Stellenticket Technische Universität Braunschweig

Employ­ment will be ini­tially for three years with a three year exten­sion upon a sat­is­fact­ory eval­u­ation at 2,5 years using the IGZ cri­teria for postdoc­toral careers. The salary will be based on qual­i­fic­a­tion and research exper­i­ence accord­ing to the wage agree­ment TV-L, up to EG 13, 100% of the reg­u­lar work­ing time. The pos­i­tion is suit­able for part-time work with at least 32 hours/week.

The sci­ent­ist will be part of the research group HORTSYS-Con­trolled envir­on­ment hor­ti­cul­tural sys­tems. We cre­ate model-sensor based decision sup­port tools for resource optim­ised crop pro­duc­tion in pro­tec­ted cul­tiv­a­tion. As such, the main research in this group is model-based mon­it­or­ing using sys­tems mod­el­ling and sensor tech­no­logy, aim­ing at resource-use optim­ised pro­duc­tion in green­houses and indoor-farms. We use our research for real-time mon­it­or­ing and envir­on­mental con­trol fos­ter­ing resource con­ser­va­tion in green­houses and con­trolled envir­on­ments. One major key for resource use optim­ised pro­tec­ted crop cul­tiv­a­tion in green­houses and indoor-farm­ing is con­trolling crop evapo­tran­spir­a­tion.

The know­ledge of leaf mor­pho­logy and espe­cially sto­mata con­duct­ance play a cent­ral role. Under­stand­ing and sys­tem­atic ana­lyses of the sig­nals con­trolling sto­mata beha­viour and incor­por­a­tion their dynam­ics in mod­els is still lack­ing cent­ral parts.

The suc­cess­ful can­did­ate is expec­ted to strengthen and build an own line of research in resource use optim­iz­a­tion in green­house and indoor-plant pro­duc­tion based on leaf mor­pho­lo­gical responses to the envir­on­ment and vice versa with an act­ive sci­entific port­fo­lio work and pro­ject acquis­i­tion.

Tasks include

• Build­ing an own research port­fo­lio in line with the research groups sci­entific strategy
• The­or­et­ical and prac­tical assess­ment of plant – cli­mate inter­ac­tion and sto­mata dynam­ics in pro­tec­ted cul­tiv­a­tion
• Pro­cess-based math­em­at­ical sys­tems mod­el­ling and imple­ment­a­tion in a rel­ev­ant plat­form, prefer­ably in Mat­lab
• Cre­ation of mod­ules as part of decision sup­port sys­tems for sensor-model based crop mon­it­or­ing
• Sci­entific pub­lic­a­tions in highly ranked sci­entific journ­als
• Super­vi­sion of bach­elor, mas­ter and PhD stu­dents
• Present­ing sci­ence to inter­na­tional audi­ence and act­ive par­ti­cip­a­tion in con­fer­ences and work­shops
• Act­ive par­ti­cip­a­tion within the local research envir­on­ment at the IGZ, in the region, and in the Leib­niz-Asso­ci­ation
• Act­ive in applic­a­tions on grants for national and inter­na­tional calls as e.g. Hori­zon 2020, Hori­zon Europe

We are look­ing for can­did­ates with

• A PhD within green­house hor­ti­cul­ture or indoor-farm­ing, plant physiology and mod­el­ling or a related field
• Abil­ity to inde­pend­ently apply for research grants and build inter­na­tional pro­ject con­sor­tia
• Not more than 5 years since obtain­ing the PhD
• Excel­lent organ­iz­a­tion and Eng­lish lan­guage com­mu­nic­a­tion skills
• Open, flex­ible and pos­it­ive atti­tude, able to take the ini­ti­at­ive
• Read­i­ness to integ­rate into an inter­na­tional work­ing envir­on­ment

The fol­low­ing pro­fes­sional back­ground will be taken into account for com­pet­it­ive assess­ment

• Exper­i­ence in cli­mate con­trolled crop­ping sys­tems as green­houses and/or indoor farms
• Exper­i­ence in green­house crop physiology and mod­el­ling
• Know­ledge or abil­ity to learn of sens­ing plant responses in con­trolled envir­on­ments
• Know­ledge of leaf – micro­cli­mate - cli­mate inter­ac­tions, leaf mor­pho­logy and sto­mata bio­logy
• Know­ledge of math­em­at­ical ana­lyt­ics and abil­ity to trans­late pro­cesses to equa­tions and to sys­tems
• Evid­ence of pro­fi­ciency in using com­puter pro­gram­ming to develop plant mod­els and data pro­cessing

• An inspir­ing and dynamic research envir­on­ment, includ­ing state-of-the art research facil­it­ies
• Very good con­di­tions to develop your own sci­entific career and your net­work in the field of high-tech­no­logy crop pro­duc­tion
• Par­ti­cip­a­tion in a suc­cess­ful, ded­ic­ated and team-ori­ented research group
• Flex­ible and fam­ily-friendly work­ing time mod­els
• A place of employ­ment loc­ated close to Ber­lin and Pots­dam

More inform­a­tion on about the IGZ you can find under www.igzev.de. For ques­tions, please con­tact: Dr. Oliver Körner (++49(0)33701 78 355; koerner@igzev.de)

We encour­age a healthy work-life bal­ance. The IGZ attaches great import­ance to equal oppor­tun­it­ies. Applic­ants with dis­ab­il­it­ies will be given pref­er­ence in case of equal qual­i­fic­a­tions. The IGZ embraces diversity in its work­force, and wel­comes applic­a­tions from all qual­i­fied can­did­ates, irre­spect­ive of age, gender, sexual ori­ent­a­tion, reli­gion, belief or eth­nic ori­gin.

Please send a cover let­ter, state­ment of research interests and reas­ons for apply­ing to this pos­i­tion, your detailed CV (incl. list of pub­lic­a­tions), cop­ies of aca­demic cer­ti­fic­ates, cop­ies of three most rel­ev­ant pub­lic­a­tions and con­tact details of two ref­er­ees.

We prefer to receive applic­a­tions cit­ing the ref­er­ence num­ber send by email to bewerbung@igzev.de in pdf format by 02.04.2023. Our postal address is: Per­son­al­büro, Insti­tute for Veget­able and Orna­mental Crops, Theodor-Echter­meyer-Weg 1, D-14979 Groß­beeren.