PhD Graduate Student Research Assistantship Position – Optimizing Soil Microbe-Plant Interactions for Improved Agricultural Resilience

University of Florida – Fall 2025

An exciting opportunity is available for a Ph.D. research assistantship in the Soil, Water, and Ecosystem Sciences Department to explore methods to alter the soil environment to enhance soil microbe-plant interactions to improve the resiliency of agricultural production systems. Examples include examining the microbial ecology and/or use of plant growth promoting bacteria and genotype-environment interactions for rhizobacteria and crops using combinations of culture-based and culture-independent methods (qPCR, amplicon sequencing, metagenomics, transcriptomics, etc.). Production systems could include citrus and vegetable production, and methods to alter the soil environment include cover crops, compost, fumigation, and combinations of these practices. Research of these topics is funded by federal grants.

Qualifications: A Master’s degree in microbiology, soil science, plant biology, or a related discipline from an accredited institution, plus research experience, is preferred. Candidates with experience in microbial ecology, amplicon sequencing, R packages, and/or bioinformatics, as well as first author on at least one peer-reviewed paper in a peer-reviewed journal is also preferred. The student is expected to work in the laboratory as well as in the greenhouse and field with periods of work under hot and humid conditions. A driver’s license is required.

The graduate assistantship position is fully supported for 4 years and includes full tuition coverage, 12-month stipend, and health insurance. This position is based at the UF/IFAS Southwest Florida Research and Education Center (SWFREC) in Immokalee, FL, located in the heart of Florida citrus production and a short drive from the beautiful beaches of Fort Myers and Naples, FL. Visit the Department and SWFREC webpages for additional information. The position begins in August 2025.

Interested candidates should contact Dr. Sarah Strauss (strauss@ufl.edu) directly with a CV, one-page letter of research experience and interests, and the names of three references. Recommendation letters are not necessary at this stage, please just provide the names and email addresses of three references. Review of applicants will begin on December 16, 2024.

The Museum Education Research Group, housed within the Thompson Earth Systems Institute, is hiring an undergraduate student to support a new project exploring Floridian’s sense of place and how that influences their environmental behaviors.

Sense of place is the emotional and cultural connections people have with specific locations, and how these connections influence how people perceive and interact with their surroundings. Sense of place is complex and dynamic, and can vary among people, over time, and across different places. It’s influenced by personal experiences, history, and societal values.

Position Summary

This position will be responsible for conducting a literature review on sense of place and pro-environmental behaviors. The team member will gain mentoring in educational research such as data collection, data management, data analysis, and science communication. The student hired in this position will learn how to conduct a scoping literature review and how to use Covidence software to analyze the results. The outcome will be a literature review that will lay the groundwork for a new study in the fall semester. If interested, the student would then have the opportunity to help with conference presentations or publications. Dependent on the results of this project, the student may have the opportunity to remain on the research team to continue supporting the project in Fall 2025.  

Duties Include

• Collaborate with the research team to create a search string. 
• Use databases such as EbscoHost and Web of Science to conduct a literature search. 
• Collaborate using Covidence to analyze the results of the literature search. 
• Begin writing a literature review on sense of place and pro-environmental behaviors.

Hours, Pay, Location

• $15/hour
• 10 hours a week
• In person – the schedule is flexible but availability for blocks at least two hours long between 9-4 Monday-Friday is requested  
• The Thompson Earth Systems Institute office suite is located at McGuire Hall, 3215 Hull Rd, Gainesville, FL 32611