Research Associate in Plant-Fungal Ecology at Imperial College London

Location: Silwood Park Campus

About the role:

The Waring Lab at the Silwood Park Campus of Imperial College London is seeking a community ecologist interested in field-testing a new approach towards suppressing the pathogens of one of the world’s most important staple crops, wheat (T. aestivum). We aim to do this through manipulation of the extant soil microbiome.  The project has two overarching goals: 1) to develop a lab-to-field pipeline for microbiome optimization in arable soils, focusing specifically on suppression of the take-all fungus, Gaeumannomyces tritci, in the wheat rhizosphere; and 2) to advance our fundamental understanding of microbial community dynamics in complex environments. This project represents a multi-disciplinary collaboration among the Pawar, Ransome, Graystock and Bell labs.

What you would be doing:

Your primary task will be to design and carry out a field experiment to explore how interactions among fungi and bacteria in the wheat rhizosphere promote (or suppress) wheat growth and resistance to G. tritici. You will manipulate these microbial communities through introduction of optimised, disease-suppressive inoculum already developed by our team. Throughout the field trial, you will link the processes of microbial community assembly and turnover to plant physiology, unlocking the potential of the soil microbiome to boost crop performance. The experiment will involve development of practical methods to deliver the disease-suppressive inoculum and monitor its establishment.

You will be assisted in this effort by a team of four PDRAs, two research technicians, and many post-graduate students across the five collaborating lab groups, who will be engaged in the laboratory optimisation of the disease-suppressing inoculum, molecular and culture-based studies of microbial physiology, and computational modelling to understand and predict the dynamics of microbial communities. By working closely together, this team has the potential to significantly advance our capacity to manage complex microbiomes to improve the sustainability of agriculture.

What we are looking for:

Essential criteria:

• Hold, or near completion of, a PhD in environmental microbiology, plant pathology, soil science or related field or a closely related discipline
• Excellent scientific communication skills, as evidenced by presentations at scientific conferences and publications in peer-reviewed journals
• Evidence of effective collaborative work in a team environment
• Experience with the basics of experimental design and statistical analysis (the latter in the R programming environment)
• Demonstrated research experience in at least two of the following areas (no candidate is expected to have expertise in all of them):
  • Agronomy
  • Plant-fungal interactions
  • Plant pathology
  • Plant physiology
  • Soil biogeochemistry
  • Soil microbial ecology
• The capacity to conduct fieldwork under adverse conditions (hot, rainy, buggy, etc.) – note that all fieldwork for this experiment will take place in the UK
• A valid driver’s licence (for traveling to/from field sites)

Further Information

Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as a Research Assistant.

Applicants should provide a CV and a cover letter (two pages maximum) explaining their qualifications for the role.

Long-listed candidates will be contacted to complete a Belbin Profile (a free login will be provided) and a short ‘challenge question’ directly relevant to the role.

We anticipate holding interviews for these candidates in late November.

Should you require any further details on the role please contact:

Bonnie Waring at b.waring@imperial.ac.uk with ‘Green Microbiome PDRA’ in the subject line.