Information for Prospective Students and Postdocs

We are always interested to welcome responsible, motivated, and inherently curious individuals to the lab! Adventurous, collaborative, and adaptable personalities with a sense of humor will fit into our community well. Our trainees are diverse in their interests and backgrounds, with students coming from Neuroscience, Psychology, Cognitive Science, Engineering, Linguistics, and Communication Sciences educational backgrounds and cultural backgrounds from across the world.

Undergraduate Research Assistants: CMU and University of Pittsburgh students have the option to volunteer or to work for course credit. It is sometimes possible for us to arrange to have students from other local universities work with us during the academic year and we welcome summer students from near and far. The first semester serves as a probationary period during which you will learn the basics of the lab. After that, some students are interested to take on further responsibilities. If you are interested in becoming a Research Assistant, please contact our Laboratory Manager, Christi Gomez. In your email, please include this completed form.

Prospective Graduate Students: Professor Lori Holt trains graduate students through a number of programs including the Psychology PhD at CMU, the Cognitive Neuroscience PhD at CMU, the Program in Neural Computation at CMU, and the Center for Neuroscience at University of Pittsburgh. In addition, you may consider complementing your PhD studies with additional training through the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition.

Our philosophy is to provide PhD trainees with a research apprenticeship in which they gain the full constellation of skills necessary to become an independent researcher. Past trainees have gone on to have successful careers in academia and research in industries like Google and educational technology start-ups. We value collaboration and trainees can expect to have close interaction with other local laboratories with interests in auditory neuroscience through our weekly Pittsburgh Cognitive Auditory Neuroscience network and co-mentoring with other faculty. Trainees can expect to meet with Professor Holt 1:1 weekly in addition to weekly lab meetings to advance their research goals and training. All trainees in the lab receive 100% tuition support, a living stipend, health insurance, and free public transportation. CMU graduate students benefit greatly from the fact that CMU is situated immediately adjacent to the University of Pittsburgh, widening the opportunities for interactions with a wide diversity of faculty and students and broadening course offerings. Pittsburgh is an affordable and fun city in which to pursue graduate training. If you have questions or wish to express your interest in submitting an application to graduate school, please email Professor Holt.

Prospective Postdoctoral Scholars: We are always interested to hear from researchers interested to continue their training as a postdoctoral scholar. Our laboratory works closely with multiple local and international collaborators, expanding the opportunities for training. In particular, there is a close relationship fostered by joint funding with Dr. Barbara Shinn-Cunningham's laboratory at CMU and Dr. Bharath Chandrasekaran's laboratory at University of Pittsburgh, just across the street. CMU postdoctoral scholars benefit greatly from the fact that CMU is situated immediately adjacent to the University of Pittsburgh, widening the opportunities for professional development and interactions with a wide diversity of faculty and trainees. Pittsburgh is an affordable and fun city in which to pursue the next stage of your career. If you have questions or wish to express your interest in a postdoctoral position, please email Professor Holt.

Virtual Tour: Take a look at CMU and the Psychology Department from the Graduate Student perspective. Due to COVID-19, prospective Graduate and Postdoctoral students were unable to visit campus in-person. This virtual tour was created to give others a feel of the Psychology Department at Carnegie Mellon University and our culture because the students deserve the next best experience, despite the global pandemic.

Lab Life: The Pittsburgh Cognitive Auditory Neuroscience (PCAN) group is a network of faculty, post-doctoral researchers, graduate students, undergraduates, and research staff that spans University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University. Our goal is to further understanding of human auditory cognitive neuroscience. The PCAN group meets weekly in a joint, multi-lab meeting that provides a forum for communicating early research findings, trainee professional development, and discussion of trends in the field. One of the benefits of PCAN is that trainees are welcomed into a vibrant and interactive multi-lab group. This expands the opportunities for intellectual exchange and socializing outside a single lab, and opens rich opportunities for cross-training with multiple mentors (either formally or informally). Carnegie Mellon University and University of Pittsburgh are immediately adjacent to one another, making it easy to interact. The institutions' complementary strengths diversify training, with trainees eligible to take coursework at both institutions. We share imaging facilities and graduate training programs, making for deep interconnections.