Job Opportunity: Research-Focused Postdoctoral Fellow, Center for Cognitive Medicine, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
The Vanderbilt Center for Cognitive Medicine in the Vanderbilt Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences is currently recruiting a new research-focused postdoctoral fellow. The candidate will primarily work in the laboratory of Dr. Warren Taylor that focuses on understanding neurobiological contributors to the occurrence and outcomes of depression in older adults. Dr. Taylor’s lab maintains 3 actively funded R01s, utilizing neuroimaging, neuropsychological, and ecological assessments to characterize participants. These are linked to clinical trials or long-term longitudinal studies examining how clinical interventions may affect clinical presentation, cognitive performance, and neuroimaging measures.
Dr. Taylor seeks to hire a scientist with expertise and interest relevant to this line of research. Both individuals with clinical training* (ie, clinical psychologists) and non-clinical training (ie, cognitive neuroscientists) would be considered. Individuals with past expertise in depression, aging/dementia, neuroimaging analysis, or advanced computational techniques would be highly competitive. The successful candidate would work directly with Dr. Taylor and other colleagues in the Center for Cognitive Medicine to analyze ongoing study data, contribute to hypothesis generation and manuscript preparation, and develop or enhance skills in the management of clinical research. Formal training in advanced data analytic techniques can be offered, depending on the candidate’s needs and interests. Over the first year of the appointment, we will work to identify specific areas of research interest that can lead to a pathway towards developing into an independent scientist. The Taylor lab currently includes 12+ full time research staff, multiple early career faculty, and numerous collaborators within and beyond Vanderbilt. Dr. Taylor and the Department more broadly are committed to fostering individual career developments and facilitating transitions to independent faculty roles.
Lab:https://www.vumc.org/laci/depression-research-vanderbilt-university-medical-center
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences: https://www.vumc.org/psychiatry/welcome
Responsibilities. Primary activities for the fellow include participation in all aspects of research: Analysis, interpretation, and publication of results; Develop independent research projects including grant-writing; Interact with multidisciplinary investigators and collaborators; Engage in training activities within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and broader Vanderbilt University.
Qualifications:
• Graduate degree in related area (e.g., cognitive neuroscience, clinical psychology, or engineering / statistical expertise with neuroimaging)
• Demonstrated interest in aging, depression, neuropsychology, and/or neuroimaging.
• Attention to detail, particularly with implementing project protocols, collecting data to ensure data accuracy and integrity, and managing/ analyzing data.
• Excellent written and oral communication skills.
• Good computer skills. Programming skills or statistical analytic skills a plus.
• Ability to work independently and to collaborate with a variety of team members.
*Please note that while we welcome candidates with clinical background and training, this research postdoctoral position does not offer clinical experiences and supervision necessary for licensure. If you are currently licensed and would like to engage in limited, unsupervised clinical work, hybrid research-clinical positions can be considered.