Research Assistant I

Summary of Job Duties

The Research Assistant will work to facilitate the human behavior and neuroscience research efforts of the Brain Imaging Research Center (BIRC) by contributing to critical functions related to our ongoing projects and future research plans. The RA in this position will serve as manager of the BIRC's practice of open and reproducible neuroimaging science, including maintaining database structure and managing it for existing and new research studies. The RA will also have the opportunity to work directly with standardized pipelines of medical research data analysis, while building experience in advanced data analytics. The RA will have the opportunity to contribute to scientific publications in the BIRC. This position will also aid in the day-to-day activities within the BIRC as they relate to the recruitment, screening, enrolling, and assessing of research participants to BIRC studies, and helping to ensure all BIRC projects meet enrollment goals. Position may also entail acquisition of data using MRI or fNIRS technology, and may also entail training and conduct of BIRC research regulatory compliance practices.

Responsibilities

• Serve as manager of the BIRC's research practice of open and reproducible neuroimaging science, maintaining, improving, and implementing pipelines for neuroimaging data into BIDS by writing Python code
• Conduct supervised analyses of behavioral and neuroimaging data, including regressions relating task performance to demographic variables
• Conduct quality assurance analyses of neuroimaging data and extend behavioral analyses to model task-related changes in brain activity
• Support data analyses of structural and functional MRI data
• Enroll, screen, and assess participants for ongoing studies within the BIRC
• Screen potential participants to determine eligibility, schedule initial intake assessments, and provide reminder phone calls and texts
• Conduct informed consents and participate in behavioral data collection by conducting participant clinical interviews and assisting participants on self-report measures
• Monitor participants in follow-up portions of studies to ensure accurate and timely collection of longitudinal data
• Assist with data acquisition, including running behavioral tasks and collecting psychophysiological data, MRI data, or fNIRS data
• Assist in achieving targeted enrollment goals by engaging in recruitment strategies
• Complete research documentation to ensure accurate and up-to-date research records and participant tracking information
• Provide data management and entry, maintain RedCap electronic data capture, and establish new databases for new projects
• Serve as backup to the Research Coordinator for participant compensation using petty cash accounts and maintaining detailed compensation records
• Demonstrate the ability to work effectively in a team environment by daily interaction with BIRC faculty and staff, research participants, and administrative support
• Perform other duties as assigned

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in neuroscience, psychology, communication, data science, or a related field, plus one (1) year of research experience required.

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• Interest in acquiring skills and implementing clinical, sociodemographic, cognitive, affective, and behavioral assessments of child, adolescent, and adult study participants
• Ability to work in collaboration with clinics in Neurology and Psychology to ensure ethical practices and consistency in the collection of participant research data
• Ability to evaluate the safety of participants entering the MRI environment
• Ability to identify problems and crises that arise and resolve them or report to supervisor
• Proficient with Microsoft Office products; technology-oriented
• Familiarity with Python; fluency in Python is preferred, but not mandatory
• Knowledge of other computational languages is helpful