Postdoctoral Fellow: X-ray Imaging

Postdoctoral Fellowships
Hamburg, Germany

A consortium led by the group of Prof. Jens Stougaard at the University of Aarhus (AU) and comprising The X-ray Imaging Team at EMBL Hamburg (Duke Team) and the group of Anders Bjorholm Dahl at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) have been awarded a Distinguished Innovator Grant by the Novo Nordisk Foundation titled “High throughput Virtual 3D quantification of microbial Infections of Plant tissues (HVIP)”.

We will be focusing on the characterisation of rhizobial infections in plant root nodules using X-ray Imaging conducted at EMBL’s P14 beamline on the Petra II synchrotron on the DESY site in Hamburg. Capturing the dynamics of plant-microbe interactions over time and over scales and relating the observations to genetic programs and environmental conditions regulating the processes has been a major scientific challenge for the plant-microbe community, and a bottle neck for plant breeders and Agricultural Biotechnology industries for evaluating microbial colonization/infection. With the vision of establishing fast, non-destructive, spatial 3D volumes of microbial infection and colonization of plant tissues, this project aims to expand the novel fast synchrotron-based X-ray tomographic methodology and instrumentation to image microbial infection of intact solid plant tissues in its three-dimensional entirety. The perspective is to advance from a primarily qualitative account of cellular colonization/infection

You have
- Experience in working with biological image data
- Knowledge of Python and/or other programming languages in a scientific context
- Experience in at least one of the following areas:

- X-ray imaging
- 3D Image segmentation
- working at a synchrotron beamline/facility
- An affinity for collaborative multidisciplinary work
- A good command of spoken and written English as the working language both at EMBL and within the collaboration is English

You might also have
- Experience using UNIX/Linux command line interfaces and/or cluster based computing resources
- Knowledge of plant anatomy or the handling of plants
- Experience in other imaging modalities such as electron microscopy or light microscopy

Why join us

EMBL is curiosity-driven, community-oriented and international. As an inclusive, equal opportunity employer, we believe that diversity enables us to collaborate more effectively and be innovative in our approaches. We are, therefore, committed to creating an inclusive and flexible culture - one where everyone can realise their full potential and make a positive contribution to our organisation.

EMBL offers attractive conditions and benefits appropriate to an international research organisation with a very collegial and family-friendly working environment. Competitive salary and social security benefits, financial support for relocation, a relaxed culture, professional development and other staff facilities make EMBL a great place to work.

What else you need to know

We are Europe’s research laboratory for the life sciences - an intergovernmental organisation performing scientific research in disciplines including molecular biology, physics, chemistry and computer science. We are an international, innovative and interdisciplinary laboratory with more than 1900 employees from many nations, operating across six sites, in Heidelberg (HQ), Barcelona, Hinxton near Cambridge, Hamburg, Grenoble and Rome.

Our mission is to offer vital services in training scientists, students and visitors at all levels; to develop new instruments and methods in the life sciences and actively engage in technology transfer activities, and to integrate European life science research. The working language of the institute is English.

Please note that appointments on fixed term contracts can be renewed up to 5 years in total for a postdoctoral fellow, depending on circumstances at the time of the review.

EMBL is a signatory of DORA. Find out how we implement best practices in research assessment in our recruitment processes here.