Postdoctoral fellows

STATUS:     Hiring (see below).

As of May 2024, we are hiring 1 postdoctoral fellow:

The Pelham Lab at UC San Diego Department of Psychiatry is seeking a Postdoctoral Fellow, to begin as soon as possible.

This position is ideal for a candidate seeking an academic research career and especially who may wish to seek a faculty position at UCSD after completion of the fellowship.

The fellow will be funded on three NIH-funded research projects investigating externalizing psychopathology, substance use, and/or parenting of children and adolescents.

The fellow’s primary responsibilities will be writing manuscripts and conducting statistical analyses.

The fellow is expected to be a co-author on all manuscripts resulting from the three NIH-funded research projects and to lead their own papers that are consistent with the broader set of Scientific Aims and their own interests.

The fellow will not have any duties pertaining to primary data collection (i.e., running participants).

Thus, this position is ideal for someone hoping to increase their publication record during postdoc. We anticipate between 5-10 publications per year arising from these activities.

Environment:

The fellow will be working in one of the premiere psychology/psychiatry research environments in the world. The UCSD Department of Psychiatry ranks 4th in the United States for total research funding, has more than 200 faculty members including national experts in many domains, and devotes extensive resources to postdoctoral training. The fellow may attend UCSD's biweekly Addiction Seminar, hosted by a NIAAA-funded T32 training program in alcohol research; participate in an annual Psychiatry Grant Writing Seminar and/or career development award (K) writing group; and attend speaker series through Psychiatry Grand Rounds and the Center for Human Development.

The fellow will join a cohort of 3 postdoctoral fellows already working in the lab.

Also, our lab space is an 8-minute drive from the beach. 

Grantwriting:

The fellow’s participation in grantwriting is optional but encouraged. Training in grantwriting is provided by Dr. Pelham as well as senior colleagues in the department. The previous postdoctoral fellow in this position successfully secured two grants as PI totaling >$300k.

Pathways to a faculty position at UCSD are available for fellows who secure external funding. The School of Medicine has an exceptional track record of mentoring postdoctoral fellows into funded faculty positions. For example, more than 20 faculty members at UCSD hold active research career development (K) awards from NIDA/NIAAA.

Clinical licensure:

UC San Diego is considered an exempt setting by the California Board of Psychology (https://www.psychology.ca.gov/applicants/index.shtml). Completion of supervised clinical research as part of this fellowship may count toward supervised professional experience (SPE) hours for clinical licensure in the State of California.

The position includes a generous benefits package (medical, dental, vision). See https://postdoc.ucsd.edu/postdocs/benefits-services.html for information about benefits. 

Required qualifications:

• Doctoral level degree in clinical psychology or related discipline

Preferred qualifications:

• Evidence of research productivity including first-author publications

• Training and experience in substance use/addiction

• Training and experience in conduct problems/delinquency

• Training and experience in child/adolescent psychology/psychiatry

• Training and experience in statistical analysis and research design

• Competencies with statistical software such as R or Mplus