Plant Pathogen Discovery and Research Assistant; SRA

Job Summary

The UC Davis Vegetable and Field Crop Pathology program in the Plant Pathology department provides pathology support to over 25 farm advisors, 45 crops and 1,000 conventional and organic farms spanning >500,000A across California. Responsibilities of this position will include a combination of the below, with selection of responsibility based on incumbents interest. (1) Discovery pathology and diagnostic tool improvement, including: diagnosing crop diseases of unknown etiology, characterizing new diseases discovered through diagnosis efforts, conducting survey’s for new diseases, characterizing pathogen strain populations, developing new diagnostics tools and soil/seed testing methods for priority diseases.

(2) Integrated pest management: conducting and/or assisting with industry collaborations to screen cultivars for disease resistance, conducting or assisting with on‑farm trials evaluating cultural, genetic and chemical‑based management methods, providing quantitative microbial risk assessment analysis support for farm equipment sanitation studies, and running monitoring programs for resistance‑breaking pathogen strains.

Managerial responsibilities include serving as the primary technical manager of the diagnostics clinic and / or the molecular diagnostic lab, assisting to coordinate lab activities, onboarding and training new lab members, and maintaining lab databases and culture collections. Additional responsibilities include assisting in coordinating field days, conferences and workshops put on by the PI, preparation of newsletter articles and reports, contribution to grant proposals, and contribution to peer reviewed papers.

This position involves active participation in regular lab meetings and there will be many opportunities to give oral and poster presentations at field days, stakeholder and scientific meetings, and contribute to outreach and scientific publications.

February 26, 2026 at 11:59pm

For full consideration, applicants are encouraged to upload license and/or certification if required of the position.

• Required to hold a valid California driver's license, have a driving record that is in accordance with local policies/procedures, and/or enroll in the California Employer Pull Notice Program
• MS in Plant Pathology or related field, with a focus on fungal plant pathogens OR BS in Plant Pathology or related field and at least two years experience working in fungal plant pathology.
• Experience conducting an independent research project. Experience with staff management and delegation.
• Experience working in the field. Experience in plant propagation and maintenance. Experienced in basic molecular methods relevant to the identification of fungal species and strains (DNA extraction, PCR, sequence preparation, BLAST-search analysis).
• Experience working with plant diseases in-planta. Experience working with fungal pathogens. Some basic experience in / exposure to the process of plant disease diagnostics.
• Experience with computer packages for data storage and analysis, word processing and Excel spreadsheet management. Experience in using power-point to prepare presentations and posters. Experience with scientific writing.
• Effective interpersonal skills. Strong time management and multitasking skills.
• Skills to maintain a fungal culture collection. Some knowledge of methods in plant disease diagnosis. Knowledge of experimental design and basic statistical analysis.

• Experience independently diagnosing plant diseases, methods for inoculation and isolation of plant pathogenic fungi, methods for quantifying disease development, and methods for identifying fungi to the genus level based on morphology using standard keys, experience working with fungi in the genus Fusarium.
• Experience with qPCR. Experience with basic bioinformatics methods including use of sequence editing software (Genius, CLC, chromas, Mega or similar) and use of BLAST databases. Primer/probe design and phylogenetic analysis experience is desirable but not required.
• Experience designing field experiments and knowledge of how to conduct field plantings,…