AI-Driven Crop Data Science Postdoc

Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education; Urbana (IL); On-site; USD 70,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education in Urbana, Illinois, invites applications for a full-time ORISE fellowship with the USDA ARS to advance integrated weed science using AI and data-driven approaches.

You will help develop machine-learning tools, work with multi-institutional datasets, and contribute to decision-support for weed management across the Cornbelt and soybean regions. Mentored by Zhanyou Xu, the position starts December 2026 with a one-year appointment and potential renewal.

Qualifications

• Master's or Doctoral degree in a relevant field.
• Background in machine learning, AI, or statistical modeling applied to agricultural or biological systems.
• Experience with large multi-source agricultural datasets (environmental, management, yield, herbicide-performance).
• Programming in Python or R.

Responsibilities

• Develop ML tools for weed management decision-support.
• Integrate datasets across environmental, management, yield, and herbicide-performance data.
• Collaborate with multi-institution partners to advance predictive models for agricultural resilience.

Skills

Machine learning

Artificial intelligence

Statistical modeling

Predictive analytics

Data integration

Python

R

Image-based phenotyping

Satellite imagery

UAV imagery

Communication skills

Education

Master's degree

Doctoral degree

Tools

Python

R

SQL

Job description

Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education in Urbana, Illinois, invites applications for a full-time ORISE fellowship with the USDA ARS to advance integrated weed science using AI and data-driven approaches.

You will help develop machine-learning tools, work with multi-institutional datasets, and contribute to decision-support for weed management across the Cornbelt and soybean regions. Mentored by Zhanyou Xu, the position starts December 2026 with a one-year appointment and potential renewal.