Postdoctoral Scientist in Drought Legacy Effects Tree Crown Microbiome, Chemodiversity and I

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Vacancy /2026
Closing date:

The Friedrich Schiller University Jena is a dynamic and innovation-driven university centrally located in Germany. With a broad range of disciplines, it shapes the future through excellent research and teaching. Its scientific excellence is reflected in the profile areas Light – Life – Libert y, which provide pioneering insights and sustainable solutions for the society of tomorrow. Through close collaborations with leading research institutions, innovative companies, and renowned cultural organizations, it advances interdisciplinary developments.

With around 17,000 students and approximately 10,000 employees, it defines Jena as a vibrant, internationally connected city of science and innovation.

commencing on the earliest possible starting date. We offer a full-time position (40 hours per week) initially offered as a fixed-term, 2-year position.

The Plant Microbiosis Lab studies natural plant-based ecosystems to understand how microbial ecosystems arise and how they influence host health. The Lab is part of the Department of Microbiology at FSU Jena and the DFG Excellence Cluster “Balance of the Microverse”, a large, diverse and dynamic consortium investigating how microbial interactions shape balance from environmental stability to plant and animal health.

Severe drought is increasingly stressing forest health in Europe and beyond. The goal for this project is to study how drought severity and legacy effects modulate the interactions among physiochemical, bacterial and herbivore diversity as well as herbivore behaviour and leaf damage patterns in mature forest tree crowns. As a new Postdoctoral Scientist, you will take part in managing sampling campaigns in an established rain through fall exclusion experiment that includes canopy crane infrastructure and generating and analysing data derived from that experiment.

You will also design approaches for Synthetic Microbiome Experiments in trees and work closely together with scientists in collaborating groups on sampling, data sharing and analysis, as well as controlled experiments. You will take advantage of cutting-edge genomic and metagenomic techniques to achieve these goals.

• Participating in and managing field sampling campaigns and field experimentation.
• Getting from samples to microbial (functional) diversity data and analysing the data to evaluate hypotheses related to drought effects on diversity.
• Design and execution of synthetic microbiome experiments and analysis of the resulting large datasets using statistics and modelling to mechanistically understand drought effects.
• Managing all aspects of the project in close collaboration with international project partners.
• Write and publish results of the research projects and present results at scientific conferences.
• Develop independence by creating own research goals and sub-projects with possibility to gain experience by supporting in teaching and supervisory roles.

• University degree and PhD, preferably in (Micro) biology, with a focus on microbial ecology and/or plant-microbe interactions.
• A passion for using molecular approaches to dissect the function of complex, natural biological systems is essential.
• A “hands‑on” attitude and willingness to manage and carry out extensive field work in potentially difficult conditions.
• Experience in processing and analysing large, genomic data sets with a good grip on statistical data analysis.
• Experience with synthetic microbial communities, especially in host‑associated systems.
• A highly team‑oriented attitude and working style and readiness to cooperate with international partners.

Are you hesitating because you don't meet one or some of our requirements? Please do not hesitate to apply and give us a chance to get to know you.

• Exciting interdisciplinary research at the interface intersection of microbiology and microbial ecology.
• A thriving research group involved in the Cluster of Excellence “Balance of the Microverse”.
• Excellent equipment and infrastructure.
• The…