There are several ways to work in the SUN Lab. These include as a clinical psychology doctoral student, as a postdoctoral fellow (including via our NIDA-funded T32), as a research assistant or as a volunteer.
If you are interested in joining our lab as a doctoral student, please email Dr. Gonzalez to express your interest and review application requirements for our Clinical Psychology Doctoral Program and our Cognitive Neuroscience Doctoral Program.
If you are interested in joining the SUN Lab as a postdoctoral fellow, please email Dr. Gonzalez to express interest and also review the opportunities available through our NIDA-funded T32. You do not have to be in the T32 to join the SUN Lab as a postdoc.
Now Hiring
The Center for Children and Families (CCF) at Florida International University (FIU) is recruiting for up to four full-time Clinical Psychology Postdoctoral Associates for one-year appointments with the possibility of extending to two years. The CCF is a university Preeminent Center focusing on child and adolescent mental health and has 41 faculty members, 10 current postdocs, 142 graduate students, 478 undergraduates (annually), and 202 graduate and undergraduate summer interns involved in faculty research programs. The majority of the faculty have Ph.Ds. in clinical child psychology, and the Center houses the APA-approved doctoral program in Child and Adolescent Clinical Science in the FIU Psychology Department. Four are faculty-level statisticians with doctorates in quantitative psychology. The Center is young and vibrant, having been established only 10 years ago, and is now the tenth-ranked Center in amount of annual external funding in the State of Florida University System. Similarly, the FIU Psychology Department is ranked 9th nation-wide in the most recent HERD rankings in amount of external research funding, and this is based entirely on CCF funding. Currently, CCF faculty hold more than $80M in grants from federal agencies (e.g., NIMH, NICHD, NIDA, NIAAA, IES, NSF, PCORI) and community agencies (The Children’s Trust of Miami-Dade). The CCF is located at Florida International University in Miami, with fully integrated a satellite laboratory led by a faculty member in Buffalo, New York.
The CCF research environment is robust and offers 26,366 square feet of research and clinical space that includes an active clinic serving children, teens, and families with mental health problems (3500 families per year), 23 research/clinical rooms and 5 large group rooms all equipped with one-way windows and/or cameras, 6 medical examining rooms and direct access to a high-performance 3T Siemens Magnetom Prisma MRI magnet. In addition to extensive facilities, the CCF has a large data management group, a large grants management group, and large administrative staff. In addition to faculty, postdocs graduate students and staff, the CCF employs a director, 5 full time clinicians, and front- and back-office staff in its clinic. A full-time research nurse with an exam room, and a part-time Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrician are also on staff. The Buffalo satellite office is conveniently located in Amherst, NY and consists a 3000 square foot clinical research site that serves as a workspace for postdoctoral fellows, study clinicians, and research assistants as well as a meeting space for participants in research projects. The FIU CCF-Buffalo has access to all the collaborators and resources available at the main FIU site, and provides an additional Northeastern community for research projects.
The available CCF Postdoctoral Associate openings are in the following areas (with identified faculty members):
1. The S.E.L.F.-Regulation Laboratory at Florida International University, directed by Dr. Paulo Graziano, conducts leading research on the role of children's self-regulation as it pertains to School Readiness, Early Intervention, Learning, and Fitness (S.E.L.F.). Primary responsibilities of the Post-doctoral Research Associate include data analysis and manuscript preparation of results from a NIMH funded study examining the neurobiology of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in young children with a particular focus on their executive function and emotion regulation abilities as well as an NIDDK study focused on young children with and without ADHD’s health outcomes (e.g., pediatric obesity). The Post-doctoral Research Associate also has the opportunity to assist with clinical supervision, receive training and participate in other clinical studies related to Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) and the award winning Summer Treatment Program for PreKindergarten children. Experience in neuroimaging data collection and analysis, and excellent computational and statistical know-how, is highly desired. Experience working with young children with developmental disabilities is a plus, as is a clinical science background.
