Skip to main content

This job has expired

Research Associate - Neuroimaging

Employer
KINGS COLLEGE LONDON
Location
London (Greater) (GB)
Closing date
25 Mar 2021

Job Details

Research Associate

Job ID: 017104

Salary: £38,304 - £41,517 per annum, including London Weighting Allowance

Posted: 25-Feb-2021

Closing date: 25-Mar-2021

Business unit: IoPPN

Department: Neuroimaging Contact details: Dr Matthew Howard, Senior Lecturer, Department of Neuroimaging / Professor Stephen McMahon, Wolfson CARD, matthew.howard@kcl.ac.uk / stephen.mcmahon@kcl.ac.uk

Denmark Hill Campus   Research    


Job description
Applications are invited to join a team of researchers attempting to understand mechanisms underpinning the experience of pain in humans  using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Two positions are available, a post-doctoral researcher and a research assistant position, shared between the Department of Neuroimaging, and the Wolfson CARD.  This description relates to the post-doctoral researcher position; interested pre-doctoral candidates should examine the research assistant position.
 
The post holder will perform studies of experimental and clinical pain states using multiple experimental techniques including: functional and structural neuroimaging, psychophysics, psychometric, clinical and behavioural testing. Duties will include recruitment, data collection, processing, analysis and writing of research reports.  We understand that early-career candidates may require additional training in some elements of the role, which will be provided. Successful candidates will have the opportunity to champion individual experiments from inception through to publication.
This post will be offered on a full-time, indefinite contract until 31.12.2022

Key responsibilities 
The post holder will:

  • Join a team of researchers performing assessments of healthy volunteers and patients experiencing evoked acute and ongoing pain states. 
  • Recruit and screen participants to take part in experiments
  • Perform experiments in humans experiencing acute and chronic pain
  • Perform assessments including structured interviews, questionnaires, psychophysical techniques and quantitative sensory testing
  • Acquire and analyse fMRI, clinical and psychological data
  • Prepare and submit research reports, manuscripts and presentations emerging from this work and assist more junior members of the team in doing the same
  • Actively engage with researchers engaged in pain research projects within the King’s Health Partnership and with associated collaborators at other universities and hospitals in the UK.

The above list of responsibilities may not be exhaustive, and the post holder will be required to undertake such tasks and responsibilities as may reasonably be expected within the scope and grading of the post.

Skills, knowledge, and experience
Essential criteria

  • First degree in relevant field (e.g. Neuroscience, Psychology, Engineering, Biological and Physical Sciences, Medicine)
  • Relevant PhD (e.g. Neuroscience, Psychology, Engineering, Biological and Physical Sciences, Medicine)
  • Experience and knowledge of performing functional MRI experiments
  • Experience and knowledge of performing clinical, psychophysical or psychometric tests in humans
  • Experience and knowledge of fMRI analysis methods
  • Understanding of parametric statistics (e.g. ANOVA, linear regression)
  • Core ICT skills including MS Office

Desirable criteria

  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills
  • Ability to solve problems independently as part of a multi-disciplinary team
  • Proficiency in use of univariate statistical packages (e.g. R, SPSS)
  • Proficiency in neuroimaging analysis packages (e.g. FSL, SPM, AFNI)
  • Proficiency in use of UNIX environment and awareness of scripting/coding (e.g. shell-scripting, Matlab)

Please note that this is a PhD level role but candidates who have submitted their thesis and are awaiting award of their PhDs will be considered. In these circumstances the appointment will be made at Grade 5, spine point 30 with the title of Research Assistant. Upon confirmation of the award of the PhD, the job title will become Research Associate and the salary will increase to Grade 6.
 
Online interviews will be held in March.  Subject to public health restrictions candidates will be invited to visit both campuses to meet with members of the team.
 
This post is subject to a Occupational Health Clearance.  

Company

King's College London is one of the top 20 universities in the world and among the oldest in England. King's has more than 27,600 students (of whom nearly 10,500 are graduate students) from some 150 countries worldwide, and some 6,800 staff.

King's has an outstanding reputation for world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2014 Research Excellence Framework (REF) King’s was ranked 6th nationally in the ‘power’ ranking, which takes into account both the quality and quantity of research activity, and 7th for quality according to Times Higher Education rankings. Eighty-four per cent of research at King’s was deemed ‘world-leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ (3* and 4*). The university is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of more than £684 million.

King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine, nursing and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar.

King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King's Health Partners. King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org.

King’s £600 million campaign, World questions|KING’s answers, has delivered huge global impact in areas where King’s has particular expertise. Philanthropic support has funded new research to save young lives at Evelina London Children’s Hospital; established the King’s Dickson Poon School of Law as a worldwide leader in transnational law; built a new Cancer Centre at Guy’s Hospital; allowed unique collaboration between leading neuroscientists to fast-track new treatments for Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, motor neurone disease, depression and schizophrenia at the new Maurice Wohl Clinical Neuroscience Institute; created the Cicely Saunders Institute: the first academic institution in the world dedicated to palliative care, and supported the King’s Sierra Leone Partnership in the Ebola crisis. Donations provide over 300 of the most promising students with scholarships and bursaries each year. More information about the campaign is available at www.kcl.ac.uk/kingsanswers.

Company info
Mini-site
KINGS COLLEGE LONDON
Telephone
+(44)02078365454
Location
STRAND
LONDON
WC2R 2LS
United Kingdom

Get job alerts

Create a job alert and receive personalised job recommendations straight to your inbox.

Create alert