Job Posting Title:

Postdoctoral Fellow - Dula Lab, Department of Neurology, Dell Medical School

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Hiring Department:

Department of Neurology

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Position Open To:

All Applicants

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Weekly Scheduled Hours:

40

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FLSA Status:

Exempt

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Earliest Start Date:

Immediately

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Position Duration:

Expected to Continue Until Nov 30, 2023

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Location:

UT MAIN CAMPUS

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Job Details:

General Notes

The Department of Neurology is recruiting a Postdoctoral Fellow in the area of acute stroke neuroimage processing, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (CT) images. This position requires attention to detail to develop and maintain robust procedures for neuroimaging processing and lesion segmentation. This position also involves personal initiative and problem-solving skills to address any obstacles faced with data organization, quality control, quantitative measure calculation, and lesion segmentation. The postdoctoral fellow will also be working with the PI, department, sponsors, and institution to support the compliance, financial, personnel and other related aspects of the study.

This is a multidisciplinary research project where the candidate will have opportunity to interact with collaborators at the NIH as well as in industry. A successful candidate will possess effective project management skills, including the ability to plan, organize and schedule work in an efficient and productive manner, focusing on key priorities and meeting deadlines; possess great attention to detail and effective follow-through; have initiative to complete tasks before being asked and be able to independently manage image processing pipelines; and be flexible and adaptable to change.

A hybrid work schedule can be accommodated; however, study activities will require in-person work at times and occasional travel to the NIH. This is a temporary position with a one year fixed term and is renewable based upon availability of funding, work performance, and progress toward research goals.   

Purpose

The postdoctoral research fellow will develop and implement neuroimaging processing pipelines to investigate perfusion and diffusion-based thresholds currently used to evaluate ischemic stroke neuroimaging. The candidate will be working in a highly collaborative environment within the Departments of Neurology and Diagnostic Medicine as well as collaborating with colleagues at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Responsibilities

• Assist PIs to develop study protocols and procedure manuals

• Facilitate institutional review board (IRB) applications, submissions, and updates across multiple sites

• Ensure completion of contract requirements and project specifications

• Establish image data storage and curation

• Develop quality control for image data

• Develop and implement perfusion weighted image processing to extract measures of cerebral blood flow and perfusion timing

• Develop and implement longitudinal image co-registration, motion correction, and lesion segmentation

• Determine optimal perfusion threshold for predicting final infarct volume

• Complete training in image reads and assist in reading ischemic stroke images for comparison to processing pipelines

• Develop and maintain timelines in coordination with PIs

• Collaborate with PIs and project investigators to prepare methodological notes, reports, presentations and other dissemination activities related to the project activities

• Manage assigned projects with an emphasis on coordination and communication with research sponsors, investigators and research team members

• Assist in training project staff and research assistants

• Help to facilitate project collaborations and team work

• Other related functions as assigned

Required Qualifications

PhD degree in a relevant field (BME, ECE, Physics, Neuroscience, etc.) received within the last three (3) years and experience in neuroimage processing (packages such as: SPM, FSL, ITK-SNAP, etc.). Strong programming skills (Python, R, C++, or Java), biostatistical skills, and experience with high-performance computation. Experience in curating and managing large databases of multimodal neuroimaging data. Excellent record of publishing in relevant, high-quality journals in the above fields. Excellent communication abilities in English; spoken and written. The Dell Medical School is especially interested in qualified candidates who can contribute to diversity and excellence within the learning health system. At the Dell Medical School we strive to create a vital, inclusive health ecosystem. To ensure alignment, we follow these fundamental values: https://dellmed.utexas.edu/culture . 

Preferred Qualifications

Previous experience with neuroimaging analysis and data management in clinical health research.

Salary Range

$54,840 + depending on qualifications

Working Conditions

• May work around standard office conditions

• Repetitive use of a keyboard at a workstation

• Use of manual dexterity

• Occasional weekend, overtime and evening work to meet deadlines

• Occasional interstate, intrastate and international travel

Required Materials

• Resume/CV

• 3 work references with their contact information; at least one reference should be from a supervisor

• Letter of interest

Important for applicants who are NOT current university employees or contingent workers: You will be prompted to submit your resume the first time you apply, then you will be provided an option to upload a new Resume for subsequent applications. Any additional Required Materials (letter of interest, references, etc.) will be uploaded in the Application Questions section; you will be able to multi-select additional files. Before submitting your online job application, ensure that ALL Required Materials have been uploaded.  Once your job application has been submitted, you cannot make changes.

Important for Current university employees and contingent workers: As a current university employee or contingent worker, you MUST apply within Workday by searching for Find UT Jobs. If you are a current University employee, log-in to Workday, navigate to your Worker Profile, click the Career link in the left hand navigation menu and then update the sections in your Professional Profile before you apply. This information will be pulled in to your application. The application is one page and you will be prompted to upload your resume. In addition, you must respond to the application questions presented to upload any additional Required Materials (letter of interest, references, etc.) that were noted above.

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Employment Eligibility:

Please make sure you meet all the required qualifications and you can perform all of the essential functions with or without a reasonable accommodation.

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Retirement Plan Eligibility:

The retirement plan for this position is Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS), subject to the position being at least 20 hours per week and at least 135 days in length. This position has the option to elect the Optional Retirement Program (ORP) instead of TRS, subject to the position being 40 hours per week and at least 135 days in length.

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Background Checks:

A criminal history background check will be required for finalist(s) under consideration for this position.

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Equal Opportunity Employer:

The University of Texas at Austin, as an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer , complies with all applicable federal and state laws regarding nondiscrimination and affirmative action. The University is committed to a policy of equal opportunity for all persons and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, disability, religion, or veteran status in employment, educational programs and activities, and admissions.

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Pay Transparency:

The University of Texas at Austin will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor’s legal duty to furnish information.

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Employment Eligibility Verification:

If hired, you will be required to complete the federal Employment Eligibility Verification I-9 form.  You will be required to present acceptable and original documents to prove your identity and authorization to work in the United States.  Documents need to be presented no later than the third day of employment.  Failure to do so will result in loss of employment at the university.

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E-Verify:

The University of Texas at Austin use E-Verify to check the work authorization of all new hires effective May 2015. The university’s company ID number for purposes of E-Verify is 854197. For more information about E-Verify, please see the following:

• E-Verify Poster (English) [PDF]
• E-Verify Poster (Spanish) [PDF]
• Right To Work Poster (English) [PDF]
• Right To Work Poster (Spanish) [PDF]

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Compliance:

Employees may be required to report violations of law under Title IX and the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act). If this position is identified a Campus Security Authority (Clery Act), you will be notified and provided resources for reporting. Responsible employees under Title IX are defined and outlined in HOP-3031 .

The Clery Act requires all prospective employees be notified of the availability of the Annual Security and Fire Safety report. You may access the most recent report here or obtain a copy at University Compliance Services, 1616 Guadalupe Street, UTA 2.206, Austin, Texas 78701.