Doctoral Fellow Crop Physiology

Job Description

System Analysis for Climate Smart Agriculture (SACSA) at ICRISAT:

The Laboratory of Crops Physiology and Modelling is part of the SACSA team and undertakes agri-systems research focusing on understanding the production environments and development of strategy to enhance crops abiotic stresses adaptations in these environments (e.g. drought and climate change cropping systems adaptation). The program focuses on ICRISAT s mandate crops (sorghum, pearl millet, small millets, groundnut, chickpea, pigeonpea). The main team activities involve basic research to dissect the environments, better understand the physiological mechanisms of drought adaptations and their genetics and development of HT-screening methods to support breeding programs. The team employs the crop modelling approaches to better frame genetic and agronomic management targets; i.e. identify interventions to maximize productivity under the range of environment x management circumstances. Importantly, the team is the part of international network pushing the limits of current knowledge in research of grain & stover quality, their underlying biological mechanisms & genetics and their interaction with environment. Ultimately, the knowledge of product quality and safety (e.g. fodder value of stover, grain quality and contamination) are utmost important traits to consider in breeding programs targeting for improvement of crop market value and human health within the integrated crop-livestock systems.

Responsibilities:

Primary:

• Test existing and participate in development of novel mobile sensors (NIRs, Raman-spectra, XRF, CT-based) to rapidly estimate the crop qualities (linked to market value and nutritional value) across crop species; incorporation of novel tools into breeding programs.

• Development of novel algorithms and automation of the large data analyses in collaboration with the key partners (sensor developers e.g. HoneAg, Fraunhofer, HarvestMaster).

• Cross-disciplinary communication and collaboration with international partner networks, good team player.

• Training of the student (national and international) and technical staff

Secondary:

• Develop understanding the plant functions (and its underlying genetics) influencing plant nutritional qualities (and their effect on human health in collaboration with other disciplines)

• Decipher the effect of the production agricultural environments (e.g. effect of heat and drought stress) on crop production qualities.

• Designing and conducting precision field trials and other experiments to support data collection for hypothesis testing; data analysis and interpretation; preparation of reports and journal articles.

Essential:

• PhD degree in engineering, statistics, mathematics (big data analysis), quantitative plant physiology, plant biology, nutrition or related disciplines related to high-throughput sensing techniques and analysis.

• Knowledge of advanced statistical methods, experimental designs and data analysis

• Proficiency in written and spoken English

• Ability to interact effectively in a multi-cultural and multidisciplinary environment and cope with extended travel in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa to carry-out the research tasks.

• Creativity and ability to work independently and in a team-based environment

• Ability to draft high-quality research articles

Desirable:

• Idea about quantitative genetics (e.g. QTL, GWAS mapping), crops stress physiology and molecular biology is an advantage

• Insight into agricultural production systems in developing countries and the socio-economic circumstances of the poverty-threatened communities

General:

This is a Post-Doctoral Fellow (PDF) position for two years, renewable based on the performance of the incumbent and the institute s continuing need for the position.

Keyskills :
developmentofstrategy companysecretarialwork southasia marketvalue fieldtrials dataanalysis plantbiology spokenenglish climatechange datacollection systemanalysis productquality plantphysiology molecularbiology hypothesistesting productions