Scientist- Rice Pathology-Scientist

Key skills

Pathotyping

Pathogen Genotyping

Trait mapping

Host Plant Resistanc

Additional/Preferred Skills

Experienced working

Co-coordinator

Team Player

Preferred Qualifications

Ph.D.

Plant Pathology/

Botany

Genetics

relevant discipline

IRRI is seeking applications from a dynamic and highly innovative Scientist- Rice Pathology to work with multi-disciplinary team comprising scientist from various disciplines to enhance the host plant resistance in rice. The position is required to work on rice pathology under One Rice breeding strategy of IRRI and to provide support towards managing OneIRRI and BioNet network.

ICRISAT is seeking applications from a dynamic and highly innovative Scientist-Rice Pathology to work with multi-disciplinary team comprising scientist from various disciplines to enhance the host plant resistance in rice. The position is required to work on rice pathology under One Rice breeding strategy of IRRI and to provide support towards managing OneIRRI network. 

The position will be based at IRRI-SA Hub, ICRISAT Campus, Patancheru. Hyderabad, Telangana India. It will report to the Regional Breeding Lead – South Asia and will work in close collaboration with the Plant Pathology and breeding team of IRRI-HQ and NARES partners

ICRISAT is a non-profit, non-political organization that conducts agricultural research for development in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa with a wide array of partners throughout the world. Covering 6.5 million square kilometers of land in 55 countries, the semi- arid or dryland tropics has over 2 billion people and 644 million of these are the poorest of the poor. ICRISAT and its partners help empower these disadvantaged populations to overcome poverty, hunger and a degraded environment through better agricultural production systems.

ICRISAT is headquartered at Patancheru near Hyderabad, India, with two regional hubs and eight country offices in sub-Saharan Africa. ICRISAT envisions a prosperous, food-secure and resilient dryland tropics. Its mission is to reduce poverty, hunger, malnutrition and environmental degradation in the dryland tropics. ICRISAT conducts research on its mandate crops of chickpea, pigeonpea, groundnut, sorghum, pearl millet and finger millet in the arid and semi-arid tropics. The Institute focuses its work on the drylands and in protecting the environment. Tropical dryland areas are usually seen as resource-poor and perennially beset by shocks such as drought, thereby trapping dryland communities in poverty and hunger and making them dependent on external aid. Please visit – www.icrisat.org

Responsibilities:

• The role is to co-coordinate the biotic stress screening network (BioNet) in collaboration with IRRI-HQ, regional team, and CG-NARES partners.
• Provide support towards managing OneIRRI network (conduct screening of advanced breeding lines of different market segments, which covers seven pipelines mapped to India under different maturity groups early-medium-late), for prevalent diseases and pests under stage-1 and stage-2.
• Co-coordinate closely with the IRRI HQ team (BioNet), project partners, other NARES collaborators, to ensure smooth flow of research activities, and screening of germplasm.
• Provide support in the research on host plant resistance to major and emerging diseases with IRRI-HQ leads
• Provide strategic and technical support to IRRI-SA Hub resistance breeding program.
• Assist in high quality research on rice pathology for identification of donors, QTLs, disease monitoring and gene deployment strategy
• Collection and characterization of rice pathogens
• Assisting in implementation of other plant pathology projects running at the IRRI-SA Hub, Hyderabad
• Capacity building of NARES partners for diseases screening on emerging diseases
• Supervise and mentor the team of researchers and supporting staff for the proper execution of research programs.
• Development and writing of new proposal on rice diseases for India
• Write and publish articles in peer-reviewed journals and support timely submission of reports to donor

Qualifications and Experience: 

·PhD in Plant Pathology/Botany/Genetics/Breeding or other relevant discipline with 4 years of post-PhD experience on major and emerging diseases of rice in research institute/university

·  Strong understanding in rice pathology particularly related to disease resistance, host pathogen interaction, pathogen characterization and protocol optimization for emerging diseases of rice

·Proven technological proficiency in conducting diseases screening trials and multilocation/hotspot testing

Desirable

·Experience in working on major and emerging diseases of rice

·Experience in writing and managing grants

·Respectable publication record, as evidenced by research papers in referred journals

·Aptitude to work collegially and collaboratively in diverse, multicultural environments. 

Applicants should apply on or before 7 August 2022, with their latest Resume, and the names and contact information of three references that are knowledgeable about their professional qualifications and work experience. All applications will be acknowledged; however only short listed candidates will be contacted.

ICRISAT is an equal opportunity employer