Department The University of Essex is looking to recruit a motivated and enthusiastic post-doctoral Research Officer to work in the Plant Physiology laboratory of Prof. Tracy Lawson, School of Biological Sciences, University of Essex. The 36 month post will involve working on a BBSRC International Wheat Yield Partnership (IWYP) funded project on "Manipulating stomatal blue light response in wheat to improve productivity" in collaboration with Prof. Cristobal Uauy (JIC, Norwich), Dr Elizabete Carmo-Silva (University of Lancaster) and Gemma Molero (CIMMYT, Mexico).Duties of the Role The post is based at University of Essex and will be under the direct supervision of Prof. Tracy Lawson. The aim of the research project is to reduce stomatal sensitivity to blue light in wheat by exploiting a wheat TILLING populations and investigating knockout (KO) homoeologues for the TaBLUS1 in the three wheat genomes. Double and triple KOs that have been crossed into elite wheat varieties will be available by the start of the project. Stomatal responses will be screened in the various crosses and lines using thermography and Infra-red gas exchange analyses. The main objectives of the project of the Essex component of the work will be: (1) Use high throughput novel screening technologies to quantify stomatal blue light responses and photosynthetic capacity in wheat mutants; (2) Physiologically quantify the effect on stomatal conductance (gs) and leaf temperature in selected mutants and crosses; (3) Conduct physiological analysis in field trials in both UK and Mexico. The duties of the post include to develop research objectives and proposals for own or joint research under the direction of or with the assistance of a Principal Investigator/ Supervisor. Also to contribute to knowledge exchange activities within the wider academic community and other activities designed to ensure that appropriate impact of the research (outside academia) is achieved. The candidate would also be expected to engage in individual and/ or collaborative research activity resulting in internationally excellent publications that is in keeping with REF criteria.
http://www.tlawsonlab.co.uk/
This is a fixed term post until 14 May 2021. Appointment will be made as Senior Research Officer.Skills and Qualifications RequiredApplicants are expected to hold a relevant doctoral level degree in Plant Biology or be close to completion. Applicants should also have a Bsc (Hons) in Biological Sciences or appropriate discipline as well as experience in designing experiments and conducting risk analyses. The applicant should have knowledge of plant biology and experience of contributing to small research programmes or defined areas of larger projects, and of developing research objective proposals.
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