CS PhD Roundup — August 10, 2026: no new lead cleared the filter; 5 active leads remain

What changed this week

No newly dated opening in the August 3–10, 2026 window cleared both parts of this channel's filter: a named advisor and a verifiable NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, or ACL publication from 2022–2025. Five carry-forward decision units remain actionable, and one more role stays watch-only because its posting date is not public.

The practical queue is shorter than last week's. Oxford's deadline has passed. Basel is not counted this week because its advert previously mixed a missed July 31 target with a later metadata deadline and rolling language, and the page could not be re-opened cleanly in this pass. The five active units below have current application routes; the Inria role is separated because its date evidence is incomplete.

Quick triage

Direction	Advisor and institution	Position	Deadline or status	First action
Mechanism-informed world models	Efstratios Gavves, University of Amsterdam	PhD	August 20 1	Prepare the CV with month-level dates, motivation letter, project/publication list, and two references
Physics-informed world models	Efstratios Gavves, University of Amsterdam	Postdoc	August 20 2	Lead with physics-informed learning, simulation, robotics, or scientific-ML work
Biological foundation models	Charlotte Bunne, EPFL AIMM	Two postdocs	Rolling; Fall 2026 preferred 3	Send the one-page research statement and two references
Neuromorphic reinforcement learning	Melih Kandemir, University of Southern Denmark	Postdoc	August 31, 23:59 Denmark; August 31, 16:59 in this channel's display time 4	Check the two-first-author-paper requirement before preparing the application
Trustworthy and neuro-symbolic ML	Christoph Lampert, ISTA	Multiple postdocs	Rolling until filled 5	Send one PDF directly to the PI

World models and embodied AI

University of Amsterdam: mechanism-informed world-model PhD

Fit. Efstratios Gavves's public profile lists Dream to Manipulate: Compositional World Models Empowering Robot Imitation Learning with Imagination and CaPo: Cooperative Plan Optimization for Efficient Embodied Multi-Agent Cooperation at ICLR 2025, Mechanistic Neural Networks for Scientific Machine Learning at ICML 2024, and Latent Field Discovery in Interacting Dynamical Systems with Neural Fields at NeurIPS 2023. The strongest match is an applicant working on causal or representation learning, world models, generative modeling, robotics, or dynamical systems. 6

Role and application. This is a four-year PhD with an initial 18-month contract, extendable after satisfactory evaluation. The project asks how models can represent events, causes, and temporal relationships rather than only predict the next frame. It also covers controllable and auditable agents for robot learning, embodied systems, and biomedical dynamics. The gross salary is €3,059–€3,881 per month, excluding an 8% holiday allowance and an 8.3% year-end allowance. The start date is as soon as possible or by discussion. 1

The application requires an MSc in AI, computer science, electrical engineering, physics, mathematics, or a related field; strong ML and programming skills; and professional English. Submit a detailed CV with month-level education and work dates, a motivation letter, a publication or project list, and two references through the UvA PhD vacancy. The page closes on August 20, 2026.

Lab signal. CyPhAI is part of the UvA Informatics Institute. The vacancy names substantial GPU compute, real robots, biomedical and physical-world data, and collaborations with Toyota Research, Qualcomm, Elekta, and the Netherlands Cancer Institute. These are statements in the advert, not independent student feedback. 1

University of Amsterdam: physics-informed world-model postdoc

Fit. This role is also with Gavves and CyPhAI. It suits a researcher with a completed or near-completed PhD in machine learning, computer vision, robotics, physics, applied mathematics, or a related field, especially with physics-informed learning, simulation, dynamical systems, robot learning, or scientific ML experience. Gavves's ICLR 2025, ICML 2024, NeurIPS 2023, and CVPR 2024 work provides the advisor signal. 6

Role and application. The 21-month postdoc studies physics-informed and physics-grounded world models, including partial observation, faster simulation, transfer across embodiments and domains, and agents that act inside learned models. The gross salary is €3,546–€5,538 per month, excluding the same holiday and year-end allowances. The preferred start is as soon as possible or by discussion. Applicants should bring a strong publication record, substantial experimental and programming experience, and the ability to work independently and mentor PhD and MSc students. 2

Apply through the UvA postdoc vacancy by August 20, 2026, with a detailed CV, motivation letter, publication or project list, and two references. The vacancy places the work in CyPhAI and VISLab, alongside robot learning, biomedical modeling, and mechanism-informed generative models. 2

Biological foundation models

EPFL AIMM: two postdocs with Charlotte Bunne

Fit. Charlotte Bunne's CV lists Modeling Complex System Dynamics with Flow Matching Across Time and Conditions at ICLR 2025 and Supervised Training of Conditional Monge Maps at NeurIPS 2022. Her recent work sits at the intersection of optimal transport, generative modeling, and biological or biomedical data. 7

Role and application. EPFL's AIMM Lab is recruiting two postdoctoral researchers for biological foundation-model architecture, pretraining objectives, tokenization, scalable learning, multimodal biological data, agentic interfaces, and applications in drug discovery and biomedicine. A completed or near-completed PhD in ML, computer science, computational biology, or a related field is expected, along with large-scale AI development, biological-data familiarity, and a strong publication record. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis; the posting prefers Fall 2026 but does not publish a fixed deadline or a salary figure. 3

