Research Fellow on Environmental AMR

Civil & Enviromental Engineering

Location: Guildford
Salary: £35,308 to £43,155 per annum
Part time
Post Type:  Full Time
Closing Date:  23.59 hours BST on Friday 16 June 2023
Reference:  029023

This position is joint from two projects. The first project is a collaboration between University of Surrey, UK, and McGill University, Canada, to investigate, in complex microbiomes in dairy cattle and associated environments, how AMR can be affected/controlled by microbial ecological interactions. Field samples from organic and conventional dairy farms in UK and Canada will be analysed and compared on microbiome and AMR. Collective results using shotgun metagenomics tools and high-throughput multiplexed amplicon sequencing and ddPCR methods will generate an overview and detailed information on AMR burden in dairy farms. The project aims to construct isolation libraries and synthetic microbial community (which improves reproducibility and replications) to create model microbiome for mechanistic investigations of ecological interactions and AMR. The second project is the N-cycling and nitrous oxide emission from biological wastewater treatment processes. Molecular biological methods (qPCR, RT-qPCR, amplicon sequencing, metagenomics) will be used to characterise microbial community composition and N functional pathways.

This is a fixed term contract, one year with possibility to renew.

The PDRA will:

• Coordinate and conduct filed sampling campaign from UK dairy farms.
• Analyse collected samples, DNA extraction and sequencing, chemical analysis.
• Data analysis (with help from bioinformatician)
• Microbial isolation
• Test and design synthetic microbiome
• Travel to Canadian collaborator lab and get training.
• Supervise PhD students for qPCR analysis of N-cycling genes in wastewater treatment systems.

Requirements:

• PhD degree in a relevant field such as Environmental Engineering, Microbiology
• Laboratory experience in molecular biology
• Demonstrated ability to conduct independent research activities
• Good communication skills in English

Please contact Dr Bing Guo for any enquiries related to this job post (b.guo@surrey.ac.uk )

Further details: Job Description

Please note, it is University Policy to offer a starting salary equivalent to Level 3.6 (£34,314) to successful applicants who have been awarded, but are yet to receive, their PhD certificate. Once the original PhD certificate has been submitted to the local HR Department, the salary will be increased to Level 4.1 (£35,308).