The Wheat Genetics Resource Center (WGRC) at Kansas State University (Manhattan, KS) is actively seeking a Research Associate. The WGRC is looking for a highly motivated and open-minded candidate to join a multidisciplinary team of researchers working on diverse basic and applied aspects of wheat genetics and genomics and whose focus will be on the development of resources, tools, and strategies to discover, characterize and effectively utilize genetic diversity of wheat and its wild relatives for wheat improvement.
The candidate will collaborate with the WGRC research team on projects integrating multi-dimensional genomics and phenomics data to understand the genetics and biology of agronomic trait variation. They will be responsible for analyses of SNP variation, RNA-seq, epigenomic, and phenomic datasets, mapping and characterizing genes and pathways underlying disease resistance and/or drought and heat tolerance traits.
The successful candidate will have recent Ph.D. level training in plant genetics/genomics, bioinformatics, plant biology or related fields with the demonstrated potential to integrate experimental and analytical approaches to map and functionally characterize causal genes/pathways controlling phenotypic traits. Excellent organizational, written/verbal communication skills and the ability to work in a multicultural environment are required. Knowledge of coding in one of the major languages used for statistical analyses or analyzing genetic and genomic data would be a plus.
A successful candidate should have expert level training in the fields of genomics, bioinformatics, quantitative genetics, or genetics, and will:
- Analyze large-scale datasets including whole genome sequences, RNA-seq profiling, epigenomic genome-wide sequence variation, metabolomics and phenotyping datasets.
- Collaborate with research team members on projects aimed at prioritizing genomic variants for breeding and genome engeneering.
- Train graduate and undergraduate students in analytical techniques relevant to research work performed.
- Develop and maintain data storage, organization, and processing capabilities of the on-going research projects.
The candidate will have access to high performance computing resources of the KSU Beocat cluster (http://www.beocat.cis.ksu.edu/beocat), modern genomic instrumentation through the KSU Integrated Genomics Facility (http://www.ksre.ksu.edu/igenomics) and have a chance to interact with vibrant KSU research programs in plant genetics and genomics. For further details about the position, please contact Eduard Akhunov at eakhunov@ksu.edu.
Go to original story
