I've been busy this week, but not had time to write everything up. The new thing is the Careers page. This works by picking up job adverts I've posted to Mastodon, and that others have posted on Bluesky. At the time of writing there's around 150 job adverts posted from the past two weeks. I'm open to pushing it out to three weeks, if there's a request but there's not a lot of point in going too long as quite a few of these posts are along the lines of "There's just one week left to apply for..."
If you want to see where these adverts come from, I've uploaded a copy of my workfile to GitHub. This is a list of sites I check daily, and let's pretend I'm organised enough that it's always in the morning. I add them to our Buffer to post out every couple of hours during the day, and the site updates with the new jobs on a similar frequency, so there could be new jobs listed every day, if things are going well. I've added Syngenta and Corteva to the list of sites to check this week, to add a few more industry jobs to the mix in the future.
These new additions had all been working really well, right up to the moment they broke. I'm hoping I have them fixed now, but it might be that things have to get shuffled around to work properly. Assuming I don't break anything else, there'll be another issue of The Week in Botany, with what you're sharing on Mastodon and Bluesky at the usual time. Until then, take care.
Alun (webmaster@botany.one)
On Botany One
Bryophytes May Repel Snails Without Contaminating Crops
Bryophytes may hold natural compounds that keep hungry snails away from crops while avoiding the broader risks of conventional chemical controls.
Fire Signals and Dry Soils: How Cerrado Seeds Time Their Germination
By testing how seeds respond to drought and smoke together, scientists uncover how plants in Brazil’s Cerrado survive the harsh mix of fire, dry spells and unpredictable rain.
Blank Spaces No More
'Taylor Swift Method' for Teaching Botany Brings Plants into the Daylight.
Getting to the root of resilient agriculture
Scientists uncover root patterns that improve maize growth in different soils.
Open Sesame! The Tiny Doorway That Wakes a Seed
New research shows that Dodonaea viscosa seeds rely on a tiny slit to let water in, and understanding how it opens could help germinate them.
This week the Sudoku Garden commemorates Professor William Stearn. The Plant Hunt celebrates Día de las Madres in Mexico. This week's Plant of the Week is Taraxacum officinale.
There was also last week's Week in Botany, with evolution clues in dust, a PhD student who welcomes stress - for the plants he studies, furry botanists, and more.
In AoBC Publications
- Carbon starvation as a mechanistic explanation for the gradual decline of savanna ground-layer species under tree encroachment 🆓
- Evaluating species identification apps as a tool for small plot-based surveys of vascular plants in Alberta, Canada 🆓
- Decoding Rice Seed Storage Proteins: From Gene Identification to Structural Prediction 💰
News & Views
Free and open-source images, icons, and tools for creating scientific illustrations
Phylopic, NIH Bioart, Bioicons, Scidraw, Open Science Art, Health Icons, Servier Medical Art, Biodiversity Heritage Library, the Noun Project, Segment Anything, Excalidraw, draw.io, Biographics
blog.stephenturner.us
Botanical Photographer of the Year
Our photographic competition aims to highlight and celebrate the dazzling visual world of wild plants, and the botanists who are interested in them. The majority of images on this website are submissions to the competition, a fantastic array that showcase the beauty, complexity and value of our flora.
bsbi.org
Plant Immune Receptors in the Spotlight
This focus issue seeks to capture exciting developments across all areas of immune receptor biology that are pertinent to enhancing our understanding of the plant–pathogen interaction. We welcome submissions that investigate infection-related receptors—and the outcomes of receptor activation—at the molecular, cellular, structural, network, and/or evolutionary level in any plant host or pathogen system. Studies with clear translational potential are particularly encouraged.
apsjournals.apsnet.org
As David Attenborough turns 100, four experts explore his legacy, from science to storytelling
"For a century now, Attenborough’s life has been intimately interwoven not only with humanity’s growing scientific understanding of the natural world but also its accelerating loss."
rnz.co.nz
No Mow May is underway
May is here and that means a chance for plant-lovers across Britain and Ireland to take action to support wild plants and the wildlife that depend on them. No Mow May is the annual campaign run by our friends at Plantlife to encourage everyone with a garden to consign the lawnmower to the shed and let the wild flowers in your garden grow and flourish. Even if you don't have a garden of your own, you can still take part - read on to find out how.
bsbi.org
Reflections on AI-assisted Programming - Yihui Xie | 谢益辉
My former colleague Nan kept telling me early last year that I should try Cursor, but I felt I didn’t need AI assistance at that time, since I knew pretty well what I wanted to do and how. Plus, I’m generally frugal and would hesitate to purchase anything extra for myself.
yihui.org
Simons Graduate Fellowships in Ecology and Evolution
The purpose of these awards is to provide support for students entering U.S.-based Ph.D. programs with a plan to perform research in ecology and evolution. While we will consider all projects in ecology and evolution, we are particularly interested in interdisciplinary research that jointly considers processes on both ecological and evolutionary timescales, or that links studies of ecology and evolution to other STEM fields, including physics, computer science, mathematics, chemistry and other areas of biology, especially genetics.
simonsfoundation.org
Breaking the Pattern with AlphaFold: Introducing the Structural Novelty Index
The AI system AlphaFold has transformed how we predict protein structures. But sometimes the most interesting discoveries come from asking a different question: which proteins break the pattern?
medium.com
Webinar: Recording For Beginners - Why getting to know your plants facilitates recording of other species groups
Understanding plants is the gateway to identifying and recording a whole world of other species. Once you know the plants, the rusts and galls growing on them become far easier to recognise. A caterpillar nibbling a leaf is much easier to name when you know its foodplant, and countless other organisms - beetles, aphids, bees and more - have close, often specialised relationships with particular plants.
bsbi.org
The Thymes – Botanical University Challenge
The Newsletter of Botanical University Challenge
botanicaluniversitychallenge.co.uk
Science Shared
The three botany papers shared most on Bluesky this week are:
- An oxygen-sensing Polycomb-group protein encodes flooding stress memory in plants 🆓
Maric, A. et al. · bioRxiv - Repurposing a chromosome segregation ParB-CTPase fold into an ATPase toxin for contact-dependent growth inhibition in plant and animal pathogens 🆓
Kaljevic, J. et al. · bioRxiv - GWAS reveal SUBER GENE1-mediated suberization via type one phosphatases 💰
Han, J. et al. · Nature Plants
You can see the full top 20 with more details, as well as what people have been saying about them, at Science Shared: May 9.
Careers on Bluesky
Please note these are not jobs I am offering. Nor can I help you with any visa requirements. At time of writing there are around 100 other jobs posted at Botany One.
Abernethy Forest Assistant - Maternity Cover // RSPB Strathspey
environmentjob.co.uk/jobs/110187-...
To assist with the planning, preparation and management of various contracts including thinning of approx. 60ha plantation, horse-logging, field layer management and tree planting.
NA Trait Introgression Applied Genetics Scientist // Syngenta MN or maybe MI
jobs.syngenta.com?department=R...
This role will be responsible for the introgression of traits into Corn germplasm.
Postdoctoral Row Crop Foliar Disease Prediction and Monitoring // Clemson University
www.higheredjobs.com/faculty/deta...
The post-doc will organize 3 monitoring sites in South Carolina to monitor the incidence and severity of Target spot and Aereolate mildew on cotton.
Formulations based on essential oil and flower hemp phytocomplexes to be used as biopesticides in organic farming – CANBIO // Università degli Studi di Camerino
euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/434352
Doctoral fellow - Department of Animal Sciences and Aquatic Ecology // Ghent University
academicpositions.com/ad/ghent-uni...
You will perform research on the fate and ecotoxicity of bio-based plant-defense elicitors, within the context of the project BioBoost.
Technical Officer // University of Adelaide
uniroles.com.au/display-job/...
As a Technical Officer within the College of Science, you will primarily support laboratory-based teaching activities.
Asst Professor - Plant or Fungal Genomics // University of Wyoming
jobs.chronicle.com/job/37970472...
We invite applications from candidates using computational approaches and genomic data to address fundamental questions in evolutionary biology.
Agricultural Specialist // Virginia Tech
jobs.chronicle.com/job/37963231...
Vtech are seeking an agricultural specialist (hired as an Agricultural Specialist III) to develop native grassland plant seed production on public and private lands as part of a research and extension program.
Assistant Project Scientist In Mcelrone Lab // University of California, Davis
www.higheredjobs.com/faculty/deta...
Incumbent will investigate novel biometeorological and biophysical methods to quantify woody perennial crops water use and stress.
Assistant/Associate/Full Professor Plant Molecular (and Cell) Biology // Leiden University
euraxess.ec.europa.eu/jobs/434542
Are you an academic in plant molecular (and cell) biology ready to strengthen and advance the plant research and teaching at the IBL?
Research Associate Hybrid Wheat (f/m/d) - part time 60% // Syngenta Bad Salzuflen
jobs.syngenta.com/job/74400012...
The Wheat Research Associate assists and supports the Wheat Breeding Lead in all aspects of breeding pipeline progression.
Research Associate Hybrid Barley (f/m/d) // Syngenta Bad Salzuflen
jobs.syngenta.com/job/74400012...
The Barley Research Associate assists and supports the Barley Pipeline Scientist in all aspects of breeding pipeline progression.
Corn Senior Crop Trait Development Lead // Des Moines, Iowa
apply.corteva.com/careers?doma...
The successful candidate will play a pivotal role in advancing insect control (IC) traits through late discovery pipeline stages.
Horticultural Specialist // Medak District, Telangana, India
apply.corteva.com/careers?doma...
The Horticultural Specialist supports Population Development and Trait Integration (PD&TI) research programs by ensuring precise, compliant, and reproducible greenhouse operations.
Senior Technician, Foundation Seed // University of Idaho
jobs.chronicle.com/job/37985428...
The Senior Technician assists the Program Director by managing fields for limited-generation seed increases across various crops.
Post-doc (ReGeNL lines 2 & 3): Monitoring outcomes of regenerative agriculture // Wageningen
www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/p...
This is a 6-month interim position focused on the implementation of a monitoring scheme to support farmers in their transition towards regenerative outcomes.
Researcher in Precision Agriculture // Wageningen
www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/r...
Do you enjoy working as a researcher at the intersection of arable farming and innovation? Would you like to contribute to the practical application of precision agriculture, such as AI and robotisation?
Botanical Horticulturist // Kew
careers.kew.org/vacancy/bota...
We're looking for a skilled horticulturist to join our team in the iconic Palm House preparing for the renovation of the historic building. The role will involve the cultivation of our valuable tropical plant collections.
Senior chemist at the Soil and Plant lab // Swedish University of the Agricultural Sciences
www.slu.se/en/about-slu...
This is a full-time, on-site role located in Uppsala for a Senior Chemist at the Department of Soil and Environment.
Postdoctoral Associate - Plant Pathology & Plant Microbe Biology // Cornell University
www.higheredjobs.com/faculty/deta...
You will conduct research on the ecological, chemical, and the molecular mechanisms that mediate in microbe-plant-insect interactions.
Fellow (Post Doc) // Kansas State University
www.higheredjobs.com/faculty/deta...
You will be responsible for conducting and coordinating experimental activities focused on the biology, epidemiology, & genomics of the wheat blast pathogen, Magnaporthe oryzae pathotype Triticum (MoT).
Post-Doctoral Associate // University of Minnesota
www.higheredjobs.com/faculty/deta...
The Khokhani Lab seeks a highly motivated postdoctoral researcher to join a project investigating cross-kingdom interactions between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and hyphosphere bacteria in maize.
Head of Biodiversity Information
careers.kew.org/vacancy/head...
