Research Scientist in Bioenvironmental Engineering

The Role

The primary role of the post is to lead on the developmemt of anaerobic microbiology for providing solutions to environmental problems. The main duties of this post-holder will be to work closely with research technician and provide leadership in terms of anaerobic microbiology.  The this will include combinations of the following:

1) application of general microbiolgical and molecular biology techniques for isolating and culturing strains from environmental and bioreactors samples.

2) establishing bioreactors for treating wastes and generating biogas and other high value products from waste biomass.

3) exploiting physical-chemical approaches including application of nanomaterials and ultrasound to stimulate microbial processes.

4) application of chemical analysis approaches for monitoring microbial processes. The generic approaches developed will have potential applications in promoting exploitation of indigenous and genetically modified microorganism for developing more sustainable means of dealing with environmental problems.

Responsibilities

• Contributing to environmental engineering research in OSCAR and coordinate with other OSCAR research groups
• Play a major role in the day-to-day running of the lab and research programme
• Environmental microbiology, including culture methods for enriching and isolation
• Molecular methods for profiling single isolates and whole communities
• Basic chemical analysis (GC-MS, HPLC, BOD/COD) methods for assessing microbial biodegradation characteristics. Support the project team in integrating activities (internally and externally) across the partner organisations (in particularly the Synthetic Biology, Acoustic and Biotransformations Teams), including liaison between research teams and carry out administrative roles as required
• Prepare summary technical and progress review reports for project steering meetings and industrial collaborators, including preparation and delivery of oral presentations at such meetings
• Prepare papers for journals, presentations and other research outputs either inhouse or at national/international conferences or seminars, to disseminate research findings
• Contribute to the maintenance of the project web pages for the consortium.
• Provide help to other researchers in the same or related field of research, as requested by the project PI
• Be up to date with regards academic papers, journals and textbooks and attend conferences to keep up-to-date with new developments in the field
• Undertake other duties to be assigned by the project team, as required including supervising and training more junior staff/students
• Adapt existing and develop new scientific techniques and experimental protocols
• Test hypotheses and analyse scientific data from a variety of sources, reviewing and refining working hypotheses as appropriate
• Use and help maintain specialist scientific equipment in a laboratory environment
• Make links laboratories across China and foster collaborations
• Assist in dealing with intellectual property issues.

Additional duties:

• Coordinate OSCAR activity with PI and Oxford research team, in particular the teams lead by Profs Wei Huang, Roy and Wong
• Manage own academic research and administrative activities. This involves small scale project management, to co-ordinate multiple aspects of work to meet deadlines
• Contribute ideas for new research projects
• Help with communication within OSCAR and outside
• Develop ideas for generating research income, and present detailed research proposals to senior researchers
• Collaborate in the preparation of scientific reports and journal articles and occasionally present papers and posters
• Act as a source of information and advice to other members of the group on scientific protocols and experimental techniques
• Represent the research group at external meetings/seminars, either with other members of the group and collaborative industrial partners
• Carry out collaborative projects with colleagues in partner institutions, and research groups and in particular with industry
• Play a lead role in establishing and running an effective, productive and happy laboratory

Selection criteria

Essential

•   Strong background in basic environmental microbiology techniques

•   Strong background on molecular microbiology

•   Some experience of chemical analysis for assessing biodegradation

•   Be fluent in Chinese and English

•   Hold a relevant PhD/DPhil (or be near completion)

•   Possess sufficient specialist knowledge in the discipline to work within established research programmes and help train/supervise junior members of the lab

•   Ability to manage own academic research and associated activities

•   Previous experience of contributing to publications/presentations

•   Ability to contribute ideas for new research projects and research income generation

•   Excellent communication skills, including the ability to write for publication, present research proposals and results, and represent the research group at meetings

Desirable

•     Some experience of anaerobic microbiology

•     Experience of independently managing a discrete area of a research project

•     Experience of working with the commercial sector and/or government agencies