Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Computational Neuroscience

Mass General Brigham • Boston, MA

12h • Onsite

About The Position

Mass General Brigham is hiring a full-time postdoctoral research fellow for an NIH-funded project (R01NS136297, funded through November 2029) investigating why responsive neurostimulation (RNS) provides substantial seizure relief for some people with epilepsy but little benefit for others. The project uses computational methods and one of the largest RNS datasets, comprising more than 260 patients at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital, approximately 240,000 chronic ECoG recordings, stimulation histories, brain imaging, and clinical outcomes.

The fellow will join the Mapping & Engineering Neural Dynamics (MEND) Lab, led by neurosurgeon and neuroscientist Dr. John Rolston. The lab combines electrophysiology, advanced imaging, and electrical stimulation to study and treat disorders involving altered brain activity, including epilepsy, tremors, chronic pain, and psychiatric illness. The R01 project is the role’s priority, with opportunities to explore other neurological and psychiatric disorders.

The position is based in Boston’s Longwood area and is listed as hybrid, while the posting’s Remote Type field specifies onsite. The start date is flexible, with early 2027 preferred. J-1 visa sponsorship is available to qualified candidates. Compensation is listed as $71,750–$81,179, with placement dependent on experience and organizational guidelines.

Requirements

• PhD in a quantitative field such as computational neuroscience, engineering, computer science, statistics, mathematics, or physics, or an MD with equivalent quantitative training.
• Strong programming skills in Python, MATLAB, or Julia.
• Depth in signal processing, statistical modeling, or machine learning.
• At least one first-author paper or preprint.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with time-series or causal methods, neuroimaging analysis, or neural data.
• Intracranial experience is valued but is not essential.

Responsibilities

• Convert long-term ECoG and device time series into quantitative measures of brain state.
• Use statistics and machine learning to relate electrode location, stimulation timing, and brain rhythms to seizure outcomes.
• Build prediction models and validate them in prospective patients and at other centers.
• Lead first-author papers and write reproducible code.
• Conduct the NIH-funded RNS project as the priority, with potential to explore other neurological and psychiatric disorders.

Benefits

• Mentorship from Dr. Rolston, with additional day-to-day guidance from Senior Postdoctoral Research Fellow Dr. Jeremi Chabros.
• Close collaboration with surgeons and neurologists.
• Access to hospital CPU and GPU clusters.
• Support for the fellow’s own fellowship funding applications.
• J-1 visa sponsorship for qualified candidates.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree