Dr. Padilla's area of research is in Quantitative Psychology. Specific areas of research interest are missing data, mixed effects models, Psychometrics, MCMC algorithms, and Bayesian methods. Dr. Padilla is also working on developing methods that solve measurement error problems in linear models using missing data methodology. His applied interest ranges from genetics to educational psychology, but most recently has concentrated on job satisfaction and alcohol research. He is the director of the Omega Lab at ODU.