Description
The Shih Laboratory at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral Research Associate with a strong background in human fMRI, including experimental design, data acquisition, and analysis.
Our lab (http://camri.org/) is affiliated with the Biomedical Research Imaging Center (https://www.med.unc.edu/bric/) and the Department of Neurology (https://www.med.unc.edu/neurology/) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
We have recently been awarded new resources to translate SORDINO into human MRI platforms. SORDINO is an fMRI technique that achieves near-silent imaging while simultaneously improving robustness to motion, susceptibility artifacts, and electromagnetic interference, as well as augmenting detection sensitivity and specificity. Leveraging continuously rotating gradient encoding with nearly constant gradient slew rate, SORDINO samples data at zero TE and introduces novel contrast mechanisms that complement conventional BOLD fMRI. Together, these advances have the potential to substantially expand the scope of human neuroimaging by facilitating experiments that are difficult or impossible with existing techniques, including studies during active behavior, speech, naturalistic interactions, and multimodal recordings. A recent description of the technique can be found here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40161795/. Recent publications from the Shih lab can be found here: https://camri.org/publications/
The successful candidate will play a leading role in designing and executing innovative human neuroscience experiments that capitalize on the unique capabilities of SORDINO. We are looking for an enthusiastic and highly motivated scientist who is excited not only about advancing fMRI technology, but also about developing and leading novel human neuroscience studies that become possible because of silent, artifact-resistant functional neuroimaging.
The postdoctoral fellow will work closely with an interdisciplinary team of MRI physicists, neuroscientists, engineers, and clinicians to translate and optimize SORDINO for human MRI systems, design and lead cutting-edge human fMRI studies enabled by silent imaging, develop acquisition, reconstruction, and analysis pipelines for this emerging technology, disseminate findings through publications and presentations at international conferences, and support the sharing and implementation of SORDINO across collaborating research sites.
This position offers an exceptional opportunity to help establish a new workflow for human fMRI while working in a highly collaborative neuroimaging research environment at UNC-Chapel Hill.
For inquiries regarding this position, please contact:
Dr. Yen-Yu Ian Shih
Professor and Vice Chair for Research, Department of Neurology
Associate Director, Biomedical Research Imaging Center
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Email: [email protected]
Requirements
Applicants should hold a Ph.D. in neuroscience, biomedical engineering, medical physics, psychology, computer science, or a related field, and have demonstrated experience in human fMRI experimental design, data acquisition, and analysis. Quantitative and programming skills (MATLAB and/or Python) are expected, along with excellent communication skills and a collaborative, highly motivated research mindset. Experience with MRI pulse sequence development or image reconstruction is desirable but not required.
