About Us

*Applications will be reviewed on a rolling-basis and this posting could close before the deadline.

ARS Office/Lab and Location: A postdoctoral research opportunity is available with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS) at the Animal Disease Research Unit located in Pullman, Washington.

The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific in-house research agency with a mission to find solutions to agricultural problems that affect Americans every day from field to table. ARS will deliver cutting-edge, scientific tools and innovative solutions for American farmers, producers, industry, and communities to support the nourishment and well-being of all people; sustain our nation’s agroecosystems and natural resources; and ensure the economic competitiveness and excellence of our agriculture. The vision of the agency is to provide global leadership in agricultural discoveries through scientific excellence.

Research Project: The USDA-ARS Animal Disease Research Unit performs basic and applied research on diseases of agricultural animals to provide solutions to problems that have significant economic impact on the US livestock industries.  The genomics laboratory works on projects aimed at understanding genomic mechanisms of inherited and infectious diseases of Rocky Mountain Elk and domestic sheep. The selected participant will collaborate closely with a team of geneticists, Veterinary Medical Officers, and Immunologists to quantify host transcriptomics and/or genomics relative to disease status.

The goal of the project is to identify host genomic factors that may play a role in inherited and infectious diseases.

Learning Objectives: The participant can expect to learn and expand skills in genomic/transcriptomic tools, pipelines, and analysis techniques to process and analyze data generated from high-capacity genotyping, high-throughput sequencing, and other developing high-throughput genomics/transcriptomic techniques, as well as write manuscripts for publication in peer-reviewed journals.

Mentor(s): The mentor for this opportunity is Michelle Mousel (michelle.mousel@usda.gov). If you have questions about the nature of the research please contact the mentor(s).

Anticipated Appointment Start Date: July 2022.  Start date is flexible and will depend on a variety of factors.

Appointment Length: The appointment will initially be for one year, but may be renewed an additional year upon recommendation of ARS and is contingent on the availability of funds.

Level of Participation: The appointment is full-time.

Participant Stipend: The participant will receive a monthly stipend commensurate with educational level and experience.

Citizenship Requirements: This opportunity is available to U.S. citizens only.

ORISE Information: This program, administered by ORAU through its contract with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to manage the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), was established through an interagency agreement between DOE and ARS. Participants do not become employees of USDA, ARS, DOE or the program administrator, and there are no employment-related benefits. Proof of health insurance is required for participation in this program. Health insurance can be obtained through ORISE.

Questions: Please visit our Program Website. After reading, if you have additional questions about the application process please email USDA-ARS@orau.org and include the reference code for this opportunity.

The qualified candidate should have received a doctoral degree in one of the relevant fields, or be currently pursuing the degree with completion by June 1, 2022. Degree must have been received within the past five years.

Preferred skills:

• Experience with processing and analyzing high-throughput sequencing data, genome mapping, variant calling, genome-wide association studies, signatures of selection analysis
• Highly detail-oriented, with the ability to organize projects and prioritize work with minimal supervision
• Interested in collaborative research and engaging with scientists from interdisciplinary backgrounds

• Citizenship: U.S. Citizen Only
• Degree: Doctoral Degree received within the last 60 months or anticipated to be received by 6/30/2022 11:59:00 PM.
• Discipline(s):
  • Computer, Information, and Data Sciences
    • Data Sciences
    • Scientific Computing and Informatics
  • Life Health and Medical Sciences (General)
  • Mathematics and Statistics 
    • Biometrics and Biostatistics
• Veteran Status: Veterans Preference, degree received within the last 120 month(s).