The UNC Institute for Trauma Recovery (ITR) is seeking an Open Rank, tenure track Physician Scientist for a clinical/translational research faculty position to help advance our institute mission as part of the Department of Psychiatry at UNC. The ITR conducts emergency care-based research studies in which individuals are enrolled into prospective observational or intervention studies that seek to better understand and prevent posttraumatic neuropsychiatric sequelae (https://www.med.unc.edu/itr/). Individuals must be a physician actively engaged in providing medical care to patients, either as a psychiatrist or as a licensed medical doctor in another specialty. The Department of Psychiatry (https://www.med.unc.edu/psych/) in which the ITR resides provides an outstanding environment for groundbreaking research, clinical care, career development and interface with colleagues and other units that perform basic, translational, and clinical research. 

The work of the ITR has two overarching goals: 1) To increase understanding of how adverse posttraumatic neuropsychiatric sequelae (e.g., posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, pain and other somatic symptoms) develop after traumatic stress exposure (e.g., motor vehicle collision, military deployment, sexual assault); and 2) To develop interventions that prevent these outcomes. Our primary strategy to achieve these goals is to recruit and retain outstanding, talented, self-motivated staff, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty who are passionate about improving the lives of trauma survivors. We operate several large acute care-based research networks/registries to perform this work. There are a diversity of activities going on within the ITR to serve our mission, and substantial opportunity to tailor activities based on individual interests (e.g., conduct of medication and/or non-medication clinical trials, analysis of longitudinal data, etc.). Funding is available to support initial activities.

The physician-scientist hired will collaborate with the Institute Director, Dr. Sam McLean, and ITR staff to advance these goals and help lead the institute as associate director. ITR staff include 21 FTEs, consisting of 6 PhD staff, as well as more than 16 undergraduate and graduate students. Work of the institute currently includes more than $27 million in active grants, including large-scale observational studies and more than 8 active clinical trials.

The successful applicant will have a demonstrated track record of outstanding accomplishment commensurate with their level of seniority, and great potential to improve the lives of trauma survivors through the work of the institute. The faculty member hired will be expected to carry out clinical research projects independently within the ITR, obtain external funding, design and execute research studies, perform data analysis, write manuscripts, and publish results. The candidate will also be expected to cover 50% or more of their effort via clinical care or other means initially. Depending on applicant rank and interests, some of this research time may be covered by collaboration on ongoing ITR grants.

Faculty appointment level and salary will be commensurate with the candidate's experience and qualifications.