Postdoctoral Scholar-Food Safety

Penn State University • University Park, IL

18d

About The Position

The Department of Food Science at The Pennsylvania State University seeks a Postdoctoral Scholar to support an interdisciplinary research program focused on food safety, microbial ecology, and pathogen survival in food and environmental systems. The Postdoctoral Scholar will conduct independent and collaborative research under the supervision of a faculty principal investigator and will contribute to the design, execution, analysis, and dissemination of research findings. The research program emphasizes: Survival, viability, and inactivation of foodborne pathogens under food production, processing, and environmental conditions. Interactions between foodborne pathogens and microbial communities influencing persistence and resilience. Exposure assessment and quantitative modeling of pathogens in food and environmental matrices

Requirements

• Ph.D. in Food Science, Microbiology, Food Engineering, Biological Systems Engineering, or a closely related field (completed by start date).
• Demonstrated experience in microbial food safety research or closely related areas.
• Experience conducting microbiological laboratory work, including handling of BSL‑2 organisms.
• Strong quantitative and analytical skills, including experimental design, data analysis, and interpretation.
• Evidence of scholarly productivity, such as peer-reviewed publications or manuscripts in preparation.
• Effective written and verbal communication skills and the ability to work collaboratively in a research team environment.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with predictive microbiology, microbial inactivation modeling, or quantitative microbial risk assessment.
• Familiarity with microbiome analysis and/or genomics.
• Experience with statistical or programming tools for data analysis.

Responsibilities

• Design and conduct laboratory-based research examining the growth, survival, and inactivation of foodborne pathogens (e.g., Campylobacter, Salmonella, Bacillus cereus) under diverse environmental, processing, and microbiome-influenced conditions, including biofilm systems.
• Apply culture-based, molecular, and quantitative microbiology techniques, including microbial enrichment, enumeration, isolation, DNA extraction, and PCR-based analyses.
• Analyze experimental data using appropriate statistical and computational methods to support peer-reviewed publications.
• Develop and apply predictive microbiology and/or pathogen inactivation models based on experimental data.
• Conduct exposure assessment and quantitative microbial risk assessment using laboratory data and published literature.
• Lear, conduct or support bioinformatics analyses related to microbiome or genomic sequencing datasets, as applicable.
• Lead and contribute to the preparation of manuscripts for submission to peer-reviewed scientific journals.
• Contribute to the preparation of grant proposals, progress reports, and other research deliverables.
• Present research findings at local, national, and/or international meetings.
• Provide guidance and mentoring to graduate and undergraduate researchers.
• Collaborate with faculty, postdocs, staff, and external research partners as part of interdisciplinary project teams.
• Ensure compliance with laboratory safety and biosafety protocols, including work with BSL‑2 microorganisms.
• Assist with operation and oversight of laboratory-scale equipment and shared research resources.
• Maintain organized and accurate research records in accordance with laboratory and University standards.

Benefits

• Penn State provides a competitive benefits package for full-time employees designed to support both personal and professional well-being. For more detailed information, please visit our Benefits Page. (Note: For Postdoctoral benefits, please see our Postdoctoral Benefits page.)

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: Ph.D. or professional degree
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees