Duke University, Psychology and Neuroscience

Position ID:Duke-P&N-AIR_BERGELSONLAB [#18959]
Position Title: Associate in Research (Exempt)
Position Type:Other
Position Location:Durham, North Carolina 27708-0999, United States [map] sort by distance
Subject Area: Developmental Psychology
Appl Deadline:2021/07/27 11:59PMhelp popup** finished (2021/07/15, finished 2021/11/18)
Position Description:    

*** this position has been closed and new applications are no longer accepted. ***

Associate in Research, Bergelson Lab@Duke 
Starting summer 2021 

The Bergelson Lab at Duke, a federally funded lab in Duke's Psychology & Neuroscience department, is seeking an exempt Associate in Research (i.e. a lab tech) with excellent programming skills for a summer start date. 

The Bergelson Lab studies language acquisition, with a focus on early word learning. Research projects in the lab investigate both the relation between word learning and other aspects of linguistic representation (phonetics, syntax, prosody) and the interface between word learning and socio-cognitive development writ large. 

Research in the lab centers around corpus methods, used to analyze the SEEDLingS Corpus (a rich longitudinal audio/video/comprehension/production corpus), behavioral methods (e.g. eye-tracking, discrimination, and production studies), and neuroscientific methods (EEG) to query infant language development. 

The Associate in Research will also have the opportunity to be part of international collaborative projects, involving speech-technology, computational modeling, and naturalistic recordings. 

The Associate in Research will work alongside full-time lab staff, PhD students, postdocs, undergrads, and the PI to maintain our existing codebases (Bergelson Lab GitHub repo, SEEDLingS GitHub repo), create and document new scripts and workflows (Bergelson Lab GitBook), and provide support for working with experimental and naturalistic data in the lab. There are often 1-2 undergraduate RAs directly supervised by the Associate in Research in this role. 

Our lab staff typically go on to excellent research positions and/or PhDs (n=5) at top institutions and have taken advantage of opportunities to co-author research publications and presentations in their own areas of interest and in ongoing projects in the lab. 

Desiderata include: 
* strong programming background (python along with some combination of R, matlab, ruby, bash, html, Go, C++, java, and LaTeX) 
* experience with Python's scientific libraries (Pandas, NumPy, SciPy) and IPython Notebooks 
* experience with R's tidyverse. experience with RStudio's Shiny application framework is a plus. 
* high skill level and comfort with Github 
* command line chops (Linux, Linux subsystem for Windows, or other POSIX-compatible shell) 
* familiarity with basic IT (networks, VPNs, basic hardware knowledge) 
* familiarity with relevant software (e.g. Praat, Python, Audacity, Datavyu, R, FFmpeg) 
* coursework and research experience in algorithms and data structures, data science, machine learning, human research design and implementation (cognition and/or developmental psych, cogsci, linguistics, and related fields) 

Duke Psychology and Neuroscience has a strong community of researchers. Colleagues with highly relevant research in the department notably include Drs. Michael Tomasello, Rita Svetlova, and Makeba Wilbourn. We are part of Duke CHILD Studies. 

Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis and will continue until a suitable candidate is selected. Start date will be around August 1. This is a one year position with possibility of renewal.


Duke University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer committed to providing employment opportunity without regard to an individual's age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or veteran status.

Duke aspires to create a community built on collaboration, innovation, creativity, and belonging. Our collective success depends on the robust exchange of ideas-an exchange that is best when the rich diversity of our perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences flourishes. To achieve this exchange, it is essential that all members of the community feel secure and welcome, that the contributions of all individuals are respected, and that all voices are heard. All members of our community have a responsibility to uphold these values.


Application Materials Required:
Submit the following items online at this website to complete your application:
And anything else requested in the position description.

Further Info:
https://bergelsonlab.com/index.html
email address
(919) 660-5640
 
417 Chapel Drive
Box 90086
Duke University
Durham, NC 27708-0086