Psychedelic Careers

The recent growth in psychedelic science, research and business is fueled, ultimately, by people. This seems like an obvious point, but it’s worth taking a moment to think about just how remarkable it is to have a growing pool of people proudly identifying as working ‘in’ psychedelics. Some arrived here via long-standing personal interest in and involvement with psychedelics, while others have found themselves working in the space due to the fact that their expertise happens to be in demand.

Given this rise in what might be described as Psychedelic Careers, we spoke to five early-career folks from around the psychedelics space. We’re fortunate to have panellists from both academia and industry (and, those that sit between the two). Here, they share how they became involved in their current roles, how those around them react to their career choice, and advice for others considering working ‘in’ psychedelics.

Part of our Year in Review series

Meet the Panelists

What’s your educational and/or professional background and current role?

Shelan Z Ofori: I completed my BSc Neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh, before undertaking an MRes Advanced Neuroimaging at UCL. During my MRes I worked on the CannTeen Study which was a large fMRI study involving acute administration of cannabis. Once I finished my MRes, I was employed as a Research Assistant and so I was able to continue working on CannTeen until testing was finished. In 2021 I started my PhD in Clinical Psychopharmacology. My current research is focused around investing novel neuropsychopharmacological targets to reduce drinking using experimental approaches with the psychoactive drugs DMT and Ketamine.

Colin Kilty: My institutional educational background is in business with a specialization in Consumer Behaviour (marketing and psychology). My broader educational background includes art history and theory, neuroscience (with a particular fascination for the emerging field of neuroaesthetics), philosophy, and just about any subject matter that deepens my perspective. Professionally, my experience spans what Danny Motyka, Psygen’s Co-Founder & CEO, dubbed the four horsemen of the apocalypse: Banking, Oil & Gas, Consumer Products, and Tobacco. Today, I find myself in the role of Chief of Staff at Psygen Labs.

Sophia Lobo: I majored in psychology and minored in fine arts at Scripps College, a women’s college in southern California. My summer internships were exclusively art related, from teaching visual arts to auctioning art at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong. After graduating, I took up psychology research positions at Hong Kong University and Hong Kong PolyTechnic University. In 2021, I moved to London for my masters in Mental Health Studies at King’s College London. I completed my dissertation with the Psychedelic Trials Group under James Rucker, while interning part-time for Beckley Psytech. I am now a full-time Commercial Associate at Beckley Psytech.

Tommaso Barba: I am a research assistant at the Centre of Psychedelic Research at Imperial College London. I have a background in neuroscience and psychology, and I have been at Imperial for around 2 and an half years now, first as an intern and then in my current role. Before this I did a master of research in neuroscience at Maastricht University, where I first got my hands on some psychedelic projects. The master allowed me to have an 8 months internship as part of the program, so I moved to London during the pandemic (yeah it was quite a crazy decision) and I started getting involved in the research at Imperial.

Alaina Jaster: I received my BS degree in Neuroscience from Central Michigan University, where I focused on researching neuronal plasticity induced by ketamine and ketamine metabolites. While working on my BS, I obtained educational credits from a substance use counseling program and some experiential hours working at a psychiatric inpatient institute. I was interested in further researching substance use disorder after my graduation and worked as a research assistant at Wayne State University. In this role, I collected and examined post-mortem human brain tissue for biomarkers of chronic opioid use. My current role is a PhD candidate at Virginia Commonwealth University.

By the time I began considering career paths, psychedelic research had broken into the public domain, albeit quietly. I spent many months independently following the research and its emerging understandings. It felt so groundbreaking and important, I wanted to contribute to its development.

How did you end up working in the psychedelics space?

Shelan Z Ofori: During my MRes I had been working on cannabis research. I absolutely loved it, however I knew that I wanted to do psychedelic research next. At this time I started reaching out to everyone that I had heard of within the field. I then heard about the ‘Understanding Neuroplasticity Induced by Tryptamines’ (UNITy) project that was in the pipeline at UCL and I jumped at the opportunity. I set up meetings with the principal investigators Dr Ravi Das and Dr Jeremy Skipper and once they expressed that they’d be happy to have me on the study, I applied for a PhD position at UCL… and here we are.

Colin Kilty: This question begets a long story, for which I do not have the character allowance to share, however I will attempt to provide a framework that would serve any person well in their search for a job early in their career. You must build a network: every person, at every company, starting with management and working your way down the hierarchy until you receive a response. When approaching this network, you must understand where and how you provide value – know yourself (see Temple of Apollo) and know the organization’s goals and values – align yourself and communicate said alignment. Take any opportunity that arises… my first role at Psygen was Administrative Assistant – I wouldn’t be in the position I am today without seizing that opportunity. There are few clear paths in life, especially if you take the ones less travelled.

Sophia Lobo: By the time I began considering career paths, psychedelic research had broken into the public domain, albeit quietly. I spent many months independently following the research and its emerging understandings. It felt so groundbreaking and important, I wanted to contribute to its development. Having had an understanding of the major entities, I reached out to The Psychedelic Trials Group and Beckley Psytech to get involved and was fortunate enough that they replied.

Tommaso Barba: I was studying psychology in my bachelor and I developed quite a fascination for psychoanalysis, Jung in particular. Then, by reading about psychoanalysis, I somehow came across Huxley’s book “the doors of perception”. That’s where I really discovered about psychedelics and I started connecting some dots. Driven by fascination about the topic and by reading about the research that Dr Carhart-Harris was doing on psychedelics I decided to first move to the Netherlands to train myself in neuroscience, as I did not have enough knowledge at the time, with the aim of committing myself to psychedelics. Then things gradually followed.

