Research Postdoctoral Fellow - Kids NeuroDevelopment (KiND) Laboratory

Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia • Philadelphia, PA

21h • Onsite

About The Position

Under the direction/guidance of a mentor (principal investigator), assumes responsibility for a specific, on-going research project. The experience will serve to extend, refine and enhance skills necessary for professional and career development, and will enable the individual to broaden his/her scientific background by acquiring new research capabilities. It is expected that this individual will conduct independent scholarly research, and will contribute directly to the overall research goals of the project and the research group. This role will be expected to participate in project planning, recording and interpretation/evaluation of data, and communication of results. This position will also be expected to acquire technical, lab management, and manuscript/grant writing skills; and participate in seminars, lectures, poster sessions and presentations at national meetings. This role also may be required to supervise junior lab members, develop new methods and protocols for research, and assist with the development of other research projects in the lab. The Kids NeuroDevelopment (KiND) Laboratory in the Lifespan Brain Institute at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the University of Pennsylvania, led by Dr. Lauren K. White, seeks a Postdoctoral Scholar to work on a Wellcome Trust–funded project examining intergenerational mechanisms of anxiety risk. The project, RAISE-AI (Resilience Across Intergenerational Stresses and Emotional Health through AI-Enabled Discovery), investigates how anxiety signals are transmitted from parents to children during naturalistic interactions. Using multimodal behavioral and physiological data (e.g., language, prosody, facial affect, posture, and autonomic physiology indexed by heart rate variability [HRV], including respiratory sinus arrhythmia [RSA]), RAISE-AI integrates developmental science with generative AI approaches to identify mechanisms through which parental stress and anxiety shape children’s emotional responses in real time. The resulting dataset includes high-resolution audiovisual interaction data, behavioral measures, and physiological signals, creating a unique opportunity to model the moment-to-moment dynamics of emotional communication within families and advance understanding of how anxiety risk develops across generations. RAISE-AI is a large interdisciplinary collaboration spanning CHOP, the University of Pennsylvania, and Drexel University. The project provides a rare opportunity to work with large-scale, high-resolution multimodal datasets of parent-child interactions, integrating audio, video, language, and physiological signals. Candidates interested in developing or evaluating AI models in real-world behavioral contexts, particularly those motivated by applications in mental health and human development, will find a rich collaborative environment bridging developmental science and artificial intelligence. The project will also generate open benchmarks, shared protocols, and publishable multimodal modeling contributions, creating opportunities for clinical, developmental, and machine-learning–focused publications. The postdoctoral scholar will primarily be responsible for analyzing data, contributing to model development and evaluation, and leading scientific papers and conference presentations. Additional responsibilities may include collaboration with research staff and trainees and contributing to ongoing interdisciplinary research activities. The fellow will receive close mentorship from Dr. White and collaborators across institutions, with opportunities to develop independent research projects and interdisciplinary collaborations.

Requirements

• PhD in psychology, neuroscience, computer science, engineering, or a related field is required by the appointment date
• Strong data analysis and programming skills (e.g., Python, R, or related tools)
• Experience working with complex behavioral or multimodal datasets
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively on interdisciplinary projects
• Excellent scientific writing skills
• Ability to wear a respirator device
• Receive an annual influenza vaccine (as a condition of employment for those who work in patient care buildings or who have patient facing responsibilities)

Nice To Haves

• Interests in developmental science, mental health, computational methods, or multimodal behavioral data analysis
• Interests in computational approaches to behavior, multimodal machine learning, natural language processing, computer vision, or affective computing

Responsibilities

• Assume responsibility for a specific, on-going research project
• Conduct independent scholarly research
• Contribute directly to the overall research goals of the project and the research group
• Participate in project planning, recording and interpretation/evaluation of data, and communication of results
• Acquire technical, lab management, and manuscript/grant writing skills
• Participate in seminars, lectures, poster sessions and presentations at national meetings
• Supervise junior lab members (may be required)
• Develop new methods and protocols for research (may be required)
• Assist with the development of other research projects in the lab (may be required)
• Analyze data
• Contribute to model development and evaluation
• Lead scientific papers and conference presentations
• Collaborate with research staff and trainees
• Contribute to ongoing interdisciplinary research activities

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees