Career Center

Columbia University's Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute (the Zuckerman Institute) brings together researchers to explore aspects of the mind and brain, through the exchange of ideas and active collaboration. The Zuckerman Institute's home will be the Jerome L. Greene Science Center on Columbia's new Manhattanville campus. Situated in the heart of Manhattan, at full capacity the Zuckerman Institute will house approximately 47 laboratories employing a broad range of interdisciplinary approaches to transform our understanding of the mind and brain. In this highly collaborative environment, labs work together to gain critical insights into human health by exploring how the brain develops, performs, endures, and recovers from trauma or disease. 

The group of Dr. Rui Costa at the Zuckerman Institute is seeking a highly motivated and flexible individual to serve as a Staff Associate II. The Staff Associate II will provide support in coordinating day-to-day research and administrative activities for lab members. Primary responsibilities include mouse colony maintenance, husbandry, and ensuring efficient high-functioning infrastructure to support lab research. The Staff Associate II will manage a complex mouse-breeding colony by supporting a large colony of mice with around 900 cages. They will also be responsible for supervising the Staff Associate Is and Research Staff Assistants within the Costa Lab. They will also be the point person for the vivarium staff and sales representatives. Finally, Staff Associate II will ensure compliance with rodent regulatory requirements.

Responsibilities of the Staff Associate II:

▪ Handle live mice to perform all colony management duties including, but not limited to, breeding, collection of samples for genotyping, weaning, aging, and sexing of pups.

▪ Maintain detailed records to manage a complex mouse-breeding colony with many genetic backgrounds.

▪ Supervise other laboratory staff and interact effectively with lab members and veterinary staff to ensure a high standard of care, organization, and regulatory compliance.

▪ Responsible for communicating with vivarium staff, liaising with staff in the Institute of Comparative Medicine to place new mouse orders as well as organizing animal transfers. Serves as a single point of contact for visitors and sales representatives.

▪ Organize and manage print and digital records, correspondence, and other files in the lab related to colony matters, including the processing of MTAs. Perform administrative and documentation tasks related to the mouse colonies.

▪ Ensure compliance with rodent regulatory requirements; Serve as the key contact for IACUC conducting laboratory inspections as necessary; reviewing laboratory protocols and ensuring protocol renewals and updates. Ensuring that all team members are up to date on all regulatory training and maintaining research compliance. 

Bachelor's degree in Neuroscience or the Biological Sciences is required. Additional requirements include: Mouse colony maintenance Mouse colony breeding Managerial and organization skills.

Columbia University is an Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

About Columbia University

Columbia University is one of the world's most important centers of research and at the same time a distinctive and distinguished learning environment for undergraduates and graduate students in many scholarly and professional fields. The University recognizes the importance of its location in New York City and seeks to link its research and teaching to the vast resources of a great metropolis. It seeks to attract a diverse and international faculty and student body, to support research and teaching on global issues, and to create academic relationships with many countries and regions. It expects all areas of the university to advance knowledge and learning at the highest level and to convey the products of its efforts to the world.

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