The Small Fruit Breeding Program at Auburn University is seeking a quantitative geneticist/data curator/outreach specialist (Post Doc Fellow) to support the research activities of a recently funded four year USDA Specialty Crops Research Initiative Program award to Washington State University, Clemson University, University of Florida, Auburn University, University of Queensland, and USDA ARS. This highly collaborative project includes a diverse team of researchers working on crop breeding, genomics, genetics, curation, and bioinformatics. This is a benefit eligible, non-tenure track position available for two and a half years.

The project will expand the Rosaceae, Citrus, Vaccinium and Pulse crop databases to meet community demand for resources with usable big data aggregated, analyzed, integrated, and visualized, as well as data management and analysis tools. Objectives of the project are to: (1) collect, curate, and integrate all types of genomics, genetics, and breeding big data in easy-to-use and robust crop-specific databases, (2) develop and integrate tools to promote the collection, integration, and utilization of big data by scientists and breeders, and (3) provide scientists/breeders with personalized training for field data collection software, big data management and analysis, and use of database resources, quantify impact of databases on genomics-assisted breeding, and broadly disseminate project activities and outcomes.

This quantitative geneticist/data curator/outreach specialist based at Auburn University will support the activities (1) and (3) of the proposal for blueberries. Additionally, the specialist will work closely with the blueberry breeder at Auburn University to collect and analyze phenotypic, genotypic, and environmental data to build prediction models for key traits of blueberry such as flowering time, yield, and fruit quality. The ideal candidate for this position will have a strong background in plant breeding and quantitative genetics, research and/or scientific data management experience in an agricultural or related field and familiarity with programing and preferably bioinformatic tools. The specialist, in collaboration with the project team, will curate and analyze genomic, genetic, and breeding data obtained from authors, publications, and/or other data repositories including historical data in breeding programs; create outreach and training materials; provide webinars and on-site training on how to use their crop community databases, the breeding information management system (BIMS), breeding data management tools; and be responsible for mass communications to database users.

The position is a part of a Crop curator team that is composed of curators for Genome Database for Rosaceae (https://www.rosaceae.org/), Citrus Genome Database (https://www.citrusgenomedb.org/), Genome Database for Vaccinium (https://www.vaccinium.org/), and Pulse Crop Database (https://www.pulsedb.org/). This position reports to Dr. Sushan Ru at Auburn University and the PDs of the Washington State University Drs. Dorrie Main and Sook Jung and will closely work together with their cohort of other crop curators and outreach specialists. This position requires frequent travel including driving.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following:
● Collect and curate genomic, genetic, and breeding data (check the necessary metadata, standardize the names, associate with ontologies, enter into data template, and upload to the Genome Database for Vaccinium
● Perform quantitative genetics analysis of collected and curated data to better understand the heritability, breeding values, and genotype-by-environment interactions for key blueberry traits such as flowering time, yield, and fruit quality.
● Help create outreach and training materials for specialty crop breeders and researchers
● Provide webinars and on-site training on how to use the Genome Database for Vaccinium and the Breeding Information Management System (BIMS)
● Manage mass communication to database users including newsletters and social media
● Help organize and participate in workshops at conferences
● Participate in preparation of scholarly publications