Junior Specialist - Hess Lab

RESEARCH IN SPECIALIZED AREAS (90%) a. The Junior Specialist will perform and coordinate laboratory maintenance tasks, including safety management, maintaining the chemical inventory, managing lab waste, and other lab maintenance related tasks. b. The Junior Specialist will use their academic and professional expertise to make scientific contributions to a research study and will contribute to published research.

Under the general direction of the Principal Investigator, the Junior Specialist will collaborate with other research personnel as part of projects that concentrate on microbiomes and microbial enzymes from the rumen and other anaerobic ecosystems. Specifically, the research focuses on the interaction of individual microbes, microbial populations and microbial enzymes with each other and their environments with particular focus on the rumen environment.

Outcomes of our research includes an enhanced understanding of microbial interactions and improved strategies to render agricultural practices more sustainable and productive. c. The Junior Specialist will be actively engaged in preparation of samples for microbiome analysis, standard microbiological techniques, prokaryotic and eukaryotic cell culture, molecular biology techniques such as PCR and qPCR and bacterial transformations.

The Junior specialist will also be participating in the generation and analysis of omics data. d. The Junior Specialist will be responsible for quality checking of results and for maintaining appropriate backups of project data. e. The Junior Specialist will draft tables and figures for scientific publications. Similarly, the candidate will participate in the drafting and revising of study manuscripts on an as needed basis.

PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE AND ACTIVITY (5%) a. The Junior Specialist will participate in appropriate professional societies or groups in the field of microbiology, animal science, and biotechnology. b. The Junior Specialist will offer technical and creative contributions to the manuscript preparation. c. The Junior Specialist will conduct literature searches for articles relevant to the research topic, engage in discussions of data with the Principal Investigators, and contribute to manuscript preparation and presentation of research findings.

UNIVERSITY AND PUBLIC SERVICE (5%) The Junior Specialist is expected to mentor undergraduates or student interns working in the Hess Lab. In general, it is inappropriate to appoint an individual with a Master’s or doctoral degree in the relevant discipline or a baccalaureate degree plus three or more years of experience with the specialized methods as a Junior Specialist.

This job posting is a pool recruitment and applications will be reviewed on an ongoing basis as positions and funding become available.