Postdoctoral Fellowship (07) at Wageningen University & Research, Netherlands

Would you like to help combat outbreaks of animal diseases such as avian influenza, which is currently affecting both wild birds and poultry? Do you have experience with virological and immunological techniques, and would you like to contribute to research on avian influenza and Newcastle disease? Then read on and apply soon!

The One Health Virology department at Wageningen Bioveterinary Research (WBVR) in Lelystad has an opening for a researcher in Avian Influenza. 

As the national reference laboratory for Avian Influenza and Newcastle Disease, WBVR is responsible for testing animals suspected of having these highly contagious viral diseases. This winter, the Netherlands was once again hit by a major outbreak of avian influenza among wild birds and poultry, and this problem is expected to persist in the coming years. Because avian influenza is one of the most variable and rapidly evolving viruses, we are constantly working to keep our diagnostic tests up to date – and that’s where we need your expertise! 

Do you want to design microbial communities for novel foods? Are you intrigued by the possibilities of using communities and spatial structure to control flavour and nutrition in plant-based cheese? Then this postdoctoral research position could be what you’re looking for!

As a postdoctoral researcher, you will explore over the next 3 years how we can control the flavour and nutritional value of plant-based Camembert through spatiotemporal organization of synthetic microbial communities (SynComs). Fermentation of protein-rich plant-based substrates could yield cheeses that are both healthy and sustainable. However, optimizing the nutritional value and flavour of such cheese products remains an open challenge. 

This project tests the fundamental hypothesis that bottom-up designed SynComs could provide better nutrition and flavour than pure starter cultures, while offering more reproducible products compared to complex starter cultures. Specific attention will be paid to the role of spatial organization of key community members and the role of physicochemical gradients during fermentation.

As a Researcher food chains, you will work on improving sustainable food chains. You will contribute to projects aimed at reducing food loss and associated emissions, quantitatively estimating sustainability impact, and to broader issues related to the design and sustainability of food chains. You will do this in projects in the Netherlands, but also in Europe and in low- and middle-income countries, such as Ethiopia, Indonesia and Mexico. From Wageningen, you will work together with the project team to develop solutions that make chains more sustainable, robust and efficient. Within the Supply Chain Development expertise group, you will work on analysing and assessing interventions in food chains. You combine quantitative analyses with systems thinking and translate insights into practical and feasible solutions. The impact in practice is central to this. The role is varied and often consists of a combination of literature research, analysis and reporting, contributions to workshops with (Dutch) third parties and stakeholder processes, and fieldwork. You will work in both a Dutch and international context and travel within and outside Europe several times a year.

As a researcher quantitative supply chain analyses, you will work on analysing and improving sustainable food chains based on data. One of your focuses will be on projects aimed at quantifying and reducing food waste and associated sustainability impact, and on broader issues surrounding the design and sustainability of food chains. You will often work in international projects in low- and middle-income countries, such as Ethiopia, Mexico and Indonesia, but also in the Netherlands and elsewhere in Europe. From Wageningen, you use quantitative analyses to better understand chains and make them more sustainable, efficient and robust.

Within the Supply Chain Development expertise group, you will contribute to quantifying and improving performance in food chains, with a focus on food loss reduction, emission reduction and economic analyses, among other things. You will work on collecting, analysing and interpreting data, with quantitative methods and models and practical application at the centre.

The role is varied and often consists of a combination of literature research, analysis and reporting, contributions to workshops and (Dutch) stakeholder processes, and fieldwork. You will work in both a Dutch and international context and travel within and outside Europe several times a year.

The radar remote sensing team within the Laboratory of Geo-information Science and Remote Sensing is seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral researcher to advance forest disturbance monitoring using long-wavelength radar data.

Radar remote sensing is highly valuable for forest monitoring because it is sensitive to structural change and enables systematic observation largely independent of daylight and cloud cover. At the same time, turning radar observations into reliable information on forest disturbance and regrowth remains challenging, as detection depends on wavelength, acquisition geometry, and environmental, seasonal, and atmospheric effects. These challenges are especially relevant with the new generation of long-wavelength missions, including NISAR and BIOMASS, and the upcoming ROSE-L mission.

The project focuses on developing and validating radar methods for forest disturbance monitoring and near-real-time alerting using long-wavelength data, with methods that are transferable across global forest ecosystems. It also applies these approaches to analyse European forest dynamics, including harvest, fire, wind damage, and bark beetle infestation. The work will pay particular attention to radar time series interpretation, large-scale implementation, and long-wavelength-specific effects such as ionospheric influences.

This position is embedded in a strong international and interdisciplinary research environment. The postdoctoral researcher will collaborate closely with international partners, including Prof. Cornelius Senf at TU Munich on European forest dynamics, and will be part of a well-established radar remote sensing network, including Dr. Maciej Soja at Wageningen Environmental Research. This provides an excellent setting for both fundamental and applied research, with opportunities to contribute to high-impact publications, collaborative projects, and operational monitoring products.