Research Specialist D

Hybrid Eligible

Med Sch Richards Building - 3rd Floor

Full time

JR

University Overview

The University of Pennsylvania, the largest private employer in Philadelphia, is a world-renowned leader in education, research, and innovation. This historic, Ivy League school consistently ranks among the top 10 universities in the annual U.S. News & World Report survey. Penn has 12 highly-regarded schools that provide opportunities for undergraduate, graduate and continuing education, all influenced by Penn's distinctive interdisciplinary approach to scholarship and learning.

As an employer Penn has been ranked nationally on many occasions with the most recent award from Forbes who named Penn one of America's Best Large Employers in 2023.

Penn offers a unique working environment within the city of Philadelphia. The University is situated on a beautiful urban campus, with easy access to a range of educational, cultural, and recreational activities. With its historical significance and landmarks, lively cultural offerings, and wide variety of atmospheres, Philadelphia is the perfect place to call home for work and play.

The University offers a competitive benefits package that includes excellent healthcare and tuition benefits for employees and their families, generous retirement benefits, a wide variety of professional development opportunities, supportive work and family benefits, a wealth of health and wellness programs and resources, and much more.

Posted Job Title

Research Specialist D

Job Profile Title

Research Specialist D

Job Description Summary

The Research Specialist works closely with the principal investigator as well as other collaborating investigators and CNDS staff in carrying out CNDS research. The Research Specialist works closely with the principal investigator as well as other collaborating investigators and CNDS staff in carrying out CNDS research. He/she conducts human neuroimaging research focused on the neuroscience of depression, post-traumatic stress and anxiety.

The Research Specialist will understand and utilize AFNI, ANTs, FSL, Free surfer, Connectome Workbench, fMRIPrep for existing functional MRI analysis. He/she will design, implement and program functional MRI analysis pipelines using shell scripting, MATLAB, and Python and will use advanced statistical analysis including multivariate methods, data reduction techniques, structural equation modeling, survival analysis and Bayesian hierarchical imaging models, graph neural networks.

The specialist will develop new skills and analysis techniques across a number of research methodologies, to adapt the latest advanced analytic techniques to the datasets, for example support vector machine classifiers. In addition, he/she is expected to have advanced programming skills to troubleshoot problem scripts in various aspects of data analysis, including the Real Time data that is transferred to the cloud for analysis, the development and acquisition of novel brain targets for TMS stimulation and troubleshooting data harmonization across sites.

He/she will have knowledge of JavaScript, Python and HTML to supervise the maintenance of the CNDS website by other CNDS personnel. The Research Specialist will oversee the management of data for 2 large multi-center grants. For one of them Penn is the data coordinating center, responsible for harmonizing and analyzing the data across all 4 sites. For the other, multi-center grant, Penn is the corresponding site, responsible to NIMH for all data inquiries.

He/she will assist with programming methods for a cloud-based data analysis stream, with advanced scripts to implement the data processing to capture the fMRI data in the scanner, transmit it to the cloud where it undergoes machine learning decision making and then is sent back to the scanner. He/she will be responsible for the targeting of brain targets for a new focused ultrasound sonication.

He/she will hold an engineering degree or a degree in a related field and will be responsible for maintaining the transducer and its connections as well as for fMRI data analysis of the LIFU intervention. As additional new projects are inaugurated he/she will…