Research Opportunities

wcm/nyp residency research

Research and Other Scholarly Work During Residency

Weill Cornell Medical College's Department of Psychiatry offers a wide range of opportunities for clinical, translational, and basic neuroscience research. Investigators in the department are examining core questions in psychiatry in the areas of neurobiology and developmental neurobiology, genetics, cognitive neuroscience, neuroimaging, neuromodulation, neuropharmacology/psychopharmacology, neuroendocrinology, pathophysiology of disease, psychotherapy, services research, the history of psychiatry, and other topics. Residents have the opportunity to interact with postdoctoral fellows in a number of postgraduate research training programs associated with the department and may go on to a postdoctoral research fellowship upon completion of their residency training.

For residents with significant prior research training who are on a path to a career with a primary focus on research, specially tailored residency training is possible, providing ongoing research development while preserving strong clinical training. For such residents, research can be integrated into the residency beginning in the PGY-I year, expanding during each subsequent year. Training focuses on planning and conducting a research project(s), and residents work with mentors and scholarship supervisors, arranged by their areas of interest.

For residents without substantial prior research experience, residency training includes exposure to research or other scholarly work as part of the residency’s Clinical Scholars Institute. All residents complete a scholarly project in an area of interest. In the PGY-IV year, all residents present their scholarly projects at the Senior Projects Colloquium as the culmination of the Clinical Scholars Institute; selected projects are presented at Departmental Grand Rounds, and many are published in the psychiatric literature and presented at national meetings. Residents are allowed protected time to attend conferences.