Assistant Professional Researcher

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Job #JPF06930

- NUTRITION / COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES / UC Davis

Position overview

Salary range: The salary range for Assistant Researcher - FY is $90,200 - $121,100. “Off-scale salaries”, i.e., a salary that is higher than the published system-wide salary at the designated rank and step, are offered when necessary to meet competitive conditions, qualifications, and experience.

Application Window

Open date: February 13, 2025

Most recent review date: Monday, Mar 3, 2025 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Applications received after this date will be reviewed by the search committee if the position has not yet been filled.

Final date: Monday, Jun 30, 2025 at 11:59pm (Pacific Time)

Applications will continue to be accepted until this date, but those received after the review date will only be considered if the position has not yet been filled.

Position description

NATURE AND PURPOSE

The Professional Researcher develops and oversees their own independent, creative, and high-quality research program equivalent to that required for the Professor series. The Professional Researcher takes major responsibility and leadership for their programs. Generally, the appointee is expected to secure funding as a Principal Investigator but may be funded as a co-PI within a large center or collaborative program grant on which many independent investigators are working, as long as it is clear that the activities led by the professional researcher within the larger project constitute his/her own independent research program. Appointees do not have teaching responsibilities.

MAJOR RESPONSIBILITIES

I.RESEARCH (90%)

The candidate will develop an independent research program on the molecular characteristics of dietary intake and its impact on human health and disease through multi-omics approaches and computational biology.

Research activity (70%)

The candidate will be expected to design and conduct studies designed to determine the relationship between the molecular characteristics of diet and clinical health outcomes through the integration of glycomics, proteomics, lipidomics, and metabolomics food composition data. The appointee will investigate the influence of these multi-omics dietary features on gastrointestinal and metabolic health outcomes and their interaction via compositional and functional characteristics of the gut microbiome. Computational approaches for analyzing large-scale datasets will include bioinformatics workflows, natural language processing and development of AI/ML algorithms. The appointee will publish research results in peer-reviewed journals as senior author in the fields of nutrition, bioinformatics and microbiome research.

Grant Acquisition and Management (20%)

The candidate will acquire funding to support an independent research program, managing a budget and research projects, and write and submit progress reports to funding agencies.

II.PROFESSIONAL COMPETENCE AND ACTIVITY (5%)

The candidate will participate in professional societies and conferences related to nutrition, bioinformatics, microbiome research, and artificial intelligence in biology. They will serve as a reviewer for research proposals and scientific publications in these fields. The candidate will present research at national and international scientific meetings and may coordinate seminars and laboratory meetings focusing on computational approaches in nutritional research.

III.UNIVERSITY AND PUBLIC SERVICE (5%)

University and Public Service is required for the Associate and Full Title ranks. The candidate will engage in University service activities such as guest lecturing on topics related to nutritional systems biology and computational approaches in nutrition research. The candidate will participate in committee service, particularly those related to bioinformatics and data science initiatives. They will engage in public outreach activities to communicate complex nutritional science concepts to the general public and provide evidence-based dietary advice to individuals and public agencies based on molecular and microbiome research findings.

Qualifications

Basic qualifications (required at time of application)

Ph.D. in nutrition, food science or related field.

Additional qualifications (required at time of start)

3+ years research experience after PhD.
3+ years’ experience with AI/ML in nutrition related projects.
5+ years’ experience in host-diet-microbiome research, supported by publications in this area.
3+ years of experience in dietary data analysis, supported by publications in this area.

Preferred qualifications (other preferred, but not required, qualifications for the position)

3+ years’ experience with food composition databases.
3+ years’ experience in high performance computing, including shell scripting and experience with resource managers such as SLURM.
5+ years coding experience in R and/or Python.
3+ years’ experience with natural language processing (NLP) and application to food composition data.
Multiple publications in respected peer-reviewed journals.
Presented at national conferences.
Communicates and collaborates well with lab members and colleagues in other labs and at other institutions.
Experience troubleshooting and optimizing analytical methods, data generation and integration.
Experience as manuscript reviewer for respected journals.

Application Requirements

Document requirements

Curriculum Vitae - Your most recently updated C.V.
Cover Letter (Optional)
Statement of Research (Optional)
Statement of Teaching (Optional)
Statement of Contributions to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion - Contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion documented in the application file will be used to evaluate applicants. Visit https://academicaffairs.ucdavis.edu/faculty-equity-and-inclusion for guidelines about writing a statement and why one is requested.
Authorization to Release Information Form - This form is required for all applicants applying to academic recruitments. Please see the Employment Disclosure Requirements webpage for more information. https://academicaffairs.ucdavis.edu/employment-disclosure-requirements
Form Link: https://academicaffairs.ucdavis.edu/sites/g/files/dgvnsk2376/files/media/documents/authorization-release-form.pdf

Reference requirements