in 1983, wilczynski joined the faculty of the university of texas at austin as an assistant professor of psychology. he remained on the faculty of the university of texas at austin until 2005, when he joined the faculty of gsu. while at the university of texas at austin, he helped found the institute for neuroscience and the interdisciplinary neuroscience ph.d. program there. at gsu, he became a professor of psychology upon joining their faculty in 2005. he has been the co-director of research and academic programs at gsu's center for behavioral neuroscience since 2005, and has been the director of gsu's neuroscience institute since it was formed in 2008. in 2013, he received a five-year, $499,209 grant from the national science foundation to create the sociogenomics initiative research coordination network, which unites researchers in the u.s. and canada working in the field of sociogenomics.