Research Technician

Job Summary

The job provides technical support activities related to scientific research projects. Ensures compliance of research activities with institutional, state, and federal regulatory policies, procedures, directives and mandates. Assists in drafting presentations on research findings.

The Cohen Lab at the University of Chicago is looking for an intellectually curious, organized, and resourceful person to help us run and expand our neuroscience research program. We study how the brain supports perception, learning, and cognition through behavioral experiments in humans and laboratory animals, neurophysiology, and computational approaches.

Responsibilities

• Helps expand human behavioral research, including coordinating collaborations with clinical and other research groups, preparing IRB materials, setting up experiments and equipment (including eye trackers), training collaborators, maintaining experimental protocols and data-management workflows, and organizing data.
• Implements and troubleshoots computerized behavioral tasks for human and animal experiments.
• Learns the laboratory's animal research operations and develops skills to provide reliable backup support for animal-care coordination, behavioral training, regulatory documentation, and other aspects of animal research.
• Supports day-to-day laboratory operations and assists the PI with administrative and scientific tasks, including tracking deadlines and correspondence, coordinating schedules, interacting with departmental administrative staff, and preparing grant proposals, figures, and presentations.
• Provides technical and administrative support for a research project; collects and enters data; assists in analyzing data; assists with preparation of reports, manuscripts and other documents.
• Assists with the installation, setup and performance of experiments; interacts with students and other laboratory staff under the direction of the principal investigator.
• May assist recruiting and scheduling research subjects; assisting with developing or amending study protocols; assisting with developing data collection tools; assisting with building databases; and providing general administrative support.

Minimum Qualifications

Education: Minimum requirements include vocational training, apprenticeships or the equivalent experience in related field (not typically required to have a four-year degree). Work Experience: Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through 2-5 years of work experience in a related job discipline.

Preferred Qualifications

Education: A bachelor's degree in a relevant field and experience in research, laboratory operations, or research coordination.

Applicants should be comfortable working with laboratory animals and enthusiastic about learning how our animal research operates; prior animal experience is not required. Some programming experience is helpful, but the ability and enthusiasm to learn new technical skills is the essential part.

Preferred Competencies

• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to organize multiple projects, manage deadlines, and maintain accurate records.
• Comfort learning new software, experimental equipment, and technical procedures.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a dynamic research environment.
• Experience with programming, data management, human-subjects research, or laboratory operations is a plus.

Working Conditions

This is an in person position that includes working in both wet lab (animal neurophysiology) and dry lab (office; human behavioral work) conditions. This is a varied position including desk work, animal work, some light engineering, and problem solving. Our work sometimes involves lifting up to 25 pounds.