Position Description

Area: Postdoctoral Scholar in Child and Youth Mental Health/Neurodevelopment

Duration: One year; renewable for up to two additional years

Start Date: As soon as possible

Salary: $55,000-60,000/year plus Plan C health benefits through Alberta Blue Cross

The Department of Paediatrics and Community Health Sciences in the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary is accepting applications for a Postdoctoral Scholar in Child and Youth Mental Health/Neurodevelopment. 

Job Description:

Our team is recruiting a scholar to become part of an active and innovative research program funded by CIHR that focusses on links between early life environments and mental health and neurodevelopment in children and youth. The scholar’s work will focus on mental health and neurodevelopment; however, the work and opportunities are interdisciplinary (including: stress, nutrition, gut microbiota, brain imaging, and epigenetics). The scholar will collaborate with other postdoctoral scholars who are experts in nutrition, brain development and gut microbiota. The source data for the scholar’s work will be several ongoing cohort studies that are prospectively collecting data starting in pregnancy with multiple waves of follow-up in children. One of these cohorts was initiated in 2010 (n = 450) and the other during the COVID-19 pandemic (n > 11,000). We have/are collecting anthropometric, dietary, and questionnaire data to accurately document nutritional intake and dietary patterns, physiological and psychological experiences of stress and mental health, behavioral and social outcomes in children, comprehensive neurocognitive assessments, and biomarkers (including saliva, hair, stool, buccal cells, blood). The scholar will have immediate access to this data to address questions related to early emerging mental health problems. In additional to a focus on data analysis, writing manuscripts, and learning new skills related to child development, the scholar will have opportunities to contribute to new data collection with children 1-4 years of age and adolescents age 9-14 years of age, and to designing new projects for further follow-up.

Qualifications:

  • Applicants must have completed a PhD within the last 2 years
  • Applicants must hold a PhD and have expertise in clinical or behavioral assessment of mental health or neurodevelopment
  • Desired qualifications also include experience with (or training in) experimental and longitudinal research design and analysis
  • Applicants are required to have demonstrated capacity to work effectively in a collaborative and interdisciplinary environment
  • Scholars are expected to engage in full-time research activities and actively engage in the University of Calgary’s professional development program as opportunities are being offered
  • The successful scholar will be strongly encouraged to apply for national/international awards

Application Details:

The postdoctoral scholar will be supervised by Dr. Gerry Giesbrecht in the Developmental Psychobiology Laboratory https://ucalgary.ca/devpsychlab/. For more information, or to apply, please contact Dr. Giesbrecht (ggiesbre@ucalgary.ca).

Our research group is committed to enhancing and supporting equity, diversity and inclusion. Applicants from diverse backgrounds, including age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, language, national origin, race, religion, culture, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, and socioeconomic status, are encouraged to apply. Our commitment is demonstrated in our academic work, clinical training, and research.

Additional information:
The terms and conditions of employment are covered under the UCalgary and PDAC Collective Agreement. To find out more about postdoctoral scholar program at the University of Calgary as well as eligibility criteria, visit our Postdocs website.  

Additional Information

To learn more about postdoctoral scholar opportunities at the University of Calgary and all we have to offer, view our Postdoc Careers website. For more information about the Cumming School of Medicine visit Careers in the Cumming School of Medicine.

The University strongly recommends all faculty and staff are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

About the University of Calgary

The University of Calgary is Canada’s leading next-generation university – a living, growing and youthful institution that embraces change and opportunity with a can-do attitude. Located in the nation’s most enterprising city, the university is making tremendous progress on its Eyes High journey to be recognized as one of Canada’s top five research universities, grounded in innovative learning and teaching and fully integrated with the community it both serves and leads. The University of Calgary inspires and supports discovery, creativity and innovation across all disciplines. For more information, visit ucalgary.ca.

To succeed as one of Canada’s top universities, where new ideas are created, tested and applied through first-class teaching and research, the University of Calgary needs more of the best minds in our classrooms and labs. We’re increasing our scholarly capacity by investing in people who want to change the world, bringing the best and brightest to Calgary to form a global intellectual hub and achieve advances that matter to everyone. For more information visit research.ucalgary.ca/postdocs.

About Calgary, Alberta

Calgary is one of the world’s cleanest cities and has been named one of the world’s most livable cities for years. Calgary is a city of leaders – in business, community, philanthropy and volunteerism. Calgarians benefit from the strongest economy in the nation and enjoy more days of sunshine per year than any other major Canadian city. Calgary is less than an hour’s drive from the Rocky Mountains and boasts the most extensive urban pathway and bikeway network in North America.

The University of Calgary has launched an institution-wide Indigenous Strategy in line with the foundational goals of Eyes High, committing to creating a rich, vibrant, and culturally competent campus that welcomes and supports Indigenous Peoples, encourages Indigenous community partnerships, is inclusive of Indigenous perspectives in all that we do.

As an equitable and inclusive employer, the University of Calgary recognizes that a diverse staff/faculty benefits and enriches the work, learning and research experiences of the entire campus and greater community. We are committed to removing barriers that have been historically encountered by some people in our society. We strive to recruit individuals who will further enhance our diversity and will support their academic and professional success while they are here. In particular, we encourage members of the designated groups (women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, members of visible/racialized minorities, and diverse sexual orientation and gender identities) to apply. To ensure a fair and equitable assessment, we offer accommodation at any stage during the recruitment process to applicants with disabilities. Questions regarding [diversity] EDI at UCalgary can be sent to the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (equity@ucalgary.ca) and requests for accommodations can be sent to Human Resources (hrhire@ucalgary.ca).

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