USDA-ARS Postdoctoral Fellowship in Grapevine Abiotic Stress Genetics and Genomics
*Applications are reviewed on a rolling-basis.
ARS Office/Lab and Location: A research opportunity is currently available with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), located in Geneva, New York.
The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific in-house research agency with a mission to find solutions to agricultural problems that affect Americans every day from field to table. ARS will deliver cutting-edge, scientific tools and innovative solutions for American farmers, producers, industry, and communities to support the nourishment and well-being of all people; sustain our nation’s agroecosystems and natural resources; and ensure the economic competitiveness and excellence of our agriculture. The vision of the agency is to provide global leadership in agricultural discoveries through scientific excellence.
Research Project: This appointment is part of the Abiotic Stress Laboratory at Grape Genetics Research Unit (GGRU), USDA aimed to understand the grapevine response to environmental stresses like cold/freezing, drought, heat, and nutrient stresses. The research goal is to expedite research findings on understanding fundamental plant growth and developmental processes. The participant will help genetic and genomic knowledge on grapevine stress responses and enable identifying grapevines tolerant to adverse growing conditions. We seek a highly motivated fellow to learn about assessing multi-omic data and perform comprehensive genetic and genomic analysis. The candidate will have an opportunity to gain experience in plant genetic analysis, pipeline development, trait identification and mapping analysis.
The overall objectives of the project include:
- Identify sources of desirable traits, quantitative trait loci (QTLs) and genes, and germplasm targets for trait integration;
- Elucidate the genetics and genomics of relevant traits and develop effective and efficient integration strategies, tools and methodologies;
- Develop novel germplasm with target traits, QTLs and/or genes integrated and characterized; and
- Transfer germplasm and associated information, knowledge, and tools to breeders and other researchers for grapevine breeding and improvement.
Under the guidance of a mentor, the participant will have the opportunity to utilize existing populations and germplasm for characterizing traits of interest and their underlying molecular mechanisms through marker-trait and functional analyses and integrate desirable alleles into pre-breeding lines via molecular markers to support the process of continuous germplasm improvement, discovery trait research and methodology optimization to reach greater breeding efficiency.
The general research technologies/methodologies and approaches are derived from plant breeding, genomics, quantitative genetics, physiology, biotechnology, computational biology, and horticulture. The participant will be encouraged to establish robust collaborations with faculty at Cornell University, Cornell Agri-tech (Geneva Campus), and USDA-ARS scientists. Research will be published in open-access, peer-reviewed journals relevant to the field, as well as communicate with research networks within the scientific community.
Learning Objectives: As a result of this training, the participants will gain knowledge and experience in:
- Utilizing, adapting and development of genomic and molecular tools.
- Experimental design in developing stress resistance strategies through trait identification and stacking.
- Maintaining, evaluating, and utilizing grapevine germplasm.
- Growth and experimentation with grapevine.
- Use of high-performance computational resources through USDA-ARS SCINet.
Mentor(s): The mentor for this opportunity is Silvas Kirubakaran (silvas.kirubakaran@usda.gov). If you have questions about the nature of the research, please contact the mentor(s).
Anticipated Appointment Start Date: April 1, 2026. Start date is flexible and will depend on a variety of factors.
Appointment Length: The appointment will initially be for one year, but may be renewed upon recommendation of ARS and is contingent on the availability of funds.
Level of Participation: The appointment is full time.
Participant Stipend: The participant will receive a monthly stipend commensurate with educational level and experience. The anticipated stipend range is $70,457 - $74,457 annually.
Citizenship Requirements: This opportunity is available to U.S. citizens only.
ORISE Information: This program, administered by ORAU through its contract with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to manage the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), was established through an interagency agreement between DOE and ARS. Participants do not become employees of USDA, ARS, DOE or the program administrator, and there are no employment-related benefits. Proof of health insurance is required for participation in this program. Health insurance can be obtained through ORISE.
Questions: Please visit our Program Website. After reading, if you have additional questions about the application process, please email ORISE.ARS.Northeast@orau.org and include the reference code for this opportunity.
Qualifications
The qualified candidate should have received or be currently pursuing a master's or doctoral degree in one of the relevant fields (Plant Genetics and Genomics). Degree must have been received within the past five years, or be anticipated to receive by 5/1/2026.
Preferred skills:
- Experience in gene expression analysis
- Experience with computational tools and packages
- High throughput and precise phenotyping and genotyping
- Innovative quantitative genetic, genomic and biotechnological methods for making crosses and selections
- Evaluating trait performance
- Advancing breeding generations
- Effective means for documenting and sharing research results with stakeholders (communication skills)
Stipend
$70,457.00 – $74,457.00 Yearly
Point of Contact
Eligibility Requirements
- Citizenship: U.S. Citizen Only
- Degree: Master's Degree or Doctoral Degree received within the last 60 months or anticipated to be received by 5/31/2026 11:59:00 PM.