Postdoc Employee - The Building Blocks of Cognition Laboratory - Psychology

The Building Blocks of Cognition Laboratory, headed by Silvia Bunge in the UC Berkeley Department of Psychology, studies the cognitive and neural processes that support reasoning, memory and goal-directed behavior. The postdoctoral scholar works on the National Institute of Mental Health project "Narrowing the mechanistic gap for anterior prefrontal cortex function", which investigates the lateral anterior prefrontal cortex - involved in planning, multitasking, reasoning, memory-retrieval monitoring and decision-making - using fMRI, structural MRI and diffusion-weighted imaging on the 3 T and 7 T scanners of the Berkeley Brain Imaging Center, with collaborators including Kevin Weiner and the lab of MR physicist David Feinberg.

Duties include analysing fMRI data integrated with structural MRI and/or DTI, leading manuscripts, presenting at conferences and mentoring lab trainees. Full-time two-year appointment with possible renewal, anticipated start January 2027; minimum salary range USD 71,491-85,736. Review of applications began on 30 July 2026; the final application date is 14 December 2026. Applications received after the review date are considered only if the position has not been filled.

PhD or equivalent (or enrolment in a PhD program) at application, with the PhD completed by the start date and no more than 3 years of post-PhD research experience. Preferred: PhD in neuroscience or psychology, a publication record in human cognitive neuroscience, fMRI acquisition and current analysis methods, Python coding, statistics in Python or R, strong writing and open-science practice. Submit a CV, cover letter and 3-6 reference contacts.