Tenure Track Assistant Professor in ecology of soil-borne pathogens

The Department of Agroecology at Aarhus University, Denmark, offers an attractive career opportunity for promising and skilled researchers. We invite applications for a position as Tenure Track Assistant Professor focusing on microbial ecology and soil-borne pathogens.

The position is a career development position with the possibility of transition to a tenured associate professorship and will be available from 01-12-2024 or as soon as possible thereafter.

As Tenure Track Assistant Professor you will be part of a research environment focusing on microbial ecology and plant-microbiome interactions. We believe that an improved understanding and consideration of the plant root-associated microbiome and how it affects plant stressors such as soil-borne pathogens are likely to yield sustainable solutions in agriculture. A large body of research has shown that plant-microbiome interactions are highly complex and dynamic in nature. By understanding these interactions, our goal is to improve plant resilience to pathogens, and to maintain plant productivity by managing the associated microbiome. This requires a deeper understanding of soil microbial diversity, pathogen infection mechanisms, and microbiome functioning including root-microbial interactions. A focus area of the position should be on host plant-microbiome chemical signaling, soil microbial diversity and pathogen interactions.

You will contribute to the development of the department through research of the highest international quality and your primary tasks will be to conduct independent research, including publication in high-impact scientific journals, be responsible for teaching, guidance and examination of BSc and MSc degree students, as well as supervision of PhD students, contribute towards attracting external research funding and finally contribute to policy advice.

You will get the opportunity to collaborate with relevant national and international research environments and in your daily work, you will work closely with both Danish and international colleagues.

We expect that you will be an integrated part of the research environment and that you will contribute positively to the social working environment.
Your profile
You have independent research-related qualifications at a high international level. You are a clear communicator, and you have some degree of experience of supervision and teaching at bachelor’s and master’s degree level. A completed pedagogical course in supervision or similar will be a valuable asset, as will experience with the establishment of PhD courses and external research collaborations. You have completed at least one productive stay at a university abroad.

To be assessed as qualified for a Tenure Track Assistant Professor position, you must:

• Hold a PhD in plant pathology, microbiology, computational biology, microbial ecology, or similar.
• Document experience in scientific writing with several papers in high-quality journals or other high-quality publication channels.
• Show innovative research plans and have a clear potential to perform ground-breaking research as well as attracting external funding.
• Have proven international research collaborations (e.g. joint papers and applications)
• Be dedicated and possess the ability to collaborate and build relationships.

Further, we will prefer candidates with the following qualifications:

• Experience in planning and conducting molecular laboratory work and the application of bioinformatics and multivariate statistics pipelines for analysis of amplicon sequencing and metagenome datasets
• Experience with setting up biological experiments specifically including plants
• Insight into biological/statistical data analysis, including experience in integrative analysis of multi-omics datasets

Who we are
At the Department of Agroecology, our main goal is to contribute to sustainable solutions to some of the world’s biggest problems within the areas of soil, plants, animals, humans, and the environment. We want to make a difference by contributing to both fundamental knowledge generation and the attainment of sustainable production systems via innovative research, contracted policy advice, and education. We offer professional laboratories, greenhouses, semi-field, and field-scale research facilities, advanced computing capacities, as well as an extensive national and international researcher network. The department consists of eight research sections with around 320 highly dedicated employees, of which approximately 50% are scientific staff. More information can be found here.
We believe in encouraging inclusion, acceptance, and understanding by employing staff who bring unique perspectives to our department.
What we offer

• An informal and multicultural research environment with high professionalism, where accountability, commitment, helpfulness, flexibility, and close collaboration is a prerequisite solving the core tasks.
• A good social environment with activities and routines that make it possible to talk across and strengthen the inclusive relationship, and where mutual trust, respect, kindness, and professional sparring are emphasized.
• A flexible workplace with a good work-life balance
• A workplace where we work actively with diversity, equity and inclusion.
• An exciting and varied working environment, where two days rarely resemble each other. We are often busy, and we work creatively for solutions to societal challenges.

Special benefits when working in Denmark

• Subsidized preschool childcare and a free education system from primary school up to university level.
• Universal health insurance as a resident of Denmark, including family members officially residing in Denmark.
• Five weeks paid holiday per year.
• In connection with childbirth: the right to have a total of 52 weeks shared maternal/paternal leave with full or partial salary pay.

Place of Work
The place of work is Aarhus University, Campus Flakkebjerg, Forsøgsvej 1. 4200 Slagelse. The affiliation will be with the Department of Agroecology.

More information can be obtained from Mogens Nicolaisen [email protected] or Mette Vestergård Madsen [email protected]

Application procedure
Shortlisting is used. This means that after the deadline for applications – and with the assistance from the assessment committee chairman, and the assessment committee if necessary, – the head of department selects the candidates to be evaluated. The selection is made on the basis of an assessment of who of the candidates are most relevant considering the requirements of the advertisement. All applicants will be notified within 6 weeks whether or not their applications have been sent to an expert assessment committee for evaluation. The selected applicants will be informed about the composition of the committee and will receive his/her assessment. Once the recruitment process is completed a final letter of rejection is sent to the deselected applicants.
Letter of reference
If you want a referee to upload a letter of reference on your behalf, please state the referee’s contact information when you submit your application. We strongly recommend that you make an agreement with the person in question before you enter the referee’s contact information, and that you ensure that the referee has enough time to write the letter of reference before the application deadline.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to ensure that letters of reference received after the application deadline will be taken into consideration.
Formalities and salary range
Technical Sciences refers to the Ministerial Order on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Danish Universities under the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation.

The application must be in English and include a curriculum vitae, degree certificate, a complete list of publications, a statement of future research plans and information about research activities, teaching portfolio and verified information on previous teaching experience (if any). Guidelines for applicants can be found here.

Appointment shall be in accordance with the collective labour agreement between the Danish Ministry of Taxation and the Danish Confederation of Professional Associations. Further information on qualification requirements and job content may be found in the Memorandum on Job Structure for Academic Staff at Danish Universities.

Salary depends on seniority as agreed between the Danish Ministry of Taxation and the Confederation of Professional Associations.

Aarhus University’s ambition is to be an attractive and inspiring workplace for all and to foster a culture in which each individual has opportunities to thrive, achieve and develop. We view equality and diversity as assets, and we welcome all applicants.

Research activities will be evaluated in relation to actual research time. Thus, we encourage applicants to specify periods of leave without research activities, in order to be able to subtract these periods from the span of the scientific career during the evaluation of scientific productivity.

Aarhus University offers a broad variety of services for international researchers and accompanying families, including relocation service and career counselling to expat partners. Read more here. Please find more information about entering and working in Denmark here.

The application must be submitted via Aarhus University’s recruitment system, which can be accessed under the job advertisement on Aarhus University's website.

Aarhus University
Aarhus University is an academically diverse and research-intensive university with a strong commitment to high-quality research and education and the development of society nationally and globally. The university offers an inspiring research and teaching environment to its 38,000 students (FTEs) and 8,300 employees, and has an annual revenues of EUR 935 million. Learn more at www.international.au.dk/

Department: Entomologi og Plantepatologi/Entomology and Plant Pathology

Deadline: 29 August 2024

Location: Slagelse Forsøgsvej 1