Postdoctoral Research Associate

Job Title

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Agency

Texas A&M Agrilife Research

Department

Horticultural Sciences

Proposed Minimum Salary

Commensurate

Job Location

College Station, Texas

Job Type

Staff

Job Description

Postdoctoral Research Associate

Texas A&M Agrilife Research

Vegetable and Fruit Improvement Center, Horticultural Sciences

Required Education: Doctoral Degree in related field

Preferred Experience: Experience in research related to ‘foods for health’ and secondary metabolites.

Responsibilities:

• Lead and coordinate lab activities, including scheduling, parts and supplies requisition, access, safety, and compliance.
• Perform preventive maintenance on laboratory equipment to keep them in optimal working condition.
• Conduct experiments related to identifying metabolites in plant and biological samples.
• Develop and conduct research projects related to a systems-wide approach to increase consumption of vegetables, fruits, and ‘foods for health’.
• Work on research teams and collaborate with other experts to achieve targeted goals of the melon integrated project.
• Conduct field trials and travel within Texas as needed.
• Participate in grant writing and collaborative research activities leading to peer-reviewed publications.
• Work with plant disease samples and understand the relationship between diseases, pests of vegetables, fruits, and potential metabolites.
• Conduct experiments related to the use of nanotechnology in agriculture in the field and greenhouse settings.
• Maintain impeccable record-keeping, troubleshoot instruments, and conduct field experiments.
• Develop and conduct research projects such as analysis and method development of bioactive compounds.
• Investigate changes in bioactive compounds during postharvest handling processes.
• Collaborate with industry partners and collect samples from various locations in Texas.
• Train undergraduates, graduate students, and visiting scientists.
• Develop and conduct hands-on training and short courses as needed.
• Write grant proposals, manuscripts for peer-reviewed journals, and reports.
• Perform duties assigned by the Director of the Vegetable and Fruit Improvement Center.
• Other duties as required.

Required Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Ability to design experiments independently with limited assistance.
• Competency with laboratory work and use of analytical instrumentation.
• Proven track record of peer-reviewed publications and scholarly work in related areas.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment with firm deadlines.
• Ability to maintain and troubleshoot analytical instrumentation.
• Ability to write and follow standard operating procedures.
• Ability to work effectively in a team environment.
• Ability to multi-task and work cooperatively with others.
• Ability to prepare safety and equipment use manuals and analytical methods as needed.
• Ability to communicate constructively with other scientists and collaborators.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office (Excel, Word, Outlook, etc.).
• Ability to work evening and/or weekend hours as needed.

• Preferred Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:

• Ability to conduct independent and collaborative research on identifying, characterizing, and functionally analyzing diverse metabolites in fruits and vegetables.
• Ability to investigate the influence of genetic and environmental factors on the biosynthetic pathways of metabolites in different fruit and vegetable species.
• Ability to link abiotic and biotic stress with secondary metabolites to develop climate-resilient vegetables, specifically tomatoes.
• Knowledge in linking bioactives, whole food, and microbiota.
• Ability to interpret analytical data from LC/MS, GC-MS, Raman spectroscopy, and NMR instrumentation.
• Knowledge of identification, characterization, quantitation, and metabolic profiling of bioactive natural products in plants.
• Proficiency in advanced analytical techniques for material characterization.
• High-quality research ability as evidenced by a strong publication record.
• Knowledge of sustainable food production and plant-based food trends.
• Familiarity with computational modeling of structure-function relationship
• Experience in identifying metabolites in biological samples.
• Sufficient knowledge in statistical analysis tools (e.g., SAS, R, XLstat, Multivariate analysis).
• Manage lab group, supplies, and inventory.
• Perform assay development for new compounds and ingredients.
• Participate in analyzing and disseminating data results, preparing manuscripts, reports, scientific papers/presentations, and grant proposals.
• Provide advice and assistance to other lab members and mentor graduate and undergraduate students

All positions are security-sensitive. Applicants are subject to a criminal history investigation, and employment is contingent upon the institution’s verification of credentials and/or other information required by the institution’s procedures, including the completion of the criminal history check.

Equal Opportunity/Veterans/Disability Employer.