项目介绍

2025年2月1日

The Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry at the University of Helsinki invites applications for the position of a Doctoral Researcher in Plant Science / Developmental Biology / Evolutionary Biology.

The Doctoral researcher will be appointed for a fixed-term 3-year contract (Starting date: May 1st 2025, or other time as agreed) to work in a Research Council of Finland funded project “Diversity of floral ground plans in angiosperms”. The position will be supervised by Dr. Teng Zhang and Professor Paula Elomaa, at the Department of Agricultural Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry.

Flowers have long been considered as the most complex structure in plants. The ground plan of flowers, referring to the number and arrangement of floral organs, exhibit enormous diversity throughout angiosperm evolution. In this project, we employ the flower meristem of woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca) as an experimental system. Organ arrangement in strawberry flowers and the process to terminate flower development are unique, deviating it from many conventional model species. Understanding floral patterning of woodland strawberry may bring direct agronomical value, as the knowledge could be translated into breeding practices for cultivated strawberry to improve berry yield and quality. Combining state-of-art live-imaging, spatial transcriptomics, functional studies and computational modeling, we aim at uncovering fundamental new knowledge on molecular mechanisms regulating floral diversity.  

Doctoral researcher: We are looking for a highly motivated and skilled researcher with a Master’s degree and experience in plant science, genetics, developmental biology, evolutionary biology, or related fields. In this project, the doctoral researcher will conduct spatial transcriptomics, confocal live imaging for strawberry flower meristems, and functional studies of selected developmental regulators using CRISPR and overexpression lines.

A successful candidate should be able to:

• Identify, design, conduct, and report research within the scope of the project.
• Contribute to undergraduate student supervision and teaching.
• Engage with the scientific community, including close colleagues and collaborators, as well as wider public through scientific publications, conference presentations, social media etc.

The appointee is expected to have:

• A strong background in plant genetics, having hands-on experience on wet lab experiments related to molecular biology.
• Previous experience on topics related to flower development and on different microscopic methods (light and confocal microscopes, electron microscopes or CT-scans) will be considered as an asset.
• Fluency in English and excellent writing skills.

The appointee should either already have the right to pursue a doctoral degree at the University of Helsinki by the start of the appointment or apply for the right and obtain it within the probationary period of six months of their appointment. If the appointee does not already have the right to pursue a doctoral degree at the University of Helsinki, it must be applied for separately, please see: https://www.helsinki.fi/en/research/doctoral-education/the-application-process-in-a-nutshell

The starting salary of the Doctoral researcher will be based on level 2 of the requirement level (research and teaching staff) in the salary system of Finnish universities. The appointee will be paid a salary component based on personal performance. The starting salary of the Doctoral researcher will be ca. 2500-2600 euros/month, depending on the appointees’ qualifications and experience. A six-month trial period will be applied.

The University of Helsinki offers comprehensive services to its employees, including occupational health care and health insurance, unemployment and pension fund, a generous holiday package, sports facilities, and opportunities for professional development (https://www.helsinki.fi/en/about-us/careers).

HOW TO APPLY

1) A cover letter explaining the applicant’s motivation for the research work in addition to the description of the techniques/methodologies employed in previous research experiences

2) Curriculum vitae showing the applicant’s education, completed qualifications, work experience, possible list of publications and contact information of 2 persons for references (up to 3 pages).

3) Copies of Master’s, and Bachelor’s degree certificates and official transcripts of the records, and their translations, if the originals are not in Finnish, Swedish or English.

External applicants, please submit your application using the University of Helsinki Recruitment System via the Apply Now button.

Applicants who have a helsinki.fi username and a valid employment contract, a grant researcher’s contract or a visiting researcher’s contract at the University of Helsinki are requested to leave their application by using the Employee Login button.

The University of Helsinki welcomes applicants from a variety of genders, linguistic and cultural backgrounds.

The closing date for applications is 28.2.2025 at 23:59 EET.

Further information

• About the position: Dr. Teng Zhang (teng.zhang@helsinki.fi) and Professor Paula Elomaa (paula.elomaa@helsinki.fi).
• Recruitment system: HR Specialist Mirkka Juntunen, mirkka.juntunen@helsinki.fi
• Viikki Campus: https://www.helsinki.fi/en/about-us/campuses/viikki-campus
• Support for international staff: https://www.helsinki.fi/en/about-us/careers/welcome and https://ihhelsinki.fi (International House Helsinki)
• Why choose University of Helsinki: https://www.helsinki.fi/en/about-us/careers/why-university-helsinki

About us

The Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry is located on the Viikki campus, ten kilometres from the Helsinki city centre.The mission of the faculty is to promote the sustainable use of renewable natural resources through scientific research and research-based teaching. We focus on agricultural and forest sciences, food and nutrition, microbiology, as well as on economics and management. We cover the full natural resource chain from farm to fork, the entire field of forest sciences from soil chemistry to marketing, as well as the environmental effects of related activities. Graduates from the Faculty of Agriculture and Forestry are versatile experts in biosciences and business, able to meet the needs of both the business sector and society at large.

www.helsinki.fi/en/faculty-of-agriculture-and-forestry

The Meristem Team at Department of Agricultural Sciences is co-led by three PIs (Prof. Paula Elomaa, Prof. Timo Hytönen, Dr. Teng Zhang). We employ Gerbera hybrida (Asteraceae) and Fragaria vesca (Rosaceae) as our model systems, and we share interest in reproductive meristem development from diverse perspectives including meristem patterning (Zhang et al., 2021; Prusinkiewicz et al., 2022; Owens, Zhang et al., 2024), regulation of inflorescence architecture (Lembinen et al., 2023; Zhang and Elomaa, 2024), as well as phyllotactic transitions. We have joint lab meetings, and we collaborate in method development.