Horticultural Sciences

Associate/Full Professor, Prediction based plant breeding

This is a senior-level faculty position that will provide visionary leadership in prediction–based plant breeding. This is a 9-month tenure-accruing position that will be 30% teaching (College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, CALS) and 70% research (Florida Agricultural Experiment Station), available in the Horticultural Science Department, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, at the University of Florida (UF). Tenure will accrue in the Department of Horticultural Sciences.

Achieving sustainable agriculture for our nation and the world is a grand challenge of our time. Artificial intelligence (AI) and predictive analytics applied to plant breeding has the power to contribute to achieve this goal. Plant breeding is a strength of UF/IFAS waiting to be harnessed. Plant breeders at UF/IFAS, strategically located across the state, improve more than 50 crops for food, feed, fiber, fuel, shelter, landscape beautification, eco-systems services, and a variety of other human activities. The goal of this position is to provide research and teaching leadership in the strategic use of AI and predictive analytics towards plant breeding objectives. The candidate is expected to be highly experienced and develop a strong, extramurally funded program in plant breeding, data science, statistics, genomics, phenomics, and crop modeling. The successful candidate will have a well-developed vision that drives research on how plant biology and AI can work together to achieve new insights that have not previously been possible for specialty crop improvement. Focusing AI on prediction-based plant breeding will propel UF forward to become the global leader in AI-driven crop improvement.

Open Date:

Feb 5, 2021

Apply By:

Mar 26, 2021

Close Date:

Until Filled

Location:

Gainesville, FL

Associate Professor, Synthetic Biology

This is a 9-month tenure-accruing position that will be 20% teaching (College of Agricultural and Life Sciences) and 80% research (Florida Agricultural Experiment Station), available in the Horticultural Sciences Department, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, at the University of Florida. This assignment may change in accordance with the needs of the unit.

This position is part of an ongoing initiative involving 100 new faculty positions within IFAS and University of Florida dedicated to innovation in agriculture, biotechnology, and other areas. We are expanding and strengthening cross-disciplinary, synergistic research in synthetic biology, particularly relating to our existing strengths in molecular plant breeding, metabolic engineering, and basic plant biology. This expansion complements a broad expansion of research and translational science in artificial intelligence.

At University of Florida, we have an active and growing cross-disciplinary group of faculty working in synthetic biology. These faculty come from IFAS and three other colleges and have joint federally-funded projects. We are collaborating to secure a campus biofoundry facility and to develop undergraduate and graduate courses in synthetic biology and supporting areas.