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Hart Lab / LDbase, School of Psychology, University of Waterloo | Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Position Description

A Postdoctoral Scholar position is available with Sara Hart, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Developmental Science and Professor of Psychology, in the Hart Lab in the School of Psychology at the University of Waterloo. This position is funded through a new five-year NIH-supported project to expand LDbase.org, the domain-specific data repository for the learning and developmental sciences. LDbase holds more than 200 shared datasets, is used by close to 900 registered researchers, and is listed by NIH, IES, and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative as a preferred repository.

The successful candidate will lead and collaborate across multiple strands of the project. The first demonstrates the value of data reuse by answering a question that cannot be answered from any single dataset: why do some children grow faster than others in reading? This work uses integrative data analysis to harmonize five longitudinal datasets (N = 5,161, kindergarten through grade twelve), testing measurement invariance at the construct level and then fitting a trivariate latent change score model to examine reciprocal relations among reading decoding, language comprehension, and reading comprehension (see van Dijk et al., 2022 for the harmonization approach the project uses).

The second strand is a program of metascience studies tracking data sharing across the field: harvesting dataset DOIs through the OSF and ICPSR APIs to trace how often shared data are actually reused, coding published articles for open science practices across several years, using NIH RePORTER to compare data sharing before and after the 2023 federal mandate, and other metascience studies on data sharing and data reuse.

The project is also building an application programming interface (API) for LDbase, so that researchers can search, download, and deposit data directly from R or Python. Infrastructure development is led by the Florida State University Libraries team; this role is the research-facing side of that work. The postdoc will be among the API's first users, will help specify what the research community needs from it, and will have the opportunity to lead development of an R client package for LDbase. 

The postdoc will also contribute to community-facing work, including workshops, conference presentations, and user research, and will be embedded in an interdisciplinary team spanning the University of Waterloo and Florida State University, with consultants at Vanderbilt University and Utah State University.

Required Qualifications

• PhD in developmental or educational psychology, quantitative methods, information or library science, or a closely related field

• Demonstrated experience with latent variable modeling, particularly longitudinal and multi-group models

• Strong scripting skills in R

• Experience working with secondary datasets, including documentation and codebooks

• Experience in open science practices

Desirable Qualifications

• Experience with measurement invariance testing or integrative data analysis

• Facility with SEM software (Mplus, lavaan, OpenMx)

• Familiarity with bibliometric or metascience methods

• Experience building or contributing to R packages, or interest in learning

• Experience with data curation, metadata standards, or FAIR principles

• Comfort presenting to researchers in workshops and at conferences

Candidates with strong quantitative training but no prior work in open science infrastructure are encouraged to apply, as are candidates from information science or metascience whose modeling background is still developing. The project supports training in both directions, and no applicant is expected to arrive with all of it.

Research Environment

The Hart Lab is committed to rigorous, open science and to a collaborative, inclusive research environment. This position sits at the intersection of developmental science, research data management, and metascience, and the postdoc will receive training across methods, team science, research software, and knowledge mobilization. Trainees on the previous phase of LDbase have moved into research faculty positions, federal agency work, and industry user research. An in-person presence in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, is expected.

Terms

The position offers a salary of $70,000 CAD per year. Start date is negotiable, with the hope of filling the position in early 2027. Initial appointment is for two years, with renewal contingent on satisfactory progress and funding, up to five years. Postdoctoral scholars in the Hart lab receive funding for travel, for their own research projects, and considerable mentoring support. 

How to Apply

Interested applicants should send a curriculum vitae, cover letter, a brief statement of research interests and relevant experience (1–2 pages), and contact information for three references to Prof. Sara Hart at s4hart@uwaterloo.ca. Review of applications will begin October 30, 2026 and continue until the position is filled. The Hart lab is committed to equity, diversity, access, and inclusion, and the successful candidate will be expected to train in and uphold EDI standards.

Postdoctoral Fellow in Social Science Genomics and Reading Development

Hart Lab, School of Psychology, University of Waterloo  |  Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Position Description

A Postdoctoral Fellow position in social science genomics is available with Sara Hart, Canada Excellence Research Chair in Developmental Science and Professor of Psychology, in the Hart Lab in the School of Psychology at the University of Waterloo. This position is funded through a federally supported research program investigating how reading ability is transmitted across generations through genetic and cultural pathways.

The project uses whole genome sequencing data collected from child twin pairs and their parents in the National Project on Achievement in Twins (NatPAT; see Hart et al., 2026 in Twin Research and Human Genetics for project information) alongside longitudinal reading assessments and home literacy survey data. The core analytical work involves computing polygenic scores (PGS) for educational attainment, dyslexia, and reading-related language ability, and integrating these into structural equation modeling frameworks (SEM-PGS) designed to disentangle genetic transmission from cultural environmental transmission of reading skill across development.

The successful candidate will lead the genomic data processing and PGS computation pipeline. The postdoc will also contribute to SEM-PGS analyses and manuscript writing, and will be embedded in an interdisciplinary team of developmental scientists, geneticists, quantitative methodologists, and reading researchers at University of Waterloo, Yale University, Brock University, Florida State University, and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Required Qualifications

• PhD in bioinformatics, statistical genetics, human genomics, biostatistics, or a closely related quantitative field. A PhD in behavioral sciences like Psychology with extensive quantitative methods experience and genetics knowledge will be considered as well.
• Demonstrated experience with GWAS pipelines and whole genome or SNP array data processing (e.g., bwa-mem, GATK, PLINK)
• Proficiency in polygenic score computation methods (e.g., PRSice, LDpred, LDpred2)
• Strong scripting skills in R and/or Python

Desirable Qualifications

• Experience with structural equation modeling software (Mplus, lavaan, OpenMx)
• Interest in behavioral or developmental science, reading development, or educational research
• Commitment to open science practices (preregistration, data sharing, reproducible workflows)

Candidates with deep statistical training but limited background in developmental or behavioral science or even quantitative genetics are still encouraged to apply. Disciplinary vocabulary is readily acquired, and the core analytic skill set is what matters most for this role.

Research Environment

The Hart Lab is committed to rigorous, open science and to a collaborative, inclusive research environment. The University of Waterloo is home to world-class researchers in statistics, biostatistics, and quantitative methods, and opportunities for engagement or co-mentorship with that community are available. This position is part of a broader effort to build Canadian capacity in social science genomics, and the postdoc will receive training across multiple domains including SEM, developmental science, team science, and knowledge mobilization. At least some in-person engagement will be expected.

Terms

The position offers a salary of $70,000 CAD per year. Start date is negotiable, but the hope is to fill the position by end of summer 2026. Initial appointment is for one year, with renewal contingent on satisfactory progress and funding, up to three years.

How to Apply

Interested applicants should send a curriculum vitae, cover letter, a brief statement of research interests and relevant experience (1–2 pages), and contact information for three references to Prof. Sara Hart at s4hart@uwaterloo.ca. Review of applications will begin April 20, 2026 and continue until the position is filled. The Hart lab is committed to equity, diversity, access, and inclusion.

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