Send a CV, a brief one-page research-interest statement, and the names of two references through the EPFL careers page. The advert describes an interdisciplinary environment, mentorship toward independent research, pharmaceutical collaborations, and dedicated compute. Those are advertised lab signals; the page does not provide a lab-size figure or independent student testimonials. 3

Reinforcement learning

University of Southern Denmark: neuromorphic reinforcement learning postdoc

Fit. Melih Kandemir's publication page lists Learning Interacting Dynamical Systems with Latent Gaussian Process ODEs at NeurIPS 2022, Evidential Turing Processes at ICLR 2022, and Deterministic Uncertainty Propagation for Improved Model-Based Offline Reinforcement Learning at NeurIPS 2024. The opening fits an RL researcher who also works with probabilistic modeling, uncertainty, continuous control, or bio-inspired neural architectures. 8

Role and application. The two-year postdoc develops sample- and energy-efficient reinforcement learning for high-dimensional dynamical systems, with deep RL, probabilistic modeling, and spiking neural networks. It can start no earlier than October 1, 2026. The advert requires a PhD in computer science, mathematics, statistics, or theoretical physics; at least two first-author papers at flagship ML venues such as NeurIPS, ICML, or ICLR; strong RL theory; and Python with PyTorch or JAX. 4

Submit a CV with employment dates, a full publication list, and a PhD diploma or supervisor statement through the SDU application page. The visible page description gives August 31, 2026 at 23:59 local Danish time; the career system also shows a next-day timestamp, which is consistent with that local deadline. Salary follows the Danish collective agreement, and no figure is published. 4

Trustworthy and neuro-symbolic ML

ISTA: Lampert group postdocs

Fit. Christoph Lampert's group lists ASIDE: Architectural Separation of Instructions and Data in Language Models at ICLR 2025, Banded Square Root Matrix Factorization for Differentially Private Model Training at NeurIPS 2024, 1-Lipschitz Layers Compared: Memory, Speed, and Certifiable Robustness at CVPR 2024, and Can LLMs Separate Instructions From Data? And What Do We Even Mean By That? at ICLR 2023. 9

Role and application. Multiple one- or two-year postdocs are available with flexible starts and no fixed deadline. Topics include privacy, fairness, robustness, federated and continual learning, LLM security, transfer learning, and the interface between symbolic AI and statistical ML. Applicants should hold a PhD in ML or a related area, with strong mathematics, programming, analytical reasoning, and first-tier publications. 5

Send one PDF containing a CV, research statement, publication list, transcripts, and contact details for three references to Prof. Christoph Lampert at chl(at)ist.ac.at. The page says applications remain open until the positions are filled. It also promises a 100% research role with no mandatory teaching or administrative duties, state-of-the-art compute, and conference-travel funding. These are explicit conditions on the group page; independent student feedback is not provided. 5

Watch-only: Inria Grenoble text-to-video postdoc

Stéphane Lathuilière's record includes Playable Environments: Video Manipulation in Space and Time at CVPR 2022 and An eye for an ear: zero-shot audio description leveraging an image captioner with audio-visual token distribution matching at NeurIPS 2024. The role itself focuses on editing and conditional generation with text-to-video models, diffusion and transformer architectures, temporal consistency, semantic fidelity, and efficient training. 10 11

The postdoc starts October 1, 2026, pays €2,788 gross per month, and closes August 20. It requires a PhD or equivalent and skills in speech processing, computer vision, machine learning, and programming; LLMs, SpeechLMs, reinforcement learning, or robotics are useful but not mandatory. Apply through the Inria online route. The official page does not expose a posting date, so this role is not counted as a newly posted match and should be confirmed as live before applying. 11

New listings checked, but not cleared

Cambridge, Growing AI, placed August 5. The listing names Per Ola Kristensson and John Dudley, closes August 21 at 5 pm BST, and offers a UK-only funded studentship. The retrieved publication evidence did not establish a qualifying 2022–2025 target-venue record for a named supervisor, so it stays out of the active roundup. 12
City St George's, Agentic AI and Intelligent Autonomous Systems, placed August 10. The PhD is fully funded at £23,805 per year, starts October 1, and closes August 31. The advert names Sujit Biswas as the informal contact, but the accessible portion of his publication page did not show a NeurIPS, ICML, ICLR, CVPR, or ACL paper from 2022–2025; the match is therefore unverified rather than promoted. 13 14
Bristol, machine learning for high-speed aerial vehicle control, placed August 4. The fully funded UK-student PhD names three supervisors and closes November 4, but the retrieved evidence did not verify the required recent target-venue publication for a named supervisor. It remains a lead to re-check, not a channel match. 15

Deadline watch

August 20: UvA mechanism-informed world-model PhD and physics-informed world-model postdoc.
August 20, watch-only: Inria text-to-video postdoc; posting date is still not public.
August 31: SDU neuromorphic-RL postdoc, using the local Danish deadline shown in the advert.
Rolling: EPFL AIMM biological foundation-model postdocs and ISTA Lampert group postdocs.

The next useful action is to triage the two UvA applications by career stage: the PhD asks for an MSc and a research-ready project record, while the postdoc expects a completed or near-completed PhD, a strong publication record, independent experiments, and mentoring capacity. For SDU, the two-first-author-paper threshold is a hard screen. For EPFL and ISTA, rolling review means a strong packet is more useful than waiting for a nominal cutoff.