PDF versionJob Summary
This position is located in Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Emerging Pests and Pathogens Research Unit, in Ithaca, NY. The incumbent serves as Curator of ASEF collection and leverages collection for fundamental, translational, and applied research. The fungal strains are a resource for studying important questions involving, systematics, host-pathogen interaction, insect pathology, microbial control using fungi, vector biology, natural products chemistry, genomics, and functional genomics.
Major Duties
- Plan, organize, coordinate, and oversee service activities culture collection including acquisition, maintenance, characterization, evaluation, and distribution of fungal isolates and associated information to scientists and other users.
- Collect, or acquire entomopathogenic fungal germplasm in response to the programmatic interests needs expressed by users and stakeholders.
- Plan, organize, coordinate, and oversee collection increase in the laboratory and cryogenic storage.
- Perform required background investigations, appropriate experimental and statistical designs, executes plans, and presents findings.
- Use a variety of database and software including 4D for updating and tracking fungal isolates.
- Oversees database development, updating, and management to enhance inventory control, enable researchers to identify desired strains, and facilitate fulfillment of customer requests for germplasm.
- Select appropriate methods and procedures or devises and recommends alternative