Jülich: Internship - Organizing Phenotypic Data for Soil-Plant Model Calibration

Understanding biogeochemical and hydrological processes in terrestrial systems is critical to cope with climate and land-use change as key drivers influencing terrestrial environmental systems that will need to be managed by society in the coming decades. At the Institute of Bio- and Geosciences - Agrosphere (IBG-3) and Bioinformatics (IBG-4) we connect process-based and data-driven modeling for understanding, predicting and adapting water, energy and matter exchange processes in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum with structure-based bioinformatics focusing on understanding, predicting and modulating of the dynamics and interactions of biomolecules. This collaborative interdisciplinary research bridges spatio-temporal scales from molecules to soil-plant systems. It contributes to a fundamental understanding of high-dimensional data and functioning of biomolecules in life sciences and bioeconomy to enable sustainable and resource-conserving use of soils and water under climate and land-use changes in terrestrial ecosystems.

Your Job:

The CROP (Combining ROot contrasted Phenotypes for more resilient agro-ecosystem) project aims to estimate the beneficial impact of combining contrasting wheat root phenotypes in the same field. We aim to assess the benefits of the combination on water, carbon and nitrogen fluxes and cycles, microbial activity and yield. During the first stage of the project, experiments were carried out in field and laboratory conditions and a soil-plant model was set up. The experimental data can now be used to calibrate and test the model.

We are looking for a motivated intern to work on the treatment and storage of the experimental data for usage in the calibration of a plant-soil model. The intern will be in contact with both the modelling and experimental cluster of the project to gain an overview of the experimental setups, as well as of the model parameters. They will also have the opportunity to participate in ongoing field sampling campaigns or laboratory work.

Your responsibilities / tasks:

• Get familiar with experimental setups and model parameter requirements
• Organize and clean experimental datasets (Excel): improve file readability, document metadata, and log data locations
• Collaborate with PhD researchers from the modelling and experimental teams to link data and model components
• Conduct basic data analysis
  
  

Your Profile:

• You are enrolled as a student at a university
• You have strong Excel skills
• You are organized, reliable, and proactive
• You are a good communicator and enjoy teamwork
• You are comfortable working in English (at least B2 level according to the CEFR: https://go.fzj.de/languagerequirements )
• Optional: background in agriculture, environmental or geosciences, and some understanding of soil/plant systems
• Optional: interest in data science or modelling
  
  

Our Offer:

We work on the very latest issues that impact our society and are offering you the chance to actively help in shaping the change! We support you in your work with:

• A dynamic, international work environment at one of Germany’s leading research centers
• Flexible supervision—autonomous or guided, depending on your preference
• Opportunity to learn about both experimental and modelling research and acquire further scientific and technical training
• Potential to contribute to sustainable agriculture and climate resilience
• Gain 3 months valuable practical experience alongside your studies
• Option to work remotely
• Reasonable remuneration for your internship

In addition to exciting tasks and a collegial working environment, we offer you much more: https://go.fzj.de/benefits

We welcome applications from people with diverse backgrounds, e.g. in terms of age, gender, disability, sexual orientation / identity, and social, ethnic and religious origin. A diverse and inclusive working environment with equal opportunities in which everyone can realize their potential is important to us.

The following links provide further information on diversity and equal opportunities: https://go.fzj.de/equality and on specific support options: https://go.fzj.de/womens-job-journey