Award Description
The Simons Fellowship in Computational Neuroscience provides recent college graduates with the opportunity to spend two years using computer programming and basic science to advance our understanding of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Simons Fellows are directly mentored by the program directors and are involved in a highly active and productive community of clinicians, scientists, and engineers who study ASD. Previous Simons Fellows have led a wide range of research projects and have gone on to PhD, MD, and MD/PhD programs as well as to research positions in computer and software engineering.
Over the course of two years, Simons Fellows work to integrate computational strategies with clinical research goals, guiding a research project from data collection through analysis and publication of results. Fellows work on: developing methods for analyzing visual scanning and eye-tracking data, computational models of visual salience, and data visualization techniques, all with the aim of advancing understanding of ASD and efforts at early diagnosis. Fellows also complete a training curriculum through their participation in an intensive summer training seminar covering clinical research in ASD (one week), ASD grand rounds meetings (twice a month), social neuroscience lab meetings (weekly), training tutorials in relevant statistical softwares, and ongoing didactic practica.
Sponsor Institution
Marcus Autism Center, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, and Emory University School of Medicine
Program Directors
Ami Klin, Warren Jones, Sarah Shultz, Longchuan Li
For more information on the Faculty at the Marcus Autism Center, visit our website.
Eligibility Requirements
College graduates who will have received a bachelor's degree by July 2023 are eligible to apply.
The Simons Fellowship provides an opportunity to engage in translational research within a clinical setting. While candidates are expected to have experience with computer programming and an interest in neuroscience research, applicants from a wide variety of backgrounds are encouraged to apply. Experience with infants and toddlers or children with ASD are valued by the selection committee.
Please note that this fellowship is not offered concurrently with graduate studies. However, for fellows leaving the program, we do hope that the fellowship will serve as an important stepping-stone towards future graduate studies or careers in computer science.
Frequently Asked Questions
Please refer to the FAQ page for questions regarding this fellowship and the How to Apply page for more information on application.
Research at the Marcus Autism Center
Marcus Autism Center is the largest center for clinical care of children with ASD and their families in the US, seeing more than 5,000 patients per year. The center also works in partnership with Emory National Primate Research Center, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and Georgia Institute of Technology. These partnerships enable a multidisciplinary and translational approach to ASD research, spanning projects in behavioral neuroscience, neuroimaging, molecular and population genetics, and treatment.
The directors of the fellowship program lead the social neuroscience, spoken communication, and neuroimaging research cores within Marcus Autism Center. These research cores use eye-tracking technology, neuroimaging, computational modeling, and behavioral neuroscience methods to better understand the causes and developmental mechanisms underlying ASD and to develop new tools to improve early detection, diagnosis, and treatment of ASD.
For additional questions, please contact the Marcus Fellowship Committee at marcus.predoc-fellowships@emory.edu or (404) 785-9554.