Research Specialist

University of Wisconsin Madison•Madison, WI

10d•Onsite

About The Position

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 cognitive neuroscience experiments, 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.

Requirements

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.
A Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology, Neurobiology or related field is required by the start date of position.

Nice To Haves

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.

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).