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Students who have completed the NIIN program are ideally poised to attend PhD programs in fields such as neuroscience and biomedical engineering, apply for medical school, or serve as managers, scientific coordinators, or researchers in neuroimaging labs. Others may work as data analysts or programmers working with neuroimaging or other health data. Some of our incoming students have been current medical doctors or PhDs who attend the NIIN program to learn new skills to further their ongoing research careers.
Explore the map below to see where several NIIN graduates have landed.
"The NIIN course has been excellent at interweaving the technical and programming aspects of the field with other aspects of the field, including neuroanatomy, biology methods (tissue staining, etc.), genetics, and research methods. As a result I felt like a more ‘complete’ neuroscientist. I also appreciated gaining hands-on experience scanning patients. Many of the schools that invited me to interview were research-oriented, so I feel that the NIIN master’s program made me a better medical schoo candidate. The NIIN program gave me more insight into neurological phenomena such as synesthesia, and helped me understand better not only neuroscience as a field but the way my own brain learns, retains, and processes information -- insights that will be important in the mental health field."
"I came to this program following my search for a PhD program at multiple schools across the world and noticed that neuroimaging is a field that was becoming highly important in understanding the function and aberrations of the human brain. With an interest in pursuing further education in the field of neuroscience and realizing that this program is the best opportunity to learn about neuroimaging from professors who excel in this field, I decided to join this program. My faith has been rewarded by the fact that I have learned so many practical skills which have brought me close to being a comprehensive neuroscience researcher. This program gave me not only the knowledge on how data is acquired but also how it is processed, which is everything that could ask from a well‐rounded program. The faculty was very approachable, knowledgeable and challenged me to expand my horizons and enhance my critical thinking abilities. The coursework design replicated how data is acquired and processed in a real world scenario hence this program prepares to take up a research position as soon as you graduate along with giving you an edge over other researchers.
"After completing my undergrad in human biology and completing the NIIN's Master's program at USC, I saw how neuroimaging and data are used towards rehabilitation --patients with stroke, Parkinson's, TBI who have motor deficits. I want to pursue a career that will allow me to expand on this field and be able to use what I know and apply it towards a clinical setting. Being in the Master's program, and through it being a part of a lab, showed me that all the research that we conduct is to advance the human body and making strides to promote wellness and fight against our limitations. Besides skills that NIIN has provided, I've gained a better understanding of why we need more people in this field. The first step for me is to obtain a doctorate degree because I want to work with patients, and from there, continue research."
"My passion and love have always been in the investigation of clinical psychology. In order to unveil the myth and the complexity of the mind, it is important to master various kinds of brain science technologies as well as analytical methods. NIIN, Masters of Science in Neuroimaging and Informatics program has given me such opportunities so as to: 1) familiarize myself with functional neuroanatomy as well as terminologies and features of various imaging techniques, algorithms and analyses, 2) learn about the principles of neuroimaging and gain hands‐on experiences in processing multiple kinds of brain data (e.g., fMRI, DTI), and 3) gain a more in‐depth understanding of scientific investigations through those seminar talks given by great scientists from different psychological domains. In addition, professors in this program are truly helpful, and they obviously know their medical and/or scientific specialties very well and are passionate about their careers. Accordingly, after the completion of this program, I now have a better and much more detailed view regarding how to do my own research and processing brain data in my interested science topics. Meanwhile, due to the significant gain of neuroinformatics related knowledge, this program helped me get into the place I hope to further learn."
"The Neuroimaging and Informatics Masters program was essential to my career and academic development. The program provided the necessary foundational knowledge about neuroimaging research that served me in a role as a clinical research coordinator/lab manager and that has now been incredibly helpful in my graduate studies. The program provided exposure to various brain visualization tools, steps for preprocessing neural data, and a foundational understanding of different MR techniques. Moreover, the program provided information regarding the various applications of neuroimaging and its intersection with different fields. This program has been instrumental in my development, providing me with crucial skills that I still use to this day! I feel incredibly lucky to have attended this program!"
"The Neuroimaging and Informatics program at USC is a preeminent Master of Science degree that offers a variety of technical skills training that can be immediately applied to the field of computational medical imaging. From an Imaging Scientist at the National Institutes of Health working on COVID-19 pulmonary perfusion MR imaging to a PhD Student at The University of Queensland working on voxel-based lesion symptom mapping in stroke MR imaging, the NIIN degree has delivered me to the forefront of medical imaging opportunities all over the world. Join the NIIN program at USC today and start your career in one of the most impactful and expanding scientific fields of our generation!"
"The knowledge I gained through the Neuroimaging and Informatics Masters program allowed for a smooth transition into my research assistant position at the Imaging Genetics Center. This program taught me how to think about processing pipelines, analyze brain images, and interpret the results. In addition, this program gave me a thorough understanding of the different MR modalities and how each of these different modalities can be applied to understand more about the brain. We also learned how these different brain measures can be used in conjunction with genetic and phenomic information, which is exactly what I am doing now! This program really set me up for a future in Neuroimaging!"
The NIIN program is committed to helping students and alumni to join PhD and medical school programs and to find research positions. We provide career development seminars and materials to help students to understand their career options, apply to further degree programs, and obtain research positions in academia and industry. We also have a private NIIN Career Network group devoted to networking, career development tips, and job postings appropriate to our students and alumni. The following job listings provide information on job openings relevant to our graduates.
