Post Doctoral Fellow

Salary and benefits are commensurate with experience and education, following NIH postdoctoral guidelines and University of Houston policies. This position is grant funded with an initial appointment for one year, renewable contingent upon satisfactory performance and continued funding. The anticipated start date is Fall 2026, with flexibility available.

About the role

The Laboratory of Early Experience and Development (LEED), directed by Dr. Johanna Bick at the University of Houston, invites applications for a Postdoctoral Research Fellow to join a newly funded NICHD R01. This longitudinal randomized controlled trial (RCT) examines whether a scalable parenting intervention can improve early brain development and socioemotional functioning in infants born preterm. The study integrates infant MRI, EEG, autonomic physiology, and behavioral assessments across the first two years of life to investigate how supportive caregiving influences developing neural systems underlying social development, emotion regulation, and mental health. The position offers an opportunity to contribute to a large, longitudinal, multimodal neuroimaging study while developing an independent research program in developmental cognitive neuroscience.

The fellow will join a collaborative team of developmental psychologists, neuroscientists, pediatricians, neonatologists, and imaging scientists, with access to state-of-the-art infant neuroimaging resources through the University of Houston and collaborating institutions.

Responsibilities

• Help oversee day-to-day implementation of a longitudinal NICHD R01 randomized controlled trial.
• Manage and coordinate infant MRI, EEG, physiological, and behavioral data collection.
• Process and analyze infant MRI (structural, diffusion, and resting-state fMRI) and EEG data.
• Develop reproducible analysis pipelines using modern neuroimaging software.
• Lead and contribute to first-author and collaborative manuscripts.
• Present findings at national and international scientific meetings.
• Mentor graduate students, research assistants, and undergraduate trainees.
• Contribute to grant development, fellowship applications, and future NIH proposals.
• Participate in an active, interdisciplinary research environment focused on early brain development, intervention science, and developmental psychopathology.

Requirements

• Ph.D. in Psychology, Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, Biomedical Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field.
• Experience with neuroimaging data analysis (MRI, EEG, or related modalities).
• Programming skills (Python, R, MATLAB, Bash, or similar).
• Strong quantitative skills (e.g., longitudinal data analysis, mixed-effects modeling, or machine learning).
• Excellent scientific writing and communication skills.
• Ability to work both independently and collaboratively in a multidisciplinary research team.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience with Linux computing environments.
• Infant or pediatric neuroimaging.
• Structural MRI, diffusion MRI, and/or resting-state fMRI analysis.
• Infant EEG data collection, preprocessing, and analysis (EEGLAB, ERPLAB, FieldTrip).
• MRI processing software including FSL, FreeSurfer, MRtrix, AFNI, Connectome Workbench, or related packages.
• Docker, Git, high-performance computing, or cloud-based workflows.
• Longitudinal data analysis, mixed-effects modeling, or machine learning.
• Experience mentoring students or coordinating research projects.

Candidates with backgrounds in developmental neuroscience, developmental psychopathology, infant brain development, neuroimaging methods, intervention research, or computational neuroscience are especially encouraged to apply.

Research Environment

The LEED Lab studies how early experiences shape brain development and mental health across infancy and early childhood using multimodal neuroimaging, psychophysiology, behavioral observation, intervention research, and longitudinal developmental methods. Current projects include:

• Infant structural, diffusion, and functional MRI.
• EEG and neural markers of emotion regulation.
• Autonomic nervous system development.
• Prematurity and early brain development.
• Caregiving, adversity, and resilience.
• Early predictors of developmental and mental health outcomes.

The postdoctoral fellow will have opportunities to collaborate broadly across developmental neuroscience, psychology, pediatrics, neonatology, psychiatry, and biomedical engineering.