Research position in Insect Ecology and Biological Control

Department of Ecology
The Department of Ecology at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) is seeking a researcher to undertake work in the field of insect ecology and biological control.

The Department of Ecology has eight research units: Forest entomology, Landscape ecology, Insect ecology, Conservation biology, Soil ecology, Wildlife ecology, Systems ecology and Agricultural entomology. The successful candidate will be joining a group of researchers in the Agricultural entomology unit working with biodiversity and plant protection.

SLU is one of the largest centres for ecological research in the Nordic countries, and offers a dynamic research environment with modern infrastructure. The chosen candidate will have access to wide professional networks across Sweden and globally with opportunities for advancement through grant writing, and additional career mentoring.

Duties:
The researcher will work in an ongoing project that seeks to understand factors that affect natural biological control in open-field tomato in West and East Africa (Benin, Tanzania). The project has collected data on the predator communities in tomato production systems and is currently investigating predation (through molecular gut content analysis) and parasitism (through deployment of sentinel plants) of the main native and invasive pest caterpillars. Using this data, the researcher is expected to analyse how type of production system affects predator communities and pest suppression capacity. Students within the project has furthermore collected experimental data on interspecific interactions, host plant preference, and parasitism within the crop pest system. Duties for this position therefore also include support of these students, and guidance in statistical data analysis. The successful candidate will write scientific manuscripts for publications in collaboration with the research team.

The position is fully based at SLU in Uppsala, Sweden. However, travels and short visits outside Sweden are required due to co-operative work with International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Benin and World Vegetable center (WorldVeg) in Tanzania.

Qualifications:
Compulsory

The applicant must have a PhD in biology or agronomy, with an emphasis on insect ecology, or other related fields. Proficiency in and experience with statistical analysis is essential. Practical experience using R as a statistical tool is also required.

Excellent knowledge of English in both spoken and written form is a requirement and the candidate should have documented scientific writing skills.

The person must have a good ability to conduct independent research, collaborate and communicate.

Merits

Knowledge in entomology, biological control, IPM, conservation ecology, molecular ecology, experience in analysing ecological data with mixed models (GLMM’s), structural equation models (SEM), and species distribution models (SDM’s).

Knowledge of French.

Place of work:
Uppsala, Sweden. 

Form of employment:
Fixed term employment of 12 months, with possible extension.

Extent:
Researcher, 100%. 

Starting date:
June 2022 or according to agreement.

Application:
Your application, written in English, must include:


• CV describing your publications, and relevant work experience
• A personal letter with a motivation of why you are interested in the position and your match to the above-mentioned position description
• Contact information for two reference persons
• University degree certificates

We anticipate that this position is attractive for candidates with a doctoral degree that is three years old at most.

We welcome your application no later than May 4, 2022, use the button below.

Academic union representatives:
https://internt.slu.se/en/my-employment/employee-associations/kontaktpersoner-vid-rekrytering/

The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) is a top-class university with research, education and environmental analysis in the sciences for sustainable living. The main cities are Alnarp, Umeå and Uppsala, but activities are also conducted at research stations, experimental parks and educational places throughout the country. We bring together people with different perspectives but with the common goal of creating the best conditions for a sustainable, vibrant and better world. SLU has just over 3,000 employees, 5,000 students and doctoral students and a turnover of more than 3 billion SEK. The university invests in attractive environments on its campus areas.

www.slu.se