The Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research (LSR) is seeking candidates for the position of Staff Scientist. The primary duties will be to conduct research studies on patients and/or healthy volunteers to better understand the brain circuits and mechanisms that support normal visual function, to identify how dysfunction of these circuits gives rise to visual disorders, and/or to develop therapies for the treatment of visual disorders. The Staff Scientist would work independently as well as collaboratively with other scientific and clinical personnel across the National Eye Institute (NEI).

Research in the Laboratory of Sensorimotor Research is aimed at understanding the function of central visual and oculomotor pathways – the processing steps that take place after visual signals have exited the retina. Dysfunctions of these visual pathways underlie many commonly occurring visual disorders, including cerebral visual impairment (CVI), traumatic brain injury (TBI), visual neglect, attention disorders, visual hallucinations associated with decreased vision (e.g., Charles Bonnet Syndrome), and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and related dementias. Central visual functions are also affected by disorders of eye movements and ocular motility (e.g., strabismus and amblyopia), and by primary ocular disorders (e.g., cataracts, achromatopsia, forms of retinitis pigmentosa, and macular degeneration [age-related or early onset]).

The Staff Scientist would use any of a range of techniques including neuro-ophthalmic examination, ophthalmic genomics, visual psychophysics, eye movement measurements, imaging methods (e.g., fMRI, MEG), and data science approaches. They would build an independent research program housed in the clinical center at the NIH and would work collaboratively with other scientific and clinical personnel within the NEI. Depending on the success of the research program, this appointment has the potential to transition to an independent investigator position.