Research Assistant I

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

This position is subject to pre-employment screening (criminal background, drug testing, and/or education verification). A criminal conviction or arrest pending adjudication alone shall not disqualify an applicant except as provided by law. Any criminal history will be evaluated in relationship to job responsibilities and business necessity.  The information obtained in these reports will be used in a confidential, non-discriminatory manner consistent with state and federal law. 

• 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 (e.g., researching various implants/devices, conducting thorough screening to ensure no adverse events in the scanner). 
• Ability to identify problems and crises that arise (angry or upset participants, participants getting lost en route to studies, etc.) and resolve them or report to supervisor.
• Proficient with Microsoft Office products; technology-oriented.

• →Serve as manager of the BIRC’s research practice of open and reproducible neuroimaging science.  This entails maintaining, improving, and implementing pipelines for the BIRC’s neuroimaging data into an internationally recognized standardized data format termed BIDS (Brain Imaging Data Structure) by writing Python code.  This requires familiarity with Python. Fluency in Python is preferred, but not mandatory. Knowledge of other computational languages is helpful.
• →Conduct supervised analyses of behavioral and neuroimaging data, including regressions relating task performance to demographic variables (e.g., trauma history, childhood adversities, drug addiction behaviors, late-life dementia, and reduced functioning, etc). 
• →Conduct quality assurance analyses of neuroimaging data under the mentoring of the BIRC’s scientists, and extend the 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 as needed.
• →Conduct informed consents to ensure participants have accurate information related to the study, participate in behavioral data collection by conducting participant clinical interviews and assisting participants on self-report measures, and ensure compliance with all study protocols during data collection activities.
• →Monitor participants in follow-up portions of studies to ensure accurate and timely collection of longitudinal data on research projects.  
• →Assist with data acquisition, including running behavioral tasks and collecting psychophysiological data (e.g., skin conductance, heart rate, electromyographic recording of facial muscle responses), MRI data, or fNIRS data.
• →Assist, on an ongoing basis, in achieving the targeted enrollment goals for all actively enrolling BIRC studies by engaging in recruitment strategies. Recruitment strategies include, but are not limited to, going to pre-established community partners and describing studies to patients, patrons, or members, and asking potential participants to participate in studies.
• →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.

Please contact askrecruitment@uams.edu for any recruiting related questions.

All application materials must be uploaded to the University of Arkansas System Career Site https://uasys.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/UASYS  

Please do not send to listed recruitment contact.