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Job Category:
Academic Staff
Employment Type:
Terminal (Fixed Term)
Job Profile:
Research Specialist
Job Summary:
The Research Specialist will work closely with PhD-level scientists to recruit healthy young-adults to serve as research subjects for cognitive neuroscience experiments, and to collect data for these experiments. These experiments will test hypotheses about the neural bases of visual cognition in humans, with an emphasis on attention and working memory. They will use methods that include behavior (i.e., "conventional experimental psychology"), eye tracking, electroencephalography (EEG), functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), often several of these in combination.
Additional duties may include programming experimental tasks and carrying out preprocessing and preliminary descriptive and inferential statistical analyses of data, and so the ideal candidate will have facility with matlab, python, R, and related programming environments.
Responsibilities will also include subject recruitment, ensuring compliance with IRB protocols and reporting subject demographics to the IRB and the NIH, and supervision of undergraduate research assistants as well as contributing to their learning about cognitive neuroscience research.
Occasional weeknight hours and Saturday work hours are required.
Additional Information:
Terminal, 12 month appointment
This position requires work to be completed onsite, at a designated campus work location.
This position has the possibility to be extended or converted to an ongoing appointment based on need and/or funding.
This position has been identified as a position of trust with access to vulnerable populations. The selected candidate will be required to pass an initial caregiver check to be eligible for employment under the Wisconsin Caregiver Law and every four years.
Key Job Responsibilities:
- Provides operational guidance on day-to-day activities of unit or program staff and/or student workers
- Operates, cleans, and maintains organization of research equipment and research area. Tracks inventory levels and places replenishment orders
- Conducts research experiments according to established research protocols with moderate impact to the project(s). Collects data and monitors test results
- Reviews, analyzes, and interprets data and/or documents results for presentations and/or reporting to internal and external audiences
- Performs literature reviews and writes reports
- Collects data on subject recruitment numbers and demographics for reporting to the IRB and the NIH; keeps IRB protocols up to date (including changes of personnel corresponding to student workers).
Department:
School of Medicine and Public Health, Department of Psychiatry, Postle Lab
The Department of Psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin-Madison is committed to basic and clinical research that furthers the understanding and development of new treatments for patients with mental illness, training the next generation of leaders, and providing excellent patient care to a broad range of patients.
Compensation:
Negotiable, 12 months
Employees in this position can expect to receive benefits such as generous vacation, holidays, and sick leave; competitive insurances and savings accounts; retirement benefits. For more information, refer to the campus benefits webpage and SMPH Faculty /Academic Staff Benefits Flyer 2026.
Required Qualifications:
Demonstrated excellence in collecting and/or analyzing data in a psychology or cognitive neuroscience laboratory.
Demonstrated potential for excellence in matlab programming environment.
Demonstrated potential for excellence with the R statistical analysis package.
Preferred Qualifications:
Demonstrated excellence in recruiting and screening human subjects for research studies.
Demonstrated excellence in collecting behavioral, EEG and/or fMRI data as part of cognitive neuroscience research, and processing such data.
Demonstrated excellence with the python programming environment.
Demonstrated excellence with the AFNI software package for MRI/fMRI data analysis.
Education:
How to Apply:
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• Cover letter required
• Resume required
Your cover letter should address how your training and experience aligns with the required and preferred qualifications listed above. Application reviewers will rely on these written materials to determine which applicants move forward in the process. References will be requested from final candidates. All applicants will be notified once the search concludes and a candidate is selected
Contact Information:
KaBao Chang, kchang52@wisc.edu, 608-263-6062
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Diversity is a source of strength, creativity, and innovation for UW-Madison. We value the contributions of each person and respect the profound ways their identity, culture, background, experience, status, abilities, and opinion enrich the university community. We commit ourselves to the pursuit of excellence in teaching, research, outreach, and diversity as inextricably linked goals.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison fulfills its public mission by creating a welcoming and inclusive community for people from every background - people who as students, faculty, and staff serve Wisconsin and the world.
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to, including but not limited to, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, pregnancy, disability, or status as a protected veteran and other bases as defined by federal regulations and UW System policies. We promote excellence by acknowledging skills and expertise from all backgrounds and encourage all qualified individuals to apply. For more information regarding applicant and employee rights and to view federal and state required postings, visit the Human Resources Workplace Poster website.
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