Climate change, loss of biodiversity, sustainability goals – we are facing a wide range of global challenges!
These challenges are raising numerous questions for our university with its clear focus on special crops and their products as well as its commitment to a sustainable development of cultivated landscapes and urban open spaces. How can we develop future forms of land management, especially with regard to crops such as grapes, fruits and vegetables that require intensive crop management? How to shape urban spaces and cultivated landscapes to make them fit for the challenges of climate change while also having the potential to combat it? How can we continue to supply healthy, safe and sustainably produced food for a growing population? These are a few examples of questions our scientists are tackling in research and teaching on a global and regional scale – and coming up with solutions will sure be a huge challenge!
To that end, our research must be theory-based while focusing on practical applications as well. Thanks to various collaborations, we have created a strong network with renowned universities and research institutions as well as industry partners and associations in Germany and abroad. In the future, we have to increasingly tab the enormous potential that our network provides because today’s most pressing issues have reached a global dimension and can hardly be tackled by single institutions alone – irrespective of their size. Therefore, we stand together as a cross-border network to master the numerous challenges of our industries with clever minds, smart solutions, commitment and persistency.
Our website provides an introduction to our fields of activity and to our research and teaching infrastructure. As a university with a special profile and a strong focus on covering the entire value chain of special crops, we are committed to developing strategies for a sustainable future that is worth living for everyone. Learn more about our research and teaching approaches on the following pages
Activities and responsibilities Research assistant (m/f/d) for 36 months part-time (65%) with the opportunity for doctorate
Reference number 47/2022 to be filled.
Your professional requirements:
In this project, funded by the German Research Foundation, the importance of nitrate and chloride for transpiration of crop plants will be investigated using field bean and barley as model crops. The focus of the investigation is the relevance of nitrate and chloride for processes that are necessary for the opening and closing of the stomata. You will learn a number of plant physiological, plant nutritional and biomolecular techniques that are certainly relevant for your professional self-realization: fertilization experiments of plants in hydroponic culture, leaf gas exchange measurements, innovative water content measurements using a modern camera system, analysis of substances in the leaf apoplast, and quantification of ions and organic acids in leaves and isolated guard cells.
The work is done in collaboration with the group of Prof. Dr. Rob Roelfsema from the Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg. Prof. Roelfsema will supervise another PhD-student working on the characterization of membrane transport processes. You are expected to work in close cooperation with this PhD-student. Occasional mutual visits are part of the work, as well as occasional participation in molecular biology work at JMU Würzburg: cloning and expression of genes in tobacco. In addition, you will be involved in the identification and quantification of guard cell proteins as part of a collaboration (KU Leuven, Belgium). Working on this topic is important because the intensive use of nitrate in agriculture needs to be revised.
- Acquisition and evaluation of data, and publications in peer-reviewed journals
- Presentation of research results at international and national conferences
- Tasks for personal scientific qualification (doctorate)
- Writing of research and annual reports
- Supervision of Bachelor’s and Master’s theses
- Occasional business trips from Geisenheim to Würzburg
Qualification profile
Your profile:
- Above-average scientific degree (Master‘s or Diplom) in biology, agricultural sciences, horticultural sciences, life sciences or similar fields of study
- First experience in plant physiology or molecular biology with a focus on plants
- Good command of English (oral and written)
- Confident understanding and operation of IT applications
- Independent, structured, cooperative and careful way of working
- Well-developed organizational skills and good presentation skills
- Team-minded person
We offer
What is offered:
- A challenging and varied job in our cooperative and motivated team
- Competent supervision and the opportunity to participate in training events
- Personal scope for creativity and independent work
- If you meet the requirements of the public service pay, you will be paid up to public pay scale 13 of the Tarifvertrag Hessen (TV-H); gross salary per month 2692 EUR in the first year, 2895 EUR in the second and third year
- Hessen-Ticket 2022 for free use of public transport in Hessen
- Workplace health promotion
- The position is limited to 3 years, part-time 66% (§ 1 para. 1 WissZeitVG).
Contact: Prof. Dr. Christoph-Martin Geilfus:
Phone: über +49 6722 502 432
eMail: ChristophMartin.Geilfus(at)hs-gm.de