Part-Time Plant Disease Research Assistant (Field & Lab)

Penn State University; University Park (IL); On-site; USD 21,000 - 30,000; Part time

Job summary

Penn State University in University Park, PA invites applications for part-time Research Assistant positions in the Esker Lab, Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology. These roles support laboratory and fieldwork for plant disease epidemiology, focusing on crops such as corn, soybeans, and wheat.

Duties include culture preparation, microbiological isolation of fungal pathogens, DNA extraction support, seed and soil sampling, data entry, and assisting with field trials at

Responsibilities

• Fungal culture media preparation
• Microbiological culturing and isolation of soil and seed-borne fungal pathogens
• Enumeration of fungal colonies
• Selection of pure cultures of isolates for long-term preservation
• Microscopic evaluation and identification of fungal cultures
• Assist with laboratory assays, including pathogenicity tests and fungicide sensitivity studies
• Assist with DNA extraction and quality check of fungal isolates from different genomic projects
• Collect soil and plant samples from field and greenhouse experiments and provide necessary assistance with sample processing before analysis/evaluation
• Perform germination tests for corn, soybean, and wheat seed samples from field trials
• Assess plant diseases from research studies conducted in the field, as well as in greenhouse or growth chamber trials
• Data entry of field and laboratory experiments

Job description

Penn State University in University Park, PA invites applications for part-time Research Assistant positions in the Esker Lab, Department of Plant Pathology and Environmental Microbiology. These roles support laboratory and fieldwork for plant disease epidemiology, focusing on crops such as corn, soybeans, and wheat.

Duties include culture preparation, microbiological isolation of fungal pathogens, DNA extraction support, seed and soil sampling, data entry, and assisting with field trials at