RBG Kew is now seeking to appoint a new Head of Biodiversity Information. The postholder will oversee the systems and procedures managing Kew’s scientific information assets.
Director of Scientific Collections // Kew
careers.kew.org/vacancy/dire...
RBG Kew is now seeking to appoint its first Director of Scientific Collections.
Ecological Statistician // University of Helsinki
www.timeshighereducation.com/unijobs/list...
You will analyse spatio-temporal biodiversity data to uncover patterns and drivers of biodiversity change and their links to ecosystem functioning.
Postdoctoral Position in Machine Learning for Automated Plant Phenotyping // ETH Zürich
academicpositions.com/ad/eth-zuric...
This role sits at the intersection of machine learning, computer vision, agricultural sciences, and plant phenotyping.
Horticulture Team Leader // Eden Project Ltd
www.bgci.org/job/horticul...
The Eden Project is seeking an experienced horticulture professional to lead a small team delivering high-quality estate and horticultural work across approximately 200 acres of diverse, species-rich landscapes.
Technician (Research) // University of Sheffield
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRL118/t...
Prof Julie Gray and Dr Stuart Casson are looking to appoint a Technician to join a BBSRC funded project investigating the molecular basis of heat and drought stress tolerance in rice crops.
Research Assistant / Associate // University of Glasgow
www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DRL049/r...
This BBSRC-funded position is for a plant molecular biologist working in the Christie laboratory. The project examines the phosphoregulatory mechanisms underlying light-capturing responses in plants.
Senior / Principal Ecologist // Dublin
environmentjob.co.uk/jobs/110127-...
We are looking for a senior or principal ecologist to join our team in CAAS Ltd. This post is a dynamic role managing a diverse portfolio of projects in both the public and private sectors across Ireland.
Science Project Intern - ADCRA // Kew
careers.kew.org/vacancy/scie...
The ADCRA project (Accelerated Diversification for Climate-Resilient Agriculture) aims at characterising the responses to abiotic stresses of multiple accessions of 50 wild edible plant species from SubSaharan Africa
Science Project Intern - Habenaria jaegeri // Kew
careers.kew.org/vacancy/scie...
As H. jaegeri faces severe population decline and ongoing habitat loss, this role will contribute to an urgent, science‑based recovery effort focused on ex situ propagation and reintroduction.
Postdoc in Long-Wavelength Radar for Forest Disturbance Monitoring - Wageningen
www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/p...
The project focuses on developing near-real-time alerting using long-wavelength data, with methods that are transferable across global forest ecosystems.
Horticulture Apprentice - Morris Arboretum - University of Pennsylvania
jobs.chronicle.com/job/37983177...
The Horticulture Apprenticeship is designed to prepare individuals with a strong passion for plants and their care for a career in public gardens.
Postdoc position – Self-Supervised Learning for Image-Based Phenotyping - Wageningen
www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/p...
As a postdoctoral researcher, you will design and develop self-supervised learning approaches for large-scale, multi-temporal plant image datasets.
Researcher in Plant Resilience - Wageningen
www.wur.nl/en/vacancy/r...
Within the plant health team, you will be responsible for coordinating and carrying out trials involving plant diseases and pests in the laboratory and greenhouse.
Post Doctoral Researcher in Controlled Environment Agriculture - University of Delaware
jobs.chronicle.com/job/37982723...
The researcher will optimize hydroponic production systems, and environmental control strategies to enhance crop performance & sustainability.
Horticulture Intern, Conservation - Atlanta Botanical Garden
www.bgci.org/job/horticul...
Interns will work directly with Conservation Horticulture staff to focus on the propagation, cultivation, and curation of threatened and endangered plants.
Post doctorat (M/F) Pesticide exposure of biodiversity and ecosystem functions - Villiers en Bois
emploi.cnrs.fr/Offres/CDD/U...
The researcher will analyze data on pesticide sales and applications, surveys of earthworms, insects, and plants, and measurements of ecosystem functions.
Cover image: Taraxacum officinale by cedarjane / iNaturalist CC BY-NC-SA
