We are looking for driven scientists at all levels of experience to join the Bowers WBHI team. See below for current job openings.
Open Positions
University of California Santa Barbara
Jacobs Lab, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences
The Jacobs Lab, in conjunction with the Ann S. Bowers Women’s Brain Health Initiative, is hiring a full-time research coordinator to assist with research efforts at UC Santa Barbara.
This person will play a central role in studies that seek to understand how hormones shape brain structure and function across the lifespan. Within these projects, the applicant will work in a team environment with a multi-disciplinary group of faculty and trainees from psychology, neuroscience, and computer science.
Primary responsibilities include coordinating participant visits, behavioral and MRI data collection, and biofluid processing. Minimum requirements include a B.A. or B.S. degree in neuroscience, psychology, or related field. A minimum of 1-2 years’ experience with MRI data collection is strongly preferred. Additional responsibilities will be assigned based on the successful candidate’s skills and interests. This position is based in Santa Barbara, CA and the start date is flexible.
Interested applicants are encouraged to upload their materials to: https://recruit.ap.ucsb.edu/JPF02974
University of California Santa Barbara
Jacobs Lab, Department of Psychological & Brain Sciences
The Jacobs Lab, in conjunction with the Ann S. Bowers Women's Brain Health Initiative, invites applications for a postdoctoral position in women’s brain health research across the lifespan.
The successful candidate will focus on neurobiological changes during adolescence, pregnancy, and/or menopause. Applicants must have demonstrated expertise in MRI acquisition and analysis. The postdoctoral researcher will contribute to ongoing projects, as well as develop independent lines of inquiry within a collaborative, interdisciplinary environment.
Candidates should hold a Ph.D. in neuroscience, psychology, or a related field and demonstrate a strong commitment to advancing women’s health research.
Interested parties are encouraged to send their CVs to info@wbhi.ucsb.edu.
Schmidt AI Fellowship Project
Unraveling the plasticity of the maternal brain across the rodent peripartum period
***Application for this fellowship is due Oct 6, 2025, with a start date of the postdoc position in Oct 2026.***
In pregnancy, maternal brain architecture and connectivity shows dynamic plasticity as a function of gestational age and in correlation with pregnancy-associated sex hormone levels (Pritschet et al. Nat Neurosci 2025). Understanding these adaptations beyond their temporal associations and on a mechanistic level requires a translational (human-to-mouse/bedside-to-
The overarching goal of our work is to investigate the brain as the central receiver, integrator, and interpreter of signals from the uterus, and to define the central arm of the uterus-brain axis as a key regulator of peripartum health (Ina Stelzer, UC San Diego).
In this project, we will establish an animal model of maternal brain adaptation across the peripartum period. We will utilize magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences to longitudinally scan female mice before, during, and after pregnancy using the same sequences adapted for high resolution mouse imaging (David Berry, UC San Diego). In combination with spatial transcriptomic and proteomic analysis, image processing and modeling approaches will build a comprehensive resource identifying regions and circuits that resemble human pregnancies (Marc Niethammer, UC San Diego).
This platform can then be deployed to assess the molecular and circuit-level mechanisms underlying maternal adaptations, enabling experimental manipulations that are impossible in humans and ultimately informing strategies to predict and mitigate risk for peripartum complications.
Please reach out to Prof. Ina Stelzer (istelzer@health.ucsd.edu) for inquiries.