Research and Fellowship Opportunities

The Department of Psychiatry at Columbia is one of the leading research departments in the country and annually ranks within the top three recipients of federally-funded research grants.  Part of the Department is the New York State Psychiatric Institute – a facility dedicated to research including over 25 funded research beds and up-to-date imaging capabilities.  The Department has over 450 full-time faculty, including two Nobel laureates, Drs. Eric Kandel and Richard Axel.  The range of research in Psychiatry at Columbia is broad, encompassing divisions devoted to the neurobiology of learning and mental function, genetics, the psychobiology of psychiatric disorders and psychiatric diagnosis. Treatment research includes one of the largest programs in the study of psychotherapy and pharmacological treatments for affective, anxiety, eating and psychotic disorders, as well as divisions studying brain stimulation techniques, mental health services and policy, law, ethics in psychiatry, substance abuse and many others. Click for listing of funded research studies within the Department of Psychiatry. In addition to research within the Department of Psychiatry, a broad array of world-class researchers in all aspects of neuroscience across the Columbia campus are open to working with residents interested in pursuing more basic research, from cellular and molecular neuroscience to brain imaging and cognition. Click for a listing of Neuroscience Faculty at Columbia.

Research During Residency

With such deep resources, Columbia presents excellent opportunities for all residents to participate in research, whether a resident arrives with a plan to pursue a research career or develops an interest during residency. Substantial protected time is available for residents in the General Residency Track with an interest in learning or furthering research skills while developing their clinical knowledge base. Up to 20% of the PGY3 year and the entire PGY4 year may be devoted to research electives. In addition, for residents who arrive at Columbia with a demonstrated commitment to research, an NIH-funded Research Track within the residency permits a specialized curriculum, exposure to inpatient and outpatient clinical research programs, and 16 months of full-time, mentored research spanning the PGY3 and PGY4 years. 

Leon Levy Resident Fellowships

For residents with extensive neuroscience research backgrounds, restarting a research career poses particular challenges. To aid in this process, Columbia offers exceptional candidates the opportunity to participate in the Leon Levy Resident Fellowship, a program generously supported by the Leon Levy Foundation.  Levy Fellows receive financial support for research endeavors throughout the residency. Fellowship funds may be used for travel, books, society memberships, supplies, equipment, or any other research-related expenses incurred by the resident.

 

Leon Levy Fellows and Mentors

 

    Resident

  • Nancy Bivens
  • Susanne Ahmari
  • Edmund Griffin
  • Nasir Naqvi
  • Gaurav Patel
  • Sean X. Luo
  • Gary Sean Escola
  • Mohsin Ahmed
  • Bradley Miller
  • Christopher Cselenyi
  • Atheir Abbas
  • Anthony Deo
  • Lee Lovejoy
  • Daniel Kimmel
  • Wei-Li Chang
  • Daniel Eskenazi
  • Louisa Steinberg

    Mentor

  • Jay Gingrich
  • Helen B. Simpson
  • Eric Kandel
  • Jon Morgenstern
  • Daniel C. Javitt
  • Edward V. Nunes and Frances Levin
  • Larry Abbott
  • Atilla Loconscy
  • Rene Hen
  • Christoph Kellendonk
  • Joshua Gordon
  • Alex Dranovsky
  • Daniel Salzman
  • Daphna Shohamy
  • Joshua Gordon
  • Stephen Rayport
  • Rene Hen

 

Additional Information

For more information about research opportunities during Residency at Columbia, and for details about the Leon Levy Resident Fellowships, please contact our Director of Neuroscience and Research Training, E. David Leonardo M.D. Ph.D. at el367@cumc.columbia.edu.

Research Fellowships

Following Residents interested in a research career, the next step in career development is a research fellowship. Within the Department of Psychiatry there are eleven NIMH-funded, post-residency research training programs in the areas of affective, anxiety and eating disorders; schizophrenia; late-life neuropsychiatric disorders; child psychiatry; substance abuse; HIV infection; psychobiological sciences; genetic analysis; neurobehavioral sciences; psychiatric epidemiology; and neuropsychology and cognition in aging.  Fellows in these training programs are funded for two-to-four years to work with their mentor to develop research skills and a program of independent work.  The broad range and success of these fellowships provide an important stepping stone for the careers of our graduates.  Residency applicants already committed to a research career should consider the residency and research fellowship programs together and conceptualize entering the residency program and six to seven years later emerging as Junior Faculty. Additional information regarding the research fellowships is available here

Clinical Fellowships

Graduating Residents also have many clinical fellowship opportunities to consider. In addition to the research fellowship programs, there is Columbia fellowship training in consultation-liaison psychiatry, child and adolescent psychiatry, public psychiatry, forensic psychiatry, emergency psychiatry, addiction psychiatry, geriatric psychiatry and advanced training and certification in psychoanalysis at Columbia’s preeminent Psychoanalytic Institute. For more information about clinical fellowships available at Columbia, click here.