Post-Doctoral Fellow and/or Research Associate
Department of Psychiatry, McGill University
The growing Psychedelic Research Group at McGill University, affiliated with the Jewish General Hospital and the Division of Social and Transcultural Psychiatry, is looking for a motivated post-doctoral fellow to take an important role in our growing team’s psychedelic research projects.
These clinical research projects include:
- Culturally Adapted Psilocybin Therapy: Creating a new approach to person-centered psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy by tailoring key elements of set and setting to the individual patient.
- Group Psychedelic Therapy: Comparing group versus individual psilocybin therapy in depression.
- Ketamine as an Atypical Psychedelic: Exploring the clinical and phenomenological overlap between ketamine and serotonergic psychedelics.
The successful candidate will work closely with a growing team of more than a dozen scientists and clinicians to finalize the design of these projects, pursue additional sources of funding, obtain research ethics approval, and begin recruitment/enrollment.
The candidate must demonstrate:
- Strong writing skills for research proposals, grant applications and scientific publications
- Excellent interpersonal and organizational skills, initiative, and autonomy
- The ability to work independently, remotely and in person
- Comfort interacting with people with mental and emotional difficulties
- Fluency in English (oral and written)
Additional assets:
- Clinical research expertise
- Clinical and/or scientific experience with psilocybin, ketamine, or other psychedelics
- Fluency in French
- Expertise in biostatistics
- Neuroimaging experience and expertise
- Knowledge of international, federal and provincial laws and regulations governing clinical research (ICH-GCP)
Start date:
The exact date is flexible but preferably summer 2022. Possibility of beginning initial stages of the projects remotely.
Education/Experience:
- Doctorate or equivalent experience.
Salary and Terms
- Minimum one-year commitment with strong possibility of renewal.
- Competitive salary, commensurate with experience.
The Team
- Dr. Soham Rej, clinician-scientist psychiatrist with several ongoing trials examining behavioral interventions (e.g. telehealth, mindfulness, meditation, tai chi, Yoga, MBCT, exercise, health education) in mood, anxiety, and cognitive disorders.
- Dr. Alexandre Lehmann, cognitive neuroscientist studying brain plasticity, multisensory integration and the therapeutic effects of music as part of the International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research.
- Dr. Michael Lifshitz, interdisciplinary scientist with training in both neuroscience and anthropology, studying how culture, mind, and brain interact to shape the outcomes of contemplative practices such as meditation, prayer and psychedelics.
- Dr. Kyle Greenway, final-year psychiatry resident conducting several clinical research projects including the first trial to evaluate music with ketamine in treatment resistant depression and naturalistic studies of Canadians receiving compassionate access to psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy.
You will be affiliated with McGill University and join the thriving interdisciplinary team exploring the clinical, interpersonal, cultural, and neural aspects of psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. The team offers a stimulating environment including unique clinical and theoretical expertise, and close collaboration with leaders of transcultural and social psychiatry. On top of being a well-known intellectual and research hub, Montreal has been dubbed "Canada's Cultural Capital". It hosts the biggest jazz festival in the world, as well as a plethora of major musical, cinematic and visual arts events. It is a friendly multicultural city that ranks among the top for quality of living.
Application Process
Interested individuals should send an email with the following to kyle.greenway[at]mail.mcgill.ca:
- Statement of interest describing research experience and qualifications
- Academic CV
References and writing samples will be requested.