Postdoctoral Associate – Food Safety Microbiology & Genomics

About the role

The Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (JIFSAN) at the University of Maryland, together with the Center of Excellence in Microbiome Sciences, seeks a post‑doctoral associate to advance research at the interface of food safety microbiology, microbial genomics and artificial intelligence.

Key responsibilities

• Design and execute experimental studies on food‑borne pathogens and microbiome samples.
• Develop and apply computational pipelines for strain‑level analysis of metagenomic data.
• Implement and benchmark bioinformatics tools such as Bowtie, MetaCarvel and metagenomeSeq.
• Perform AI‑driven large‑scale data analysis to support food‑safety applications.
• Collaborate with interdisciplinary teams across computer science, nutrition and food science, and contribute to publications.

Required profile

• Recent PhD graduate with strong background in both computational and experimental biology.
• Motivated, able to work independently and in a collaborative research environment.
• Interest in food safety, microbiome science and data‑intensive research.

Required skills

• Experience with bioinformatics tools: Bowtie, MetaCarvel, metagenomeSeq.
• Proficiency in microbial genomics and metagenomic data analysis.
• Knowledge of AI/ML methods for large‑scale data sets.

What we offer

• Opportunity to work on cutting‑edge multidisciplinary research with high relevance to academia and industry.
• Access to state‑of‑the‑art facilities and collaborative networks.
• Professional development, authorship on scientific publications and potential for future collaborations.