Career Center

The USDA, Agricultural Research Service, U.S. Vegetable Laboratory in Charleston, South Carolina, is seeking a POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATE (Molecular Biologist) with funding available for a 2-Year appointment under a USDA-NIFA Sustainable Agriculture Systems-supported project “Controlled Environment Agriculture Platform for Hydroponic Cultivation of Salt-Tolerant Crops with Integrated Saline Water Irrigation and Salinity Management”. A Ph.D. is required. Salary is in the GS-11 range ($69,107-$89,835) plus benefits. Applicant must be a U.S. Citizen or a Permanent Resident.

The responsibilities of the position

• Screen and identify tomato germplasm for salt-tolerance under controlled environment.
• Perform high-throughput phenotyping and develop genetic populations.
• Genome-wide association mapping to identify SNPs associated with salt-tolerance in tomato.
• Characterize and manipulate (gene-editing) genes of interest for salt tolerance.
• Apply speed breeding to advance genetic populations with salt-tolerance.

Qualified persons are requested to send a letter of application including a 1-page (maximum) statement of research goals, and a curriculum vitae along with email addresses for three references, and one representative example of their scholarly work to:

Dr. Kai-Shu Ling

Research Plant Pathologist

USDA, ARS, US Vegetable Laboratory

2700 Savannah Highway

Charleston, SC 29412

Email: kai.ling@usda.gov

Required qualifications

• PhD. degree in Horticulture, Plant Pathology, Plant Biology, Genetics, Molecular Biology or related field.
• Knowledge and experience in applied or molecular biology, bioinformatics, and biotechnology.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, self-motivated, and a willingness to learn new skills and techniques.

Preferred qualifications

• Experience in biotic and/or abiotic stress in plants.
• Experience in molecular biology and/or next generation sequencing technologies.
• Experience using horticultural and/or plant tissue culture and gene-editing technologies.
• Experience performing bioinformatic analysis and/or familiarity with scripting languages (i.e. R, Python, Linux ect.)

About USDA-ARS

The U. S. Vegetable Laboratory at Charleston, SC conducts research to solve region-wide and national problems in the production and protection of vegetable crops. This research is conducted in close cooperation with the 13 southeastern agricultural experiment stations. The mission of the laboratory is: a) to improve genetic populations of vegetable crops by combining resistance to diseases and pests (nematodes, insects, and weeds) with favored quality characters and improved yield potentials; and b) to develop knowledge on disease and pest biology, ecology, and epidemiology that can be used as a basis for the development and implementation of new, reliable, environmentally sound integrated management systems that rely on host resistance, biocontrol, and natural compounds rather than conventional pesticides.

Connections working at USDA-ARS