PhD Position on Sleep, Stress and Arousal in Humans ETH Zürich in Switzerland

The Neural Control of Movement Lab at ETH Zürich, Department of Health Sciences and Technology, is offering a fully funded PhD position focused on the physiological links between sleep, stress, arousal, and health in humans. This interdisciplinary project combines mechanistic laboratory experiments with real-world, home-based and decentralized phenotyping, leveraging multimodal physiological recordings, mobile health technologies, and advanced computational analysis pipelines.

The research aims to bridge the gap between controlled laboratory studies and ecological, real-life assessments of sleep, stress, and arousal. The PhD student will contribute to a translational research program investigating how daily stress and arousal states shape sleep physiology, recovery, and health-relevant outcomes. The project utilizes biosignal acquisition methods such as pupillometry, sleep EEG, ECG, respiration, wearable sensors, actigraphy, smartphone-supported assessments, and validated questionnaires. Advanced signal processing, statistical modelling, and machine learning will be applied to identify informative physiological signatures and phenotypes.

As a PhD student, you will design, conduct, and analyze human studies in both laboratory and real-world settings. Responsibilities include implementing robust research pipelines for mobile and decentralized phenotyping, managing data collection workflows, biosignal processing, quality control, synchronization, feature extraction, and computational analysis. You will work closely with researchers, engineers, clinicians, students, and external collaborators to connect experimental design, data infrastructure, and scientific analysis. Dissemination of findings through scientific publications, conference presentations, and contributions to larger translational research initiatives is expected.

The ideal candidate will have a strong physiological and computational profile, holding (or nearing completion of) a Master's degree in biomedical engineering, medical engineering, medical informatics, computational neuroscience, data science, or a related field. Essential skills include programming in Python, MATLAB, R, or similar languages, experience in data analysis, statistics, signal processing, computational modelling, machine learning, and physiological data acquisition. Experience designing or conducting human research studies, including experimental protocols, participant-facing work, ethics-aware procedures, documentation, and quality control, is required. Fluency in English is mandatory; German language skills are advantageous for participant-facing work.

ETH Zürich is renowned for its world-class research environment, excellent education, and commitment to diversity and sustainability. The Department of Health Sciences and Technology unites researchers across neuroscience, biomedical engineering, movement science, nutrition, physiology, and medicine, offering an interdisciplinary environment for research at the interface of human biology, technology, and clinical translation.

The position is fully funded for approximately four years, providing an outstanding opportunity to develop expertise across sleep physiology, stress and arousal science, mobile health, digital phenotyping, and computational analysis. ETH Zürich values equality of opportunity, diversity, and sustainability, fostering a fair and open environment for all staff and students.

Applications must be submitted online via the ETH Zürich application portal by 26 July 2026. Required documents include a CV, tailored motivation statement, diplomas and transcripts, and contact details for at least two references. Optional materials such as links to code repositories or work samples may be included. For further information, contact Dr. Caroline Lustenberger at [email protected] (no applications via email).