Post Doctoral Fellow Interventional Psychiatry Program

AI, Neuroscience, and Mental Health

AI for Mental Health Program (AI-M)

Department of Psychiatry – St. Michael’s Hospital, University of Toronto

The AI for Mental Health Program (AI-M) at the University of Toronto, led by Dr. Venkat Bhat, is recruiting Postdoctoral Fellows to work at the intersection of artificial intelligence, neuroscience, and mental health.

The program is building a research initiative centered around a core scientific question:
How can the reciprocal relationship between neuroscience and artificial intelligence transform the understanding and treatment of mental illness?

Neuroscience → AI:
Insights from brain circuits, cognition, and psychiatric disorders inform the development of brain-inspired AI architectures and learning paradigms.

AI → Neuroscience:
Advances in machine learning enable new approaches to analyzing multimodal brain and behavioral data, discovering biomarkers, and designing adaptive interventions for psychiatric disorders.

The program aims to develop next-generation computational and clinical approaches to mental health, grounded in both biological mechanisms and modern AI systems.

• Psychiatry and clinical neuroscience
• Artificial intelligence and machine learning
• Biomedical engineering
• Neuroimaging and neurophysiology
• Digital health and clinical informatics

Postdoctoral Fellows will have opportunities to collaborate with researchers across multiple hospitals and institutes within Toronto’s academic health science network, including collaborations with teams at Toronto Western Hospital and the KITE Research Institute on projects involving neurostimulation and neurotechnology.

The program provides access to large multimodal datasets, clinical trial infrastructure, and emerging digital mental health platforms, creating a unique environment for translational AI research in mental health.

Postdoctoral Fellows work in a variety of departments and units set in offices, laboratories, and clinical research sites. Working closely with and receiving advice and direction from a supervising scientist, the fellow is expected to develop a specialized area of research and expertise.

A Postdoctoral Fellowship Is An Extension Of Academic Training Received During The Doctoral Degree And Is Designed To Support The Transition Toward An Independent Research Career. Primary

Responsibilities Include:

• Developing research ideas and designing research studies under the direction of a supervising scientist
• Leading or managing components of research projects and clinical studies
• Developing machine learning models and computational approaches for mental health data
• Writing manuscripts, research proposals, and grant applications
• Presenting research findings at scientific meetings and conferences
• Mentoring students and trainees within the research program

Postdoctoral Fellows may work on one or more of the following research areas:

• Develop machine learning models integrating diverse data sources such as:
  • Clinical assessments
  • Neuroimaging and electrophysiology
  • Neurostimulation data
  • Digital phenotyping and wearable data
  • Behavioral and longitudinal health data

• Design and evaluate agentic AI systems and conversational agents capable of:
  • Supporting mental health interventions
  • Personalizing treatment strategies
  • Assisting clinical decision-making
  • Enabling scalable digital mental health care

• Develop computational models linking:
  • Neural circuits
  • Cognitive processes
  • Psychiatric symptoms
  • Treatment response

• Apply AI and data science approaches to improve:
  • Patient stratification
  • Prediction of treatment response
  • Adaptive clinical trial design
  • Real-world deployment of digital therapeutics

• Collaborate with researchers at Toronto Western Hospital and the KITE Research Institute to analyze large…