Training occurs primarily through the multidisciplinary MAC Clinic and research program dedicated to improving the diagnosis and treatment of cognitive and behavioral disorders resulting from neurodegenerative disease. As part of the UCSF Department of Neurology, which has over 100 faculty members, the MAC maintains strong collaborative relationships with other clinical programs and with basic scientists ranging from molecular biologists to cognitive neuroscientists both at UCSF and other Bay Area institutions. Research conducted through the MAC uses many techniques including extensive clinical assessments, experimental paradigms gleaned from neuroscience and psychology, functional and structural neuroimaging, gene expression studies and proteomics. These techniques are applied to many clinical populations including patients with mild cognitive impairment, Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia and parkinsonian dementias. This stimulating, diverse clinical and research environment gives trainees a broad exposure to current research relevant to behavioral neurology and access to a wide variety of research mentors. The program actively seeks ethnically and culturally diverse scholars from a variety of medical and scientific fields. See Diversity at the Memory and Aging Center.

The first year focuses on building expertise in three areas:

1. Principles of brain-behavior correlation
2. Clinical manifestations of brain disorders affecting cognition and behavior, in particular, neurodegenerative diseases
3. Development of clinical skills for evaluation of cognitive and behavioral abnormalities, including interpretation of neuropsychological and behavioral data.

This clinical experience is critical for a research career in behavioral neurology, as clinical assessment is at the core of diagnosis for both clinical and research purposes, and clinical problems help set the goals for a research agenda and generate novel research hypotheses. Clinical experience at the MAC is supplemented with weekly didactic conferences and rotations through the major clinical research venues.

During the second year, clinical activities are reduced (about one to two days per week), with the rest of the time being devoted to research.

Through the Research Education Component (REC) of the UCSF Alzheimer’s Disease Center, our program also provides BNTP fellows with exposure to topics such as health economics, policy, and biomarker research while ensuring appropriate grounding in basic science. The REC supports leadership training and balanced multidisciplinary mentoring from both basic science and clinical research faculty.​​​​​

Application Process

Applicants for the Behavioral Neurology Training Program must have completed a residency in neurology, psychiatry, or other relevant specialty and have a license to practice medicine in the United States.

Please send your completed Program Application to [email protected]. Program applications are due by April 30 of each year for applicants intending to start in July of the following year (applications due 14 months before the intended start date), but earlier applications are accepted and encouraged​​​​. After a review of the applications, qualified candidates will be invited to interview with members of the training program and learn more about the clinical and research environment at UCSF.

In recognition of the higher cost of living in San Francisco, a housing stipend is available for Behavioral Neurology Training Program fellows.

For more information, please call 415.476.5591 or email [email protected].

The Atlantic Fellows for Equity in Brain Health program at GBHI provides innovative training in brain health, leadership and dementia prevention to a broad array of promising leaders. The program is designed to train individuals from any profession – including but not limited to medicine, science, public policy, journalism, business, law and the arts – provided they possess the skill, compassion and drive to be a force of change for brain health. Through their work, fellows are expected to emphasize local and global health inequities that need to be addressed by practitioners and policymakers, with the goal of transforming local communities around the world.

Atlantic Fellows join the program for 12 months and have a base at the UC San Francisco or Trinity College Dublin. A core curriculum of weekly courses in economics, epidemiology, law and ethics, leadership, neuroscience, public policy and statistics constitutes part of the experience. Fellows also engage in projects aimed at advancing brain health and have opportunities to work with individuals with cognitive disorders. Through intensive mentoring, fellows are guided in the development of their projects, careers, leadership, policy change and impact on brain health.

After their training, fellows return to their home communities to implement their projects and newly acquired knowledge. They continue to have access to career-duration mentoring, pilot funds and an international network of colleagues collaborating to drive a common mission. Fellows should be passionate advocates for older individuals – healthy and impaired, demonstrate the ability to ask questions that cut across disciplines, adapt to different cultural contexts and lead change throughout their careers. Successful applicants are expected to demonstrate excellence in past activities, the drive to learn about aging and diseases of aging, and have strong regional support that assures smooth transition back into local programs.

Find more information at www.gbhi.org.

The year-long program combines core didactic content with active skill development, including leadership training, to provide components that are not provided by other programs. Lecture topics include health economics, global health, social determinants of health, health policy, biomarker research and models of neurodegeneration.

Each participant will have both a basic science and clinical research mentor to encourage creative, expansive approaches. Faculty directors of the program include Aimee Kao, MD, PhD; Howard Rosen, MD; and Kristine Yaffe, MD. These leaders have years of experience as mentors combined with deep experience across disciplines and research methods. Furthermore, the program has extensive collaborations with other UCSF programs related to aging and diversity including the UCSF Claude D. Pepper Older American Independence Centers (OAIC) program, Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research (RCMAR), Mental Illness Research Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC), and the Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) as well as other Alzheimer’s Disease Centers around the country.

The program actively seeks ethnically and culturally diverse scholars from a variety of medical and scientific fields (see Diversity at the Memory and Aging Center). Third- and fourth-year neurology and psychiatry residents are welcome to apply for a specialized year-long experience in behavioral neurology.

Apply to the REC

Interested candidates should submit a formal application, including:

1. A personal statement describing their research background and interests,
2. Their CV,
3. A description of their proposed research in the form of a specific aims page,
4. A list of their proposed mentor(s) and
5. Two letters of recommendation.

The REC Executive Committee will review applications in early March, invite candidates for interviews in March and April, and make final decisions by May 1 for a start date of July 1 of each year.

For more information, please email [email protected].

The University of California, San Francisco Memory and Aging Center (MAC) offers a two-year Neuropsychology Postdoctoral Fellowship. We are looking for candidates invested in a scientist-practitioner model and have the flexibility to design the fellowship around the individual fellow’s training needs and goals. Postdoctoral fellows typically spend approximately 50–70% of their time engaged in research activities, 20–30% in clinical activities and the rest of their time in training, supervision, supervising predoctoral trainees and a wide variety of didactic opportunities. The fellowship training program meets Houston Conference Guidelines. Primary research and clinical mentorship will be provided by Kaitlin Casaletto, PhD; Joel H. Kramer, PsyD, ABBP-CN; or Katherine Possin, PhD. Additional mentoring from other neuropsychology and neurology faculty is available and encouraged. The fellowship is a full-time, two-year commitment.

The ideal candidate: a) has clinical and research experience and has begun to develop his/her research training, b) is interested in specializing in cognitive aging and neurodegenerative diseases, c) is committed to clinical excellence and d) is eager to develop an independent scientist-practitioner academic career.

Applications: All applicants need to submit a cover letter, CV and three letters of recommendation to Nina Djukic. Learn about currently open postdoctoral positions.

University of California, San Francisco Memory and Aging Center (MAC) offers a one-year pre-doctoral practicum placement in clinical neuropsychology. The practicum involves 24 hours per week of clinical training, although additional hours are available if participation in research is desired.

The MAC is dedicated to providing the highest quality of care for individuals with cognitive problems, to conduct research on causes and cures for degenerative brain diseases, and to educate health professionals, patients and their families. Multidisciplinary research and clinical opportunities will range from healthy cognitive aging to typical (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease) and atypical (e.g., frontotemporal dementia, primary progressive aphasias, corticobasal syndrome, prion disease) neurodegenerative syndromes. Multimodal clinical and experimental brain measurement at the MAC includes, standard neuropsychological and neurological evaluations, structural and functional MRI, amyloid and tau PET, and biofluid proteomics (e.g., inflammatory markers). Predoctoral neuropsychological practicum trainees gain experiences in carrying out in-depth neuropsychological evaluations with a broad range of patients.

The ideal candidate: a) is in their 3+ year of clinical training, b) is interested in clinical neuropsychology, c) is enrolled or has completed coursework in neuropsychology, d) is committed to clinical excellence and e) is eager to learn about neurodegenerative diseases.

Applications: All applicants need to submit a cover letter, CV (please include GRE scores) and three letters of recommendation to Joel Kramer, PsyD, and Melanie Stephens, PhD. Please submit application material to [email protected].

More information: For more information, please email Melanie Stephens at [email protected].

While the rotation is required for UCSF neurology and psychiatry residents, it is open to other UCSF residents and fellows. UCSF medical students are welcome to apply for the elective in their senior year through Cha Viloria in the Curricular Affairs office ([email protected] or 415.476.8084).

Non-UCSF neurology residents may also apply for an elective rotation provided they have a US or Canadian medical license, malpractice insurance and health insurance. This is a 30-day monthly rotation beginning on the first day of the month. Please review the learning objectives for the one-month elective at the Memory and Aging Center and then complete the Program Application.

Non-UCSF medical students can also apply to do an elective rotation. Please visit the following link to read up on the program. For more information, please contact Education Division Specialist Jennifer Cantero at [email protected].

International visiting scholars are physicians, psychologists or other medical professionals who wish to observe in our clinic or potentially collaborate in ongoing research projects at the MAC. Visiting scholars are often from abroad and funded by their home institutions during their time at the MAC. Visiting scholars are not required to have a US medical license and are not permitted to evaluate patients on their own. Please note that observation in the clinic is limited to one to two days per week per scholar, but there are clinical research visits to observe on other days.

Requirements

There are two types of visiting scholars: 1) Clinical Observers and 2) Research Scholars. Clinical Observers may participate for up to three months, with a minimum of one month. Please note medical students are not eligible for clinical observation. For Research Scholars, a minimum six-month stay is required. All applicants will have to show proof of English proficiency, preferably through recent TOEFL scores.

Visas and Administrative Fees

For Clinical Observation visits lasting up to three months, a B visa is required, Clinical Observation visits are submitted to the Department of Neurology Education Division, and there is a $500 processing fee. For visits longer than three months, a J1 visa is required and will be sponsored through UC San Francisco. The cost for a short-term J1 visa (less than one year) is $610 and a J1 (more than one year) visa is $640. The J1 visa fee increases with each additional year. Upon arrival, scholars reimburse the UC Regents for any visa costs and the Neurology Education Division processing fee of $500. Additionally, there is an administrative fee for visiting scholars of $300/month with a one-time $35 ID badge charge. The source of funding/payment for the visit must be identified before acceptance to the program. Visiting scholars are responsible for their own accommodations. Candidates who demonstrate a strong interest or record of leadership in dementia research or clinical work may apply for limited financial assistance.

Application Process

The first step is to complete the program packet. Please submit completed packets via email to [email protected]. The application deadline is five to six months before the applicant’s preferred start date. We ask that applicants begin their visit on the first of the month. Once the application has been reviewed, we will contact you.

In addition to the program packet, prospective Research Scholars are required to submit a five-page research proposal that outlines their research question and hypotheses, summarizes relevant literature and the significance of the proposed research, and includes methods and specific planned analyses.

For further inquiries, please contact [email protected].

If you are interested in the US Visiting Student Program, please fill out the program application and send the completed application with the required documents in one PDF document to [email protected].