Research Plant Physiologist

Summary

This position is located within the Agricultural Research Service (ARS), Plains Area (PA), Center for Agricultural Resources Research in Fort Collins, CO. In this position, you will acquire, evaluate, preserve, and distribute critical plant germplasm resources and research technologies to improve these critical functions.

Duties

• Leads efforts in cell biology, microscopy, plant stress physiology, and cryobiology to address fundamental questions about survival and recovery of plant clonal germplasm prior to and following preservation stresses.
• Develop and implement widely applicable and cost-effective methods to preserve clonally derived plant genetic resources (PGR).
• Determine plant cell and tissue responses to cryopreservation stresses in germplasm (e.g. shoot tips and dormant buds but not limited to these types of germplasm) of clonal crops.
• Develop cryotherapy technologies to eradicate graft-transmissible diseases from PGR.

Qualifications

Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement including specialized experience and/or education, as defined below. Basic Requirements for 0435 series Degree: botany or plant physiology; or a related scientific discipline that included at least 10 semester hours in plant physiology. Additional Requirements In addition to meeting the basic requirements described above, applicants must also meet additional qualification requirements as stated below. GS-12: Applicants must demonstrate at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-11 grade level in the Federal service or possess a Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree or possess an equivalent combination of graduate level education and experience. Graduate education must be directly related to the work of the position and must have equipped applicants with the knowledge, skills, and abilities necessary to do the work. Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. The specialized experience requirements for the GS-12 level of this position are: contributing to a research project related to Plant Physiology or Clonal Plant Production; and producing publications as the primary author or contributor that fill in gaps in an existing theory or framework. OR Ph.D. or equivalent doctoral degree. Related degrees may include Agronomy, Botany, Ecology, Genetics, Horticulture, Plant Physiology, Crop Production, Clonal Production, Plant Cryobiology, or Microbiology. OR Combination of graduate level education and experience as described above. GS-13: Applicants must demonstrate at least one full year of specialized experience equivalent to at least the GS-12 grade level in the Federal service. Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. The specialized experience requirements for the GS-13 level of this position are: collecting and curating plant genetic samples; identifying critical problems facing the genetics industry and conducts research to solve these problems; and presenting information to professional organizations (e.g., societies, academia, industry) within and outside of the organization on technical matters and practices in the area of specialization. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience. To further support your qualifications, it is strongly recommended that you submit a one-page abstract of your MS thesis and/or Ph.D. dissertation. Failure to do so could result in loss of your consideration/referral. Also, please submit a list of names, addresses, and phone numbers of persons familiar with your stature, contributions, recognition; any honors or awards received; memberships in professional or honor societies; invitations to make presentations at scientific/technical meetings; scientific society office and committee assignments; presentations (other than invitation); and publications. Applicants must be available to report for duty at the time a selection is made. Selections are typically made within 30 days of the closing date of the announcement.

Education

Please see above for education qualification requirement information.

How to apply

Please read the entire announcement and all instructions before you begin. You must complete this application process and submit all required documents electronically by 11:59p.m. Eastern Time (ET) on the closing date of this announcement. Applying online is highly encouraged. We are available to assist you during business hours (normally 8:00a.m. - 4:00p.m., Monday - Friday). If applying online poses a hardship, contact the Agency Contact listed below well before the closing date for an alternate method. All hardship application packages must be complete and submitted no later than noon ET on the closing date of the announcement to be entered into the system prior to its closing. Resumes must not exceed two pages. This agency provides reasonable accommodation to applicants with disabilities on a case-by-case basis; contact the Agency Contact to request this. To begin, click "Apply" and follow the instructions to complete the Assessment Questionnaire and attach your resume and all required documents. Please verify that documents you are uploading from USAJOBs transfer into the Agency's staffing system as there is a limitation to the number of documents that can be transferred. However, once in the Agency's staffing system, you will have the opportunity to upload additional documents. Uploaded documents must be less than 5MB and in one of the following document formats: GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG, RTF, PDF, TXT or Word (DOC or DOCX). Do not upload Adobe Portfolio documents because they are not viewable. Please ensure your resume does not exceed two pages. Applicants who submit a resume that exceeds two pages will be removed from consideration.