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How to Apply for the NIDA T32 Grant

Before applying for a postdoctoral position, individuals should establish contact with a potential mentor and discuss research interests, training goals, and feasibility of joining the faculty member‘s lab. If mutually agreeable, the mentor will nominate the candidate for a position and the training grant committee will review a PDF document containing the candidate’s CV, statement of research interest, and three letters of reference. These items should be sent directly to either Dr. Woodward (NIAAA Training Grant) or Dr. Cowan (NIDA Training Grant) following the successful identification of a mentor.

Christopher Cowan, Medicine, PhD, Professor wearing a sport coat and dress shirt

Christopher Cowan, PhD

Chair, Department of Neuroscience William E. Murray SC SmartState Endowed Chair of Excellence in Neuroscience Professor, Departments of Neuroscience and Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
mail cowanc@musc.edu

Chris Cowan, PhD, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Neuroscience at Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston, and holds the SmartState Endowed Chair in Brain Imaging. Dr. Cowan is also the Director of the NIH-funded Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) in Neurodevelopment and Its Disorders (CNDD), the Scientific Director of the NIDA-funded Charleston Opioid Center on Addiction (COCA), and he is co-founder of NeuroEpigenix, a company advancing a novel therapeutic treatment for alcohol use disorder.

Dr. Cowan earned his BA from Wesleyan University (CT) and his PhD in Biochemistry, Cell and Molecular Biology from Baylor College of Medicine. He completed his postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital in the area of molecular neurobiology. Prior to joining MUSC in 2016, Dr. Cowan was an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical School and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital.

Dr. Cowan’s NIH-funded research focuses on molecular mechanisms of developmental brain wiring, syndromic forms of autism spectrum disorder, and epigenetic mechanisms underlying relapse and drug-cue reactivity in substance use disorders. His preclinical research lab utilizes a multidisciplinary approach to study these disorders, including genomics, cell and molecular biology, biochemistry, electrophysiology, complex behavioral analyses, and therapeutic development.

John Woodward, Ph.D.

Professor, Neuroscience
mail woodward@musc.edu