2. The Substance Use Neuropsychology (SUN) Laboratory, directed by Dr. Raul Gonzalez, Jr., applies theory, methods, and cutting-edge approaches in clinical and cognitive neuropsychology to shed light on the antecedents and consequences of substance use, HIV, and the risky behaviors often associated with both. Dr. Gonzalez is also a PI for the national, landmark, NIDA-funded Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study (http://abcd-study.org). The extensive ABCD Research Consortium consists of a Coordinating Center, a Data Analysis and Informatics Center, and 21 research sites across the country, which have invited more than 11,000 children ages 9-10 to join the study. Researchers will track their biological and behavioral development through adolescence into young adulthood. The FIU site has recruited and evaluated over 600 children to be followed for at least the next decade until they begin to use substances. Primary responsibilities of the Post-doctoral Research Associate include data analysis and manuscript preparation of results from multiple large research studies, including the ABCD Study, focusing on neurocognitive risk factors and consequences of cannabis use among teens and/or among adults living with HIV. Involvement in consortium conference calls and workgroups for the ABCD project would also be included. Qualified applicants will have prior human subjects research experience in the areas of substance use or HIV, as well as proficiency in advanced longitudinal statistical methods.
3. The ADHD Research Group is a particularly active research area in the CCF with seven faculty and two postdoctoral associates actively studying cause, nature, or treatment. The two postdoctoral appointments will be based in Buffalo, New York or Miami (Dr. Gregory Fabiano) and Dr. William Pelham, Jr. (Miami) and will include: (a) in Buffalo, two IES-funded school-based treatment studies, a study of psychosocial impairment in late adolescents/young adults, and numerous archival datasets that can be utilized for secondary data analysis, including a recently completed IES-funded data set for meta-analyses of psychosocial treatment of ADHD; and (b) in Miami, two IES-funded school-based treatment studies shared with the Buffalo site, an intensive Summer Treatment Program for elementary-aged ADHD children in which treatment studies are designed and conducted annually, a NIDA-funded prevention study for ADHD teens initiating substance use, and access to the data set of the Pittsburgh ADHD longitudinal study—the longest running follow-up study of children with ADHD. Additionally, a number of other projects are under review at NIH and IES at both sites and may be available for the post-doctoral fellow to collaborate on beginning in early 2020. The post-doctoral fellows will be expected to contribute substantively to ongoing intervention studies, manuscript preparation, conference presentations, grant submissions, and community engagement and will work closely with Dr. Fabiano and/or Dr. Pelham to support the development of an independent program of research and move into an appointment as a Research faculty member.
General applicant requirements
All applicants must hold a doctoral degree in clinical, counseling, school or related field of psychology at the start of their appointment.
Annual funding is up to $60,000 contingent on qualifications.
Inquiries may be sent via email to the specific faculty mentor you are applying to work with:
Gregory Fabiano, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology Email:gfabiano@fiu.edu
Paulo Graziano, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Psychology Email:pgrazian@fiu.edu
Raul Gonzalez, Jr., Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology Email:gonzara@fiu.edu
William E. Pelham, Jr., Ph.D.,
Director, Center for Children and Families and University Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Florida International University Email:wpelham@fiu.edu
Qualified candidates are encouraged to apply to Job Opening ID 519937 at facultycareers.fiu.edu and attach a cover letter and curriculum vitae, as individual attachments. Candidates will be requested to provide names and contact information for at least three (3) references who will be contacted upon submission of application.
To receive full consideration, applications and required materials should be received by December 12, 2019.
FIU is a member of the State University System of Florida and an Equal Opportunity, Equal Access Affirmative Action Employer all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status."
Florida International University is Miami’s public research university. FIU is focused on student success. According to U.S. News and World Report, FIU has 35 programs in the top 100 in the nation among public universities, including 15 in the top 50. FIU is a top U.S. research university with more than $200 million in annual expenditures and is designated as an “Emerging Preeminent State Research University” by the Florida Board of Governors. FIU ranks 15th in the nation among public universities for patent production, which drives innovation, and is one of the institutions that helps make Florida the top state for higher education. The Next Horizon fundraising campaign is furthering FIU’s commitment to providing students Worlds Ahead opportunities. Today FIU has two campuses and multiple centers, and supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA, with more than 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. The university has awarded more than 330,000 degrees to many leaders in South Florida and beyond. For more information about FIU, visit www.fiu.edu.
We often have paid research assistant positions open up. When available, these are posted at FIU Careers.
Undergraduate students often volunteer in our lab in order to gain exposure to a research setting and learn more about academic research. If you are interested in learning more about volunteering in our lab, please email Ms. Dayana Paula (dpaula@fiu.edu). Please include your reason for wanting to volunteer, your resume, and your unofficial transcripts.