probably good papers to read for a general introduction to our approach; this paper will give you an idea of our more recent research in this area. Contact me if you're interested in this position.

Contact me for more information (my contact information is available on my web site). Please tell me whether you are an Australian citizen or permanent resident, as this determines which scholarships you are eligible for.

Post-graduate reseach degrees at Macquarie University is administered by the Higher Degree Research Office (go to their web site for information on the application process). They run a web site listing scholarships for Australian and International students, which you should consult for more information.

There's a lot of research in computational linguistics, natural language processing, psycholinguistics, language acquisition, etc., going on at Macquarie University besides my projects, of course. Unfortunately we don't have a central location listing all of them (although I'm working on it). Until then, you should look at the web sites for the Centre for Language Sciences (CLaS), the Centre for Language Technology (CLT) and the Macquarie Centre for Cognitive Science (MACCS) for other opportunities.

Last updated on the 30th August 2017.