Postdoctoral Researcher (f/m/d) in Developmental Genetics of Cereal Crops

The culturally diverse Research Group “Plant Architecture” is primarily interested in basic research questions concerning how cereal inflorescences, called spikes, develop and how this contributes to yield formation.

Your tasks:

• Work in a research team to better comprehend wheat and barley grain number determination specifically in the context of source-sink interactions using contrasting germplasm for floral traits

• Discover, isolate and functionally characterize genes/alleles of direct or indirect traits related to grain number in wheat or barley

• Use field/greenhouse experiments and macros-/microscopic phenotyping, including image analysis evaluations, for trait quantification 

• Handle NGS datasets for RNAseq or SNP detection and linkage analysis using R

Your qualifications and skills:

• You have a PhD or equivalent degree in agriculture, biology or any related field.

• You are an early career researcher not more than one year after your PhD and you have a proven track record and extensive experience with genetic analyses (e.g., Linkage, QTL and GWAS analyses).

• Hands-on experience in phenotyping plants (e.g., cereals) is a must.

• Experience with molecular, cytological and/or biochemical techniques or R programming is desirable.

• You know how to run field experiments. You like microscopy.

• You possess solid English skills, which are necessary to work in our multicultural environment.

You fit to us:

• If you are a highly motivated person.

• If you can organize your work independently.

• If you have previously demonstrated the capacity to master the broad skill set necessary for the successful completion of a research project.

• If you can guide and mentor less experienced team members.

• If you are a team player.

We offer you:

• The opportunity to work in a world-class research center with state-of-the-art facilities and scientists from all over the world

• A friendly and productive working atmosphere

• Teaching opportunities

• A full-time position (100 %) limited according to § 2 WissZeitVG with a standard salary up to TV-L E13, starting on August 1st, 2025 or later

If you need further information, please feel free to contact Prof. Dr. Thorsten Schnurbusch Tel.: +49 39482 5-341 directly.

What you need to know:

For us, your qualifications and strengths count. Therefore, everyone – independent from gender, origin, age, or possible disability – is welcome. The IPK is striving to increase the proportion of womenin sectors where they are underrepresented and therefore explicitly encourages qualified women to apply. As an institution which has been awarded the Certificate for Career and Family (“berufundfamilie”), we offer family-friendly working conditions and flexible working hours. The IPK has set a goal to employ more people with disabilities. Qualified applicants with a disability will be given preference.

Your application:

We are looking forward to receive your complete online-application including detailed CV, motivation letter as well as names and addresses of two references as one single pdf-document (https://www.ipk-gatersleben.de/en/career/job-offers ) until 20.06.2025. If you have questions or require more information, please do contact Kerstin Schweigert (jobs(at)ipk-gatersleben.de ). Please indicate the reference number 28/05/25 in your correspondence. Please note that incomplete application documents cannot be considered. Foreign qualifications must carry out an equivalence test in Germany, which is subject to a fee. This must be presented in the event of a later hiring: https://zab.kmk.org/en/statement-comparability