PhD opportunity in soil phosphorus and carbon cycling in hydrocarbon degrading microbial communities
University of Saskatchewan
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan,
Canada
The remediation of complex mixtures by microorganisms involves a wide variety of bacteria, archaea and fungi. Yet, little is known about the different roles played by various members of these communities. As part of a project between industrial and university partners, the University of Saskatchewan, Department of Soil Science, is recruiting a PhD student in soil microbiology, to identify and characterize the role and function of select members of the soil microbial community during engineered biostimulation.
The candidate will use the newly invented phosphate stable isotope probe coupled with conventional stable isotope probes to identify members and functions of communities across six different field sites. We hypothesize that there will be organisms directly responsible for hydrocarbon degradation, others involved in nutrient mobilization, and others providing unknown support services. Using a combination of expression and metabolomic approaches, the PhD candidate will unravel how these members respond to amendment gradients, to identify optimal biostimulation strategies in cold region soils.
The successful candidates should have some experience in soil ecosystems, bioinformatics, ecological modelling, chemistry, and/or microbiology.
The Department of Soil Science is Canada’s premier soil science department with 13 faculty, over 70 graduate students and a thriving undergraduate program in renewable resource management and environmental soil science. The PhD candidate in soil microbiology would join an applied research laboratory group headed by Steven Siciliano, an NSERC/COOP Industrial Research Chair in In Situ Remediation and Risk Assessment. The successful candidate should expect to spend substantial time interacting with industrial partners and working at field locations with environmental engineering teams.
If interested, candidates can contact steven.siciliano ( steven.siciliano [-at-] usask.ca ) with a resume, a statement of interest, and a transcript. Exceptional master’s candidates will also be considered.
More information available at:
- https://www.usask.ca/
- https://www.usask.ca/programs/colleges-schools/grad-studies/programs/soil_science.php
- https://agbio.usask.ca/faculty-and-staff/people-pages/steven-siciliano.php
Posted: May 1, 2017.
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