The Center for Behavioral and Mental Health at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and the Children’s Center for Neurosciences Research at Emory University and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta are jointly seeking a faculty member to advance a translational discovery agenda. Candidates must conduct research that is relevant to improving the care of infants and children who are at elevated risk for the development of neuropsychiatric disorders (on the basis of genetic, environmental or combined causal influences). Physician-scientists are encouraged to apply, and an MD and/or PhD is required.

We seek candidates with research vision who can develop and lead a translational research agenda that studies behavior and mental health using approaches grounded in neuroscience. Ideal candidates will have technological experience in neuroscience and be prepared to harness these technologies to advance knowledge of causal mechanisms in brain and behavioral development and to define potential targets for higher-impact therapies for neuropsychiatric disorders of childhood. Areas of particular interest include in-depth studies of causation, tracing genetic, epigenetic, and/or environmental variation to the developmental processes that govern brain and behavioral maturation. We encourage approaches that involve translatable model systems or innovative clinical trials and that capitalize on strategic collections of biomaterials, brain imaging or behavioral data from developing children. The candidate is expected to develop an innovative, externally funded research program that leverages both the clinical infrastructure of the Center for Behavioral and Mental Health and the collaborative community of scientists and technicians within the Children’s Center for Neurosciences Research. Scientific agendas focused on parsimonious developmental mediators of psychiatric conditions are of great interest, including mood dysregulation, the p factor, autism-related variation in reciprocal social behavior, callous-unemotional traits, risk profiles indexed by early childhood temperament, or brain/behavioral sequalae of early emotional trauma.  This position entails access to clinical electronic health record data from a large, evolving learning health system for child mental health, designed to model timely delivery of the complete continuum of evidence-based care to a representative population of infants, children, and adolescents, over 65% of whom are governmentally insured.

Primary faculty appointment will be in Emory University School of Medicine’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences with a joint or secondary appointment in the Division of Behavioral and Mental Health within the Department of Pediatrics. We offer a highly interactive collegial research environment with state-of-the-art facilities, as well as proximity to and collaborations with the world renown Marcus Autism Center, the Emory National Primate Research Center, and the Grady Trauma Project. Please visit our websites for more information about the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, the Department of Pediatrics, or Pediatric Research.

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University have worked together since 1956, facilitating leading-edge pediatric research, training, and innovation. Together, our partnership advances research and facilitates evidence-based quality care for children. The Emory Department of Pediatrics has been ranked in the top 5 pediatric departments in National Institutes of Health research funding since 2016 and was ranked #1 in 2020 and 2022.

This job opportunity is part of our ambitious $200M investment to substantially grow our team of world-class child health researchers. Click here to learn more about our plan to recruit 30 new researchers over five years or contact peds.research@emory.edu with inquiries and for more information.

Interested applicants should apply online and upload their CV and a letter of interest highlighting their research.