Postdoctoral Fellow in Psychedelics, Mindfulness, and Cognitive Neuroscience (MAPneuro) University of California San Diego in United States

University of California San Diego is recruiting a postdoctoral fellow for the new MAPneuro program, co-led by Eric Garland and Greg Appelbaum in the Department of Psychiatry. The project sits at the intersection of psychedelics, mindfulness, and cognitive neuroscience, with a strong emphasis on developing and validating multimodal, computational measures of interpersonal synchrony between therapists and patients.

The fellow will work with interdisciplinary teams spanning interventional psychiatry, data science, cognitive neuroscience, and clinical trials. Research activities include designing and implementing protocols, coordinating data collection from therapist–patient dyads, overseeing multimodal sensing during psychotherapy sessions, and building analysis pipelines for inter-brain and physiological synchrony. Core data streams include high-density EEG, ECG, high-resolution video for facial affect and body pose extraction, and audio for speech prosody and sentiment.

This opportunity is especially relevant for candidates interested in neuroscience, psychology, biomedical engineering, computer science, and related quantitative fields. The postdoc will also contribute to journal articles, mentor research staff, and help lead study implementation. Experience with psychotherapy process research, dyadic physiology, multimodal sensing, psychedelic-assisted or mindfulness-based interventions, and regulated clinical research is highly desirable.

Applicants must hold a PhD or equivalent by the start date and should have strong quantitative skills, experience with neurophysiology or time-series analysis, and proficiency in R, Python, or MATLAB. First-author publications are expected. The appointment is initially for one year with possible renewal based on performance and funding. Salary follows UC San Diego postdoctoral scales and includes full UC benefits.

To apply, send a single PDF with a cover letter, CV, one representative writing sample, and contact information for three referees to Eric Garland and Dr. Greg Appelbaum. The cover letter should summarize your research background, fit with MAPneuro and the Appelbaum/Garland labs, and preferred start date. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis until the position is filled.