Staff Associate

Columbia’s Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute (Zuckerman Institute) brings together an extraordinary group of world-class scientists into the Jerome L. Greene Science Center, a state-of-the-art facility, to transform our understanding of the brain and mind.

The Costa Lab seeks a Staff Associate to work on a project investigating how the brain explores and consolidates neural activity patterns enabling learning of skills.

The Staff Associate is responsible for: 

Conducting 2-photon imaging of cortical circuits during a reinforcement learning.

Analyze data generated from the 2-photon experiments using CNMF(Matlab code) and correlated with behavioral function and reinforcement learning models. 

The Staff Associate will optimize and conduct optical closed-loop reinforcement learning paradigms with holographic photostimulation during 2-photon imaging.

The Staff Associate will perform surgeries for expression of targeted viral tools, and cranial windows and lens implants to measure neuronal activity.

Staff Associate will have daily interactions with the Principal Investigator and will meet regularly to review duties and responsibilities.

Staff Associate is expected to work independently and proactively engage the PI and members of the Costa lab to ensure and understand the research needs of the team. Weekly meetings will be held to confirm prioritization of responsibilities.

Minimum Requirements:

Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Neuroscience, Cellular and Molecular Biology, or other related science

A minimum of four (4) years of experience or Master’s degree with a minimum of 2 years of related experience.