Research Postdoctoral Fellow - Kids NeuroDevelopment (KiND) Laboratory

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

20h • Onsite

About The Position

Under the direction/guidance of a mentor (principal investigator), the Postdoctoral Fellow assumes responsibility for a specific, on-going research project. This experience is designed to extend, refine, and enhance skills necessary for professional and career development, broadening the individual's scientific background by acquiring new research capabilities. 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, is seeking a Postdoctoral Scholar. This role will work on a Wellcome Trust–funded project called RAISE-AI (Resilience Across Intergenerational Stresses and Emotional Health through AI-Enabled Discovery), which examines intergenerational mechanisms of anxiety risk. The project investigates how anxiety signals are transmitted from parents to children during naturalistic interactions, integrating 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, offering a unique opportunity to model emotional communication dynamics within families and advance understanding of anxiety development 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, integrating audio, video, language, and physiological signals, and offers opportunities for clinical, developmental, and machine-learning–focused publications. The fellow will receive close mentorship from Dr. White and collaborators, with opportunities to develop independent research projects and interdisciplinary collaborations.

Requirements

• A 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 if working in patient care buildings or having 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
• Candidates interested in developing or evaluating AI models in real-world behavioral contexts, particularly those motivated by applications in mental health and human development

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
• Communicate research 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 (as required)
• Develop new methods and protocols for research
• Assist with the development of other research projects in the lab
• 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: Entry Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees