The PhD program in Rehabilitation Sciences at MGH Institute of Health Professions trains scientists to conduct research in health and rehabilitation-related fields. Prospective students are asked to identify a potential Research Mentor who is willing to work with them as part of the pre-application process. Below you'll find a list of IHP labs, many of which accept PhD students, and also a list of external labs who are available to take our students. For a full list of mentors, you can visit our directory.

 

Explore Labs at the IHP

silhouette of a head with digital graphics behind it

AI4CommSci Lab

This lab seeks to push the envelope of what is possible with artificial intelligence, making breakthroughs in theory and practice for the communication sciences.

PI: Joshua Hartshorne, PhD

man holds device that looks like a big T to a woman's head while others look at a computer

Brain Recovery Lab

A clinical neuroscience laboratory with special interest in helping people recover from neurologic injury, especially stroke and dystonia, using tools to understand disease and develop novel interventions to help people improve in their day-to-day life.

PI: Teresa Kimberley, PhD, PT, FAPTA

young woman writes letters on a paper easel in an elementary classroom

The Brain, Education, & Mind (BEAM) Lab

Conducting research in service of improving student outcomes by investigating factors contributing to prevention of reading challenges, identification of protective characteristics, and optimizing individualized interventions.

PI: Joanna A. Christodoulou, EdD

man helps woman who has her arms crossed to stand straight

Cancer Rehabilitation (CaRe) Lab

Our objective is advancing knowledge and clinical practice related to improving the functional well-being and quality of life of individuals living with and beyond cancer. 

PI: Kathleen D. Lyons, ScD, OTR/L

Two researchers place sensors on the head of a sitting person who is sitting and using a computer

The Cognitive Neuroscience Group (CNG)

A collaborative research group that uses behavioral and neuroscience methods to examine the relationship between learning, language ability, and cognitive factors. Three PIs lead the CNG, collaborating on projects while pursuing independent lines of research. 

PIs: 
Yael Arbel, PhD, CCC-SLP 
Lauryn Zipse, PhD, CCC-SLP 
Sofia Vallila-Rohter, PhD, CCC-SLP 
 

two women assist a third woman stepping over a low stick across two cones

Cognitive-Motor Behavior Lab

This lab integrates cognitive neuroscience and motor control to examine interactions between attention, cognition and language, and mobility to optimize neurorehabilitation outcomes in people with neurological disorders.

PI: Prudence Plummer, PhD, PT, BPhysio(Hons)

 

small girl is fitted for a hearing aid while her mom has her arm around her

Hearing Dynamics Lab

Studying the effects of hearing loss in children and adults as well as aspects of normal hearing development. 

PI: Andrea Pittman, PhD, CCC-A

 

photo of a wrist with a smartwatch displaying heartrate

Physical Activity for Cardiovascular Health Enhancement (PACE) Lab

The overarching goal of our lab is to identify ways in which supervised exercise and unsupervised self-performed physical activity can impact health outcomes in people living with cardiovascular disease.

PI: Shweta Gore, PhD, DPT, GCS, CLT

 

Two SFD Lab Researchers attach sensors to the head of a patient in front of a colorful painting of animals

Speech & Feeding Disorders Lab

Our focus is on communication. The SFDL is dedicated to advancing knowledge and clinical practice through basic and applied research on speech and swallowing disorders.

PI: Jordan R. Green, PhD, CCC-SLP, FASHA

 

a man sits next to a little girl in pink rain boots and points at a book in her lap

The Speech and Language (SAiL) Literacy Lab

The SAiL lab's mission is to improve educational outcomes for children and adults with speech, language, and reading impairments.

PI: Tiffany Hogan, PhD, CCC-SLP

 

woman holds soccer ball and speaks to a child while seated at a table

Speech in Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disorders (SPAN) Lab

Understanding why many children with neurodevelopmental disorders don’t learn to talk on their own. Work so far has concerned minimally verbal autistic children, but they are far from the only ones whose spoken language development is affected. 

PI: Karen Chenausky, PhD, CCC-SLP

 

woman places sensor dots on a person's face

Speech, Physiology, and Neurobiology of Aging and Dementia (SPaN-AD) Lab

Better understand how speech motor control changes with normal and pathological aging, how cognitive function can impact speech motor control, and how age-related changes in speech motor control inform early diagnosis and progress monitoring of cognitive impairment due to AD.

PI: Marziye Eshghi, PhD

 

External Collaborating Labs

man talks to another man on a recumbent bike

Join our Rehabilitation Sciences PhD Program to work with Dr. J. Andrew Taylor, PhD, Principal Investigator for the Cardiovascular Research Lab at Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital and Associate Professor at Harvard University. He is seeking a PhD student to conduct research related to exercise to prevent cardiovascular, pulmonary, and metabolic declines after spinal cord injury. His lab studies cardiovascular and autonomic (patho) physiology in the areas of bone blood flow control, anorexia, spinal cord injury, and aging. Integrative physiological techniques used in the lab include measures of systemic and regional hemodynamics, direct measures of peroneal sympathetic nervous activity, and integrative models of cardiovascular control.

Funding for a PhD student may be available, depending on the area of research interest.

For additional informationjandrew_taylor [at] hms.harvard.edu ( email Dr. Taylor) with your name, CV, and area(s) of interest.

man in suit bends his arm at the elbow along with a man in a wheelchair

Research opportunity available for a physical or occupational therapist interested in working in the areas of surgical outcomes research, spinal cord stimulation, and quality of life consequences of paralysis reversing reconstructive interventions. The student will pursue a PhD in Rehabilitation Science at the MGH Institute of Health Professions, and work in a collaborative research lab, the Paralysis Center led by Dr. Justin Brown – Associate Professor of Neurosurgery, Harvard Medical School. The ideal candidate will have completed the requirements for a degree in occupational or physical therapy and have experience working with individuals following paralyzing injuries. Additional experience in data collection methods such as gait evaluation, upper limb and hand function assessment, spasticity assessment or surface electromyography is desirable.

Applications from women and representatives of minority groups are encouraged. If interested, jmbrown [at] mgh.harvard.edu (contact Dr. Justin Brown.)

The mission of the INSPIRE lab is to help people with paralysis regain functional movements. To accomplish this mission, we focus our research on answering several important clinical questions:

  1. How do preserved neural pathways communicate with functionally relevant motor targets after spinal cord injury (SCI)?
  2. How do plasticity-promoting primers accelerate and anchor the benefits of task-specific training after SCI?

We expect that answering these questions will establish important principles for exploiting endogenous mechanisms of plasticity for treating neurologic pathologies. Understanding and learning how to harness this plasticity will profoundly impact persons with life-altering paralysis. Our recent studies provide new appreciation for the capacity of the human spinal cord to adapt and reorganize after injury. In particular, we demonstrated that a novel spinal plasticity-promoting primer elicits respiratory and non-respiratory motor recovery in rodent SCI models (Lovett-Barr et al., 2012) and improved limb function in humans with SCI (Trumbower et al., 2012). An important goal guiding our translational research is to identify whether endogenous mechanisms of spinal plasticity demonstrated in rodents also contribute to functional recovery in humans with SCI. To achieve this goal, our team uses advanced electrophysiology, pharmacology, neuromechanics, and computer simulation techniques in able-bodied humans and persons with SCI.
 
Funding available for two years of PhD training. Contact is Dr. Randy Trumbower, PT, PhD, Lab Director.