Postdoctoral Scholar in microbe interactions

Penn State University • University Park, IL

2d

About The Position

The Dini-Andreote Lab at Penn State is seeking a Postdoctoral Scholar. The successful candidate will contribute to a USDA-funded project aimed at developing microbiome-informed strategies for the control of soilborne pathogens in agricultural systems. The complexity of soilborne disease suppression requires integrative approaches that span controlled experimentation, high-resolution molecular characterization, and computational analysis of microbial communities. The postdoctoral researcher will lead the design and implementation of experiments examining plant–soil–microbiome interactions under pathogen pressure, including the use of synthetic microbial communities, microbiome manipulation strategies, and stress-interaction frameworks. The postdoctoral researcher will also play a critical role in ensuring data quality, reproducibility, and integration across experimental platforms, as well as contributing to manuscript preparation, stakeholder communication, and extension-oriented outputs. Given the interdisciplinary and data-intensive nature of the project, this position is essential for bridging experimental microbiology, ecological theory, and applied disease management, thereby enabling the development of scalable and actionable solutions for the sustainable control of soilborne pathogens.

Requirements

• Applicants must hold a Ph.D. in molecular microbiology, ecology, plant pathology, or a closely related field, with demonstrated expertise in plant–microbe interactions, soil microbiome analysis, and quantitative data integration.
• The appointee must provide evidence of completion of all doctoral requirements prior to the effective date of hire.

Responsibilities

• developing and executing greenhouse and growth chamber experiments to evaluate microbiome-mediated suppression of soilborne pathogens
• conducting molecular and bioinformatic analyses (e.g., amplicon and metagenomic sequencing) to identify microbial taxa and functions associated with disease suppression
• integrating microbiome data with plant phenotypic and environmental variables to identify predictive indicators of pathogen control
• contributing to the development of mechanistic and translational frameworks that support the deployment of microbially based interventions in agricultural systems
• ensuring data quality, reproducibility, and integration across experimental platforms
• contributing to manuscript preparation, stakeholder communication, and extension-oriented outputs

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