Child Development and Neuroscience, Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research and BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute
The 2025 Webster Postdoctoral Scholar Position in Child Development and Neuroscience
Duration: 2 years
Start date: March 2025 or negotiable Salary: $60,000/yr + benefits
A collaboration between the Lady Davis Institute for Medical Research (LDI: Montreal, Quebec) and the BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute (BCCHR: Vancouver, British Columbia) is now accepting applications for the 2022 Webster Postdoctoral Scholars Program to support exceptional research trainees and generate innovative research in Child Development and Neuroscience under the mentorship of Drs. Ashley Wazana (McGill University) and Tim Oberlander (university of British Columbia) in the area of developmental neuroscience. The postdoctoral scholar will also work closely with Drs. David P Laplante and François Freddy Ateba (LDI) in onboarding the rich UBC longitudinal dataset, Pregnancy during the COVID-19 Pandemic study, into the Developmental Research in Early Adversity Mental Health BIological Susceptibility and Gender (DREAM BIG) consortium of perinatal longitudinal birth cohorts, focusing on the harmonization and analysis of the UBC perinatal maternal adversity and child mental health outcomes from the so that comparable analyses can be performed across the DREAM BIG cohorts in an effort to increase replication of mental health findings that can inform treatment and public policy.
The DREAM BIG consortium is a multi-site cohort across multiple countries (Canada, UK, Netherlands, Singapore, Norway, Finland, Australia) led by Dr Ashley Wazana at the LDI. We seek to better understand the impact of prenatal adversity and genetics on development from birth to adulthood. Our interests thus lie in the intersections of genes (using GWAS, PRS etc) and environments and their interaction (Gene-by-Environment interactions). Our team in Montreal consists of a mixture of McGill graduate students working alongside various physicians and researchers from McGill and other Canadian and international universities. The lab is academic-oriented with a focus on the theory of child and lifespan development, but always with the goal of translating that research into future policies that can improve mental health resources for mothers and their children. For more information on our team, see our website: http://dreambigresearch.com.
Dr. Wazana is a Child Psychiatrist, Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Director, Early Childhood Disorders psychiatric day hospital, Jewish General Hospital, studying pre- and perinatal influences on lifetime psychopathology. Dr. Oberlander is a Developmental Pediatrician, Professor, Dept of Pediatrics and School of Population and Public Health, studying how early experiences influence child development. Dr Laplante is a research scientist with expertise in perinatal impacts (disasters, maternal mood, socio-environmental) on development across the lifespan. Dr. Ateba is a statistician with expertise in advanced computational modeling.
The goal of the program is to support recent a PhD or MD graduate in conducting clinical and translational research with the intent to develop future leaders in Child Developmental Health research.
Applicants should have training in neuroscience, psychology, medical sciences (Pediatrics), or other relevant discipline, and experience with MR image acquisition, processing, and/or analysis.
The program provides scholars a generous stipend of $60,000/year plus benefits and additional funds are available for research- related expenses (up to $10,000/year) and for travel expenses to attend conferences (up to $3,000/year).
The PDS will be affiliated with McGill University and the Lady Davis Institute and will be expected to spend some of their time at the BCCHR. The LDI is among Canada’s leading health research institutes. The LDI boasts over 200 affiliated researchers, 175 graduate students, and over 50 postdocs. studying a range of physical and psychosocial issues that contribute to the health and well-being of Canadians. BCCHR is a University of British Columbia (UBC) Senate-approved research institute located at BC Children’s Hospital and BC Women’s Hospital & Health Centre in Vancouver, BC. BCCHR is the largest pediatric research facility in Western Canada with over 200 faculty members whose research areas include cancer, developmental neurosciences, diabetes, nutrition & metabolism, genetics, immunity and infection, reproduction, molecular medicine, health services, global health, and new technologies. For more information, visit https://www.ladydavis.ca/en/ and http://www.bcchr.ca. An annual meeting of investigators and trainees will be held in Montreal and/or Vancouver to share research questions and findings, and advance analytic methods.
Applicants should submit a letter of interest, CV, graduate transcript(s), and names and contact information for at least two references to Dr. Tim Oberlander (email: toberlander@bcchr.ca).
Closing Date:
Contact: toberlander@bcchr.ca