Job Description

• Job Type: Support Staff - Non-Union
• Bargaining Unit:
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• End Date if Temporary:
• Hours Per Week: 35
• Standard Work Schedule:
• Building: Jerome L. Greene Science Center
• Salary Range: $54,000 - $54,000

The salary of the finalist selected for this role will be set based on a variety of factors, including but not limited to departmental budgets, qualifications, experience, education, licenses, specialty, and training. The above hiring range represents the University's good faith and reasonable estimate of the range of possible compensation at the time of posting.

Position Summary

Columbia University's Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute brings together world-class scientists across academic disciplines conducting pioneering research to transform our understanding of how the brain works - and gives rise to mind and behavior. The Institute fosters a collaborative and inclusive environment across 50+ labs, advancing insights into human health by exploring how the brain develops, performs, endures and recovers.

At the Zuckerman Institute, we are committed to becoming a more inclusive, equitable and diverse place of scientific discovery and support a culture of respect. Promoting diversity in science will help drive the transformative science that can change the world.

Situated in the Jerome L. Greene Science Center on Columbia?s Manhattanville campus, the state-of-the-art building offers an environment where the highest level of scholarly scientific research takes place on a daily basis, with the benefit of being located in the heart of New York, one of the world?s most vibrant and culturally rich cities

The laboratory of Dr. Richard Axel at the Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute has an open full-time position for a Research Staff Assistant (lab technician). The Axel lab has expanded its research program to investigate how cuttlefish (a cephalopod similar to octopus) dynamically camouflage to their surroundings. Cuttlefish are able to camouflage within milliseconds by altering the color, pattern and texture of their skin, which is controlled by the brain. The Axel lab wishes to understand how cuttlefish create an internal representation of the visual world in the brain, and then transform this representation into an approximation of the visual world on the skin. The group is developing molecular tools, conducting behavioral experiments and performing advanced neural imaging.

The Research Staff Assistant will work closely with the postdoctoral fellow leading this project, and report directly to the Principal Investigator. The Research Staff Assistant will have the opportunity to participate in the vibrant intellectual community of the Axel laboratory located in the Jerome L. Greene Science Center on Columbia?s Manhattanville campus. We seek highly motivated, skilled, and dynamic individuals who are enthusiastic about a career in science.

This is a full-time grant-funded role.

Responsibilities

Responsibilities include, but are not limited to the following:

• Under the direction of the PI and Postdoctoral Research Scientist, perform the following biological techniques: microinjection of cuttlefish embryos and molecular cloning and genotyping. 
• Under the direction of the PI and Postdoctoral Research Scientist, assist in performing survival and non-survival surgeries, including surgical preparation. 
• Under the direction of the PI and Postdoctoral Research Scientist, conduct animal behavioral experiments. 
• Participation in laboratory meetings and planning sessions.
• Assisting with administrative and documentation tasks related to experiments. 
• Other duties assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor?s degree in a scientific discipline is required or experience equivalent required.
• 2 years of experience and/or its equivalent is required.

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.

About Columbia University

Columbia University is one of the world's most important centers of research and at the same time a distinctive and distinguished learning environment for undergraduates and graduate students in many scholarly and professional fields. The University recognizes the importance of its location in New York City and seeks to link its research and teaching to the vast resources of a great metropolis. It seeks to attract a diverse and international faculty and student body, to support research and teaching on global issues, and to create academic relationships with many countries and regions. It expects all areas of the university to advance knowledge and learning at the highest level and to convey the products of its efforts to the world.

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