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Prospective Postdoctoral Research Fellows
Prospective postdoctoral research fellows are encouraged to reach out to Dr. Mark S. Chen directly via email with their CV and research interests. In addition to existing lab funding, candidates could explore fellowship opportunities within Harvard, at foundations (e.g., Huo Family Foundation), and from federal agencies (e.g., NIH F32). International postdocs could also consider fellowship opportunities in their home countries (e.g., the Rothschild Fellowship and the DFG Walter Benjamin Programme).
Currently, there may be funding available from the lab for a candidate with skills and interest in using ambulatory physiology and digital phenotyping (e.g., GPS, accelerometry, AI transcripts) to understand affect reactivity and regulation in psychopathology.
Prospective Graduate Students
Dr. Chen will be reviewing applications for Fall 2027 admission. Our lab is a good fit for students with a clear interest in a research career. We study the transdiagnostic roles of emotion and emotion regulation in depression and anxiety: how they are shaped by developmental history, how their function varies across situational and cultural contexts, and how to model flexible, context-sensitive regulation and translate it into better interventions. Students receive training across ecological momentary assessment, psychophysiology, natural language processing, computational modeling, working with large public datasets, and meta-analysis.
Our lab, and the department more broadly, follows a junior colleague model: students develop their own program of research and pursue the questions and methods that excite them, within the scope of the lab. This cycle I am especially interested in candidates drawn to one or more of the following: culture and emotion regulation; digital technology (social media, generative AI) and emotion learning and regulation; and computational approaches to modeling emotional reactivity and regulation using EMA and lab physiology data. Candidates with other interests are still encouraged to apply; I review applications holistically.
Two practical notes: 1) The GRE is required by our department this cycle; I do not use a cutoff and weigh fit and research skills more heavily. 2) It helps a great deal to articulate a clear research idea that connects to the areas above and could eventually grow into an independent line of work. Building computational or psychophysiological skills is also valuable, which likely applies to most lab in clinical affective science many applicants might already be considering.
Prospective Research Assistants
The lab is also an ideal fit for undergraduate students who want to gain clinical research experience, particularly those planning on applying to graduate school in psychology. Many past research assistants have gone on to Ph.D. programs. Lab responsibilities include participant screening and recruitment, conducting literature searches and meta analyses, and assisting in text, audio, and physiological data preprocessing. Weekly lab meetings are held during the semester on a variety of topics. RAs who demonstrate exceptional potential, are dependable, and are able to make a longer commitment to the lab can gain additional experience that could lead to poster presentations or a senior thesis. Please note that research assistants are expected to be in person at least some of the time for lab tasks. A two-semester commitment (8-10 hours/week) is strongly preferred.
Most research assistants in the lab are Harvard undergraduates who join through Psych 2425R (Laboratory for Emotion and Psychopathology) or work-study positions. Occasionally we host undergraduates from other institutions as visiting research fellows when there is a clear training goal.
If you are interested, please email your CV and unofficial transcript to Dr. Mark Chen and lab manager Heeya Ajwani. You can find out about current work under the “Research” Tab.
Prospective Participants
We will post research opportunities here periodically for prospective participants.