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Current opportunities below.
Postdoctoral Fellows
Dr. Gabard-Durnam is hiring a postdoctoral fellow with interests in neuroplasticity and adversity in development to join our PINE Lab community in 2023-2024. The postdoctoral fellow may start anytime this winter through the summer of 2024. If you are a senior graduate student interested in doing postdoctoral studies with PINE Lab, please reach out to Dr. Gabard-Durnam (l.gabard-durnam@northeastern.edu) to discuss these future opportunities. It is helpful if you can include a CV with your email.
We have funding to support 1) new neuroimaging projects (both MRI and EEG) that complement current lab aims, 2) projects with existing datasets, and 3) projects with data being collected through our Khula LEAP award (experience-driven brain development shaping early executive function skills). Fellows may pursue any combination of these options to best build their programs of research. Please see our current studies page for details about ongoing projects.
Topics of interest within the overarching theme of experience-driven neurodevelopment include but are certainly not limited to early sensitive periods that scaffold language, executive function, and socioemotional development from infancy through early childhood, plasticity in emotion regulation development over childhood and adolescence, and prefrontal cortex plasticity. Our studies include a range of adverse contexts (e.g. caregiving adversity, poverty in multiple countries, drug exposures) to parse how components of these experiences impact neurodevelopment uniquely or in common. We address research questions in populations from infancy through young adulthood.
Dr. Gabard-Durnam specifically encourages individuals from under-represented groups in science to reach out about potential postdoctoral opportunities.
Graduate Students
Dr. Gabard-Durnam will not be accepting a graduate student into the Plasticity in Neurodevelopment Lab in the 2023 application cycle to start in the fall of 2024. Students interested in addressing questions in contexts of early adversity about healthy, maladaptive, and/or resilient early development and underlying neuroplasticity mechanisms will best fit the scope of ongoing and future studies in the lab. Dr. Gabard-Durnam specifically encourages applications from individuals from under-represented groups in science.
If you are an interested prospective student, please feel free to email Dr. Gabard-Durnam (l.gabard-durnam@northeastern.edu) to introduce yourself and share your research interests. It is also helpful to include a copy of your CV with your email. We look forward to hearing from you!
Dr. Gabard-Durnam is able to accept graduate students through the Northeastern Psychology Department. Click here to learn more about the Northeastern psychology program, faculty, and community.
As a graduate student in PINE Lab, you will also be welcomed into the Center for Cognitive and Brain Health, an interdisciplinary group of labs exploring both basic questions and interventions in physical and mental health (and their inter-connectedness) across the lifespan.
A note about the costs of applying to graduate school:
I know applying to graduate school is an extremely expensive process that places an undue burden on applicants.
Here are ways that I and Northeastern are trying to reduce that burden:
GRE score reports: I do not use GRE scores in making decisions about applicants. Northeastern’s application lists the GRE as optional, and if you are applying to primarily work with me, you do not need to pay to have your scores sent to Northeastern.
Application fees: We offer application fee waivers on a case-by-case basis. Please email me if the fee is an undue financial burden and we will make the case for a waiver.
Flight/hotel expenses: If you are invited to an in-person interview, Northeastern will pay for your flights and stay directly, so you do not need to worry about paying out-of-pocket and then filing for reimbursement.
Interview clothes: Come as you are to interview with me, I do not judge your merit based on looks or clothing. (I interviewed in a thrift-store outfit myself).
Undergraduate Research Assistants
As of August 23rd, we are no longer reviewing applications for Fall 2023. We will review applications again for the Spring semester in December.
Undergraduate research assistants are welcomed as important, valued members of the PINE Lab community. No prior research experience is necessary to join us! To help you get the most out of your research experience and training, we do request multiple semester commitments whenever possible. If you’re interested in joining the PINE Lab as a research assistant, please fill out our Research Interest Form so we can learn more about you. Dr. Gabard-Durnam or another lab member will get in touch soon after you complete the form about PINE Lab opportunities. Credit for directed study is available. Work-study is also available for those eligible. Limited Co-Op positions are available.