Postdoctoral Associate - Heart Brain Research

About the role

The Department of Neurology seeks a highly motivated Postdoctoral Associate to join a multidisciplinary research program focused on developing and validating digital biomarkers for cognitive aging, Alzheimer's disease, and related neurodegenerative disorders. The research program integrates artificial intelligence, machine learning, voice and speech analysis, retinal imaging (OCT/OCTA), clinical phenotyping, cognitive assessments, neuroimaging, and biological markers to advance early detection, prediction, and monitoring of cognitive decline. This position is a mentored research training opportunity designed to prepare the Postdoctoral Associate for independent careers in academic, clinical, or industry research.

Responsibilities

• Leads independent research projects focused on digital biomarkers for cognitive impairment, Alzheimer's disease, and related disorders.
• Develops research questions and tests novel hypotheses using multimodal clinical, imaging, biomarker, and behavioral datasets.
• Designs and conducts analyses evaluating the utility, validity, and generalizability of AI-derived biomarkers.
• Contributes to the development of new research directions and future studies.
• Develops and evaluates machine learning, computer vision, and multimodal AI approaches using voice, speech, language, OCT, and OCTA data.
• Applies supervised, unsupervised, and foundation-model approaches to classification, prediction, phenotyping, and biomarker discovery.
• Integrates clinical, cognitive, biomarker, neuroimaging, demographic, and longitudinal datasets into multimodal analyses.
• Participates in structured mentoring and career development activities.
• Receives training in advanced statistical methods, responsible AI, reproducible science, research ethics, and translational research.
• Develops skills in grant writing, study design, scientific leadership, and interdisciplinary collaboration.
• Creates an individualized professional development plan with mentoring committee guidance.
• Prepares manuscripts as lead or co-author for submission to peer-reviewed journals.
• Presents findings at local, national, and international scientific meetings.
• Contributes to progress reports, grant applications, and scientific presentations.
• Communicates research findings to scientific and clinical audiences.
• Collaborates with clinicians, imaging specialists, speech researchers, epidemiologists, statisticians, engineers, and data scientists.
• Develops reproducible computational workflows and maintains rigorous documentation practices.
• Supports collaborative projects while maintaining high standards for reproducibility, transparency, and scientific rigor.
• Performs other job-related duties as assigned.

Requirements

• MD or Ph.D. in Basic Science, Health Science, or a related field.
• No prior experience required.

Qualifications

• PhD in Neuroscience, Computer Science, Biomedical Informatics, Data Science, Engineering, Computational Linguistics, Biostatistics, or a related field.
• Graduate or postgraduate research experience in a lab working with AI, Machine Learning and/or Biomarkers.
• First-author peer-reviewed publications.
• Grant-writing experience and career development activities.

Skills

• Machine learning and deep learning methodologies
• Computer vision and multimodal AI
• Voice, speech, and language processing
• Optical coherence tomography (OCT/OCTA) analysis
• Supervised, unsupervised, and foundation‑model approaches
• Classification, prediction, phenotyping, and biomarker discovery
• Multimodal data integration (clinical, cognitive, imaging, biomarker, demographic, longitudinal)
• Advanced statistical methods
• Responsible and ethical AI practices
• Reproducible science and rigorous documentation
• Translational research
• Grant writing and study design
• Scientific leadership and interdisciplinary collaboration
• Manuscript preparation and scientific presentation
• Communication of findings to scientific and clinical audiences
• Reproducible computational workflows

Pay

Baylor College of Medicine typically follows the NIH stipulated stipend guidelines for Postdoctoral Associates.