Postdoctoral position: Studying Climate Change with plant ecophysiology

The Department of Medical Biochemistry and Biophysics at Umeå University, Sweden, invites applicants for a two-year Postdoctoral position in plant ecophysiology. The position is expected to start August 1, 2025, or according to agreement. Application deadline is June 15, 2025.

Description of the project

How plants will respond to increasing CO2 and climatic change is a large uncertainty for ecosystems, crop productivity and climate predictions. To tackle this uncertainty, we combine: growth chamber experiments, samples from world-unique CO2 experiments, cutting-edge NMR spectroscopy and isotopomer analysis (doi 10.1111/nph.20358). Two postdocs will work together to conduct plant ecophysiology experiments, and to analyze samples by NMR spectroscopy.

Work responsibilities

This postdoc with focus on plant ecophysiology will conduct growth chamber experiments with variation of environmental variables, do ecophysiological measurements on plants, interpret isotope fractionation in terms of shifts in plant carbon metabolism, and prepare results for presentation at conferences and publication.

Eligibility

A person who has been awarded a doctorate or a foreign qualification deemed to be the equivalent of a doctorate within plant sciences, biochemistry or a related discipline is eligible for appointment as postdoctoral researcher. This eligibility requirement must be met no later than the time at which the appointment decision is made.

We seek highly motivated candidates with documented experience in plant ecophysiology. You should have hands-on experience with growth chamber experiments and ecophysiological measurements. Experience with stable isotopes is advantageous. You should have a strong relevant research output, as evidenced by first authorship, or publications presenting significant advances in plant sciences.

Candidates must be fluent in spoken and written English. Since this is a collaboration project, candidates are expected to have a keen interest in interdisciplinary research and excellent cooperation skills.

More information about the position

Since appointment as a postdoctoral researcher is a career-development position for junior researchers, we are primarily interested in applicants who completed their doctoral degree no more than three years before the application deadline. If there are special reasons, an applicant who has completed their degree earlier than that may be considered. Special reasons include absence due to illness, parental leave, clinical practice, appointments of trust for a trade union organisation or other similar circumstances, and for relevant duties/assignments within the subject area.

The appointment is a full-time, fixed-term position for two years in accordance with the terms of contract for fixed-term employment as a postdoctoral researcher from 1 February 2022.

Application

The application must include:

• A personal cover letter explaining why you are interested in the position, how you can contribute to the project and in which direction you may want to develop it (no more than 2 A4 pages).
• A curriculum vitae that documents academic education and past and previous employments.
• A list with your publications.
• A copy of the PhD certificate and other relevant degree certificates.
• Names and contact details with e-mail addresses of two or three academic references.
• Other relevant documentation you wish to include in support of your application.

The application must be written in Swedish or English. The application must be made via our e-recruitment system Varbi and must be received latest June 15, 2025.

For additional information, click here and here, or contact Jürgen Schleucher, jurgenschleucher@umu.se

We welcome your application!