PhD in Data-driven plant phenotyping for discovering novel perennial traits

Applicants are invited for a PhD fellowship/scholarship at Graduate School of Technical Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark, within the Agroecology programme. The position is available from 1 January 2025 or later. You can submit your application via the link under 'how to apply'.

Title:
PhD in Data-driven plant phenotyping for discovering novel perennial traits

Research area and project description:
In the pursuit of urgent sustainable intensification, modern agriculture faces the challenge of transitioning to climate-friendly, diversified, and resource-efficient systems for food, feed, and energy production. Perennial grain crops are emerging as a promising solution. They require fewer inputs and possess deep root systems, making them more resilient against adverse climate conditions as well as sustainable with greater soil carbon sequestration potential. Despite the rigorous efforts, however, the adoption of these wild plants has been incremental due to the difficulties in developing owing to complex gene and laborious genomic selection processes. Therefore, faster and more efficient identification of perennial traits and candidates for further development is necessary, for example, for a decent grain yield and solid survival over the season.

As a part of the newly launching “PerennialTraits” project funded by DFF Sapere Aude leadership grant, the PhD will contribute as follows:

• Developing UAV image analysis-software by exploiting images from hyperspectral and LiDAR sensors to identify superior grain/spike structure and early traits of perennial wild plants with data fusion/deep learning algorithms.
• Developing MicroCT image analysis-software/algorithm for root phenotyping to identifiey more rigorous, resource-use efficient and resilient root traits following repeated canopy removal of perennial wild plants
• Validating phenomic selection of perennial wild types based on the generated digital datasets using the developed pipelines against the genomic data in collaboration with breeders.

To achieve these goals, the PhD candidate will collaborate with researchers from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at AU. Furthermore, a close cooperation with The Land Institute (TLI) in the United States is foreseen for validating the phenomic selection carried at AU. For this, research stay in the U.S is foreseen.

This PhD opportunity offers a unique chance to contribute to the development of novel crop plants for sustainable agriculture. The successful candidate will have the opportunity to work closely with interdisciplinary teams, utilize cutting-edge technologies, and generate novel datasets, algorithums and phenotyping software that will be widely used by plant community in a long run.

Project description
For technical reasons, you must upload a project description. Please simply copy the project description above and upload it as a PDF in the application.

Qualifications and specific competences:
You are:

• A data scientist/computer programmer with background knowledge in biology/genetics

Alternatively, you are:

• A biologist/plant scientist with in-depth knowledge and experience in data science and computer programming

Required qualification:

• Master’s degree in data science, computer programming, computer vision, computer engineering, computational biology, agricultural engineering, biology or equivalent degree.
• Excellent and documented experience in software engineering and coding skills in deep learning
• Experience with analyzing biological images.
• Experience or commitment to generate datasets in crop field conditions and medical imaging set up.
• Proven ability to work independently and take initiative in research projects.

Add-ons:

• Understanding in plant science/genetics/breeding.
• Strong team-oriented attitude

Place of employment and place of work:
The place of employment is Aarhus University, and the place of work is AU Viborg, Blichers Allé 20, Dk-8830 Tjele

Contacts:
Applicants seeking further information are invited to contact:

• Lars Juhl Munkholm, [email protected] (main supervisor)
• Eusun Han, [email protected] (co-supervisor)

How to apply:
Please follow this link to submit your application.

Application deadline is 29 September 2024 at 23:59 CEST.

Preferred starting date is 1 January 2025.

For information about application requirements and mandatory attachments, please see our application guide.
Please note:

• Only documents received prior to the application deadline will be evaluated. Thus, documents sent after deadline will not be taken into account.
• The programme committee may request further information or invite the applicant to attend an interview.
• Shortlisting will be used, which means that the evaluation committee only will evaluate the most relevant applications.

Aarhus University’s ambition is to be an attractive and inspiring workplace for all and to foster a culture in which each individual has opportunities to thrive, achieve and develop. We view equality and diversity as assets, and we welcome all applicants. All interested candidates are encouraged to apply, regardless of their personal background. Salary and terms of employment are in accordance with applicable collective agreement.