Alaina Jaster: I always wanted to work in the psychedelic space, I was interested in how these drugs worked in the brain to cause such profound experiences. I started my psychedelic research journey being exposed to techniques with ketamine research, then ended up pursuing a PhD program where I could study psychedelics further. I now work with rodent models to understand the circuit responsible for potential therapeutic effects of psychedelics. I also co-founded a podcast, Your Brain on Science, to educate people about psychedelic science.

Sometimes I just tell people I’m working in experimental medicine for psychiatric disorders without really explaining further. I don’t always want to end up in a 30 minutes chat about the 60s, Amanda Feilding and the failure of the war on drugs.

How do those around you react to hearing about your job?

Shelan Z Ofori: 9 times out of 10 the initial reaction is “can you get me on the study?”. People are always super interested in my work and hearing about the work of the other people in my lab. I feel like most people tend to have heard about some sort of psychedelic research that is going on and so I always get a lot of questions, most of which I don’t know the answer to. It’s nice being able to chat about my research with people who aren’t in the field and just hear another take on what I do.

Colin Kilty: Befuddlement, intrigue, and the question “so, is this legal?”.

Sophia Lobo: I get mixed reactions when I tell people about my job. There seems to be an equal amount of enthusiasts as there are sceptics. Regardless of the stance, there is always a curiosity to how psychedelics work and what future role they might play in society. 

Tommaso Barba: That’s a funny question. It really depends where I am. In London people have often heard of psychedelics and the research that’s going on recently, so they usually react with interest and they want to know more. In Italy the situation is quite different and you can really see how the culture there is quite far from where it’s now in the UK. People usually never heard of psychedelics before, outside associations with madness and burning your neurons. When I explain that I’m doing this work in one of the top universities in the world and not in an house basement they usually change their mind, but that’s not always the case. Sometimes I just tell people I’m working in experimental medicine for psychiatric disorders without really explaining further. I don’t always want to end up in a 30 minutes chat about the 60s, Amanda Feilding and the failure of the war on drugs.

Alaina Jaster: Whenever I tell anyone that I work with psychedelics and the brain I try to be as vague as possible because I like to see what questions follow. People will either ask me all about my research and to explain to them what I’ve found and others will ask me what I think about microdosing or tell me about how they take LSD or psilocybin and it changed their life. I’ll tell them about the podcast too and they always respond positively to that.

There’s so much psychedelic research going on at the moment that it can be easy to get bogged down trying to keep up with it all, find your specific research interest and stay on top of that.

What advice would you give to others who are considering a career in psychedelics?

Shelan Z. Ofori:  I would say networking is key! Reach out to people/companies who are in the psychedelic space and try to set up meetings. Even if there aren’t roles advertised, the field is rapidly growing and so there are many ways to get involved – don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. There’s so much psychedelic research going on at the moment that it can be easy to get bogged down trying to keep up with it all, find your specific research interest (mine for example is in reducing drinking using these compounds) and stay on top of that.

Colin Kilty: The idea of a career in psychedelics has evolved greatly over the past two years and will continue its evolution. When I was searching for a job, the largest, and what felt like the only, need was for scientists (clinical researchers, chemists, and the like). In 2022, opportunities for a career in psychedelics can be found at higher learning institutions (researchers & educators), pharmaceutical companies, retreat operators, clinics, advocacy groups (tackling legal reform), media, consumer products, the list goes on. My advice to anybody who wants a job in the psychedelic industry: stop considering and start pursuing. Also, to those considering a career in psychedelics, do not forget that where knowledge is limited, hope abounds and where hope abounds, nefarious characters thrive by leveraging the illusion of certainty.

Sophia Lobo: The best thing about the space right now is how small it is relative to how much potential it has. My advice is two-fold: Take time researching the opportunities available to narrow your interest down. The psychedelic space is in its nascency, which affords you the rare luxury of time and early entry into your niche. Secondly, I would suggest identifying who the serious and ethical players are. There is a lot of hype around psychedelics but remaining science-driven and ethical at every step is most important.

Tommaso Barba: Don’t be afraid of industry. I keep talking to really good students who are extremely committed to only stay in academia, without really considering other options. If you really want to pursue a PhD and an academic career that’s good, but sometimes things do not go as you wish and staying in academia is also a matter of being in the right place at the right time, quite beyond personal skills. On the other hand, there is so much happening these days in the psychedelic industry and the research done there is very similar to the one pursued in academia, so there’s no reason to limit your option at such an early stage of your career. Industry will give you great skills and it won’t close the doors to a PhD in the future either. I have a great friend of mine who went to psychedelic industry for 2 years after finishing the master and recently started a PhD in psychedelic research, fully using the skills acquired before. If you are fully committed to stay in academia keep your options open, you don’t need a PhD in psychedelic research to work with psychedelics in the long term. Search for topics that might interest you and contact people around. Yes, you might end up doing a PhD in something different, but all the people working in the field did the same years ago, as studying psychedelics was not possible. Don’t be too picky.

Alaina Jaster: If you are considering a career in psychedelics, I would say be prepared for the rollercoaster. It’s such a fast-moving field and you really have to constantly keep up by reading and engaging with other folks, whether that is in academic, industry or policy settings. I would also tell people to be open-minded about who they work with or how they break into the field. Sometimes you have to stick it out doing something you may not want to do before you get into the forefront of the psychedelic space, and that is totally okay!

… to those considering a career in psychedelics, do not forget that where knowledge is limited, hope abounds and where hope abounds, nefarious characters thrive by leveraging the illusion of certainty.

Part of our Year in Review series

This content is part of our 2022 Year in Review, which looks back at the past year through commentary and analysis, interviews and guest contributions.

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