Graduate Research
Interested in becoming a Neuroscience graduate student?
Dr. Williams can serve as a primary thesis advisor or dissertation committee member for students accepted through the Stanford Neurosciences PhD program. The Neurosciences home program is a part of the Stanford Biosciences (for information, click here). Admissions decisions are made by a committee of faculty and students and are based primarily on research experiences, reference letters, and academic performance. For more information on applying, click here.
Current Neuroscience graduate students exploring thesis and rotation options?
Once accepted to the graduate program, first-year students will have the opportunity to rotate through several labs (typically around a few months each) during the first year before selecting a primary thesis advisor. First-year students who are interested in doing a rotation in the Williams PanLab are encouraged to reach out to Dr. Williams directly. Rotations in the lab are meant to facilitate students finding a good "fit" with a lab/mentor and to explore research interests, and rotation students are encouraged to meet with current/former graduate students during this time.
Interested in becoming a Biosciences graduate student?
Dr. Williams can serve as a primary thesis advisor for students accepted through the Stanford Biosciences PhD program. Admissions decisions are made by a committee of faculty and students and are based primarily on research experiences, reference letters, and academic performance. For information on how to apply, click here.​
Interested in becoming a Psychology graduate student?
Because Dr. Williams has an affiliated but not primary appointment in Psychology, she is not able to accept students through the Stanford Psychology PhD program. ​
However, Dr. Williams could consider being a primary advisor to PsyD students admitted through the Stanford-Palo Alto consortium program who are pursuing a research dissertation.
Areas of Opportunity
Areas for graduate study include, but are not limited to, the following:
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Translational neuroscience. Developing new models of depression and anxiety based on brain imaging of large-scale neural circuits for emotional and cognitive functions. These models could also be applied to understanding other characteristics that overlap with depression and anxiety, such as substance use problems.
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Computational models. Developing new computational models for quantifying the human connectome using brain imaging measures: structural MRI, functional MRI, diffusion imaging, and EEG.​
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Interventional and biomarker trials. There is the opportunity to incorporate interventional probes, or studies that are designed to predict treatment outcome. These designs will depend on the available mix of clinical experience/qualifications and clinician advisors.
Overall Approach
In each of these areas, there would be encouragement to develop a “personalized neuroscience” approach in which the goal is to quantify homogenous subgroups of people and to understand personal variation relevant to both underlying mechanisms and to clinical applicability.
Getting a "Jump Start" with Existing Data
Once accepted to the lab, there is the opportunity to access a large databank of existing data to answer immediate questions, and to then use these results to develop more tailored hypotheses.
The existing data include healthy, twin, first-degree relative, depression, anxiety, and psychosis samples. The measures include multiple types of brain imaging (structural/functional/diffusion imaging, EEG, and accompanying autonomic measures), detailed clinical information, psychological measures, behavioral measures of performance on cognitive and emotional tasks, and genotype data.
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Publication Opportunities
As part of the graduate training experience, publication is absolutely encouraged. The lab has a strong record of graduate student publications.