Postdoctor position available to study carbon assimilation in trees
About this role
Department of Forest Genetics and Plant Physiology
The Department of forest genetics and plant physiology is part of Umeå Plant Science Centre (UPSC, https://www.upsc.se /) which is a centre of excellence for experimental plant research and forest biotechnology in Northern Sweden. Our mission is to perform excellent and innovative basic research and generate knowledge that benefits forestry, agriculture, environment and society. We work across a wide range of disciplines in plant science reaching from cell biology to ecophysiology and from basic research to industrial applications. Our common goal is to understand the plants’ ability to grow, adapt and acclimate to a changing world and how we can breed better plants.
About the position
A post-doctoral position is available in the http://www.upsc.se/totte_niittyla at the Umeå Plant Science Center, Sweden to study carbon assimilation in trees using aspen as the model system. The position is part of a Swedish Research Council and NovoNordisk Synergy Projects. The latter is a collaboration between the Niittylä group, the https://cbmr.ku.dk/research/research-groups/moritz-group/?pure=en/persons/643429 ) at the University of Copenhagen and the https://www.helsinki.fi/en/researchgroups/plant-growth-dynamics at the University of Helsinki.
Trees represent the single most important carbon sink on the planet. An incomplete mechanistic understanding of carbon sequestration limits our ability of predict the capacity of trees to assimilate CO2 and optimise the production of sustainable wood derived materials and fuels. The project will adress this problem by investigating the connection between photosynthesis and downstream metabolic fluxes in leaves using a set of aspen mutants and isotope techniques.
The postdoc will collaborate between the three research groups, and will have the opportunity to pitch additional projects and integrate their own interests.
Your profile
Applicants should have a PhD in plant molecular biology, plant biochemistry or plant physiology. Biochemistry skills are important and previous experience on photosynthesis acclimation research in trees and Populus model systems are highly desirable.
English fluency and publication in peer-reviewed high-quality journal(s) is required.
As postdoctoral appointments are career-developing positions for junior researchers, we are primarily looking for candidates with a doctoral degree that is three years old at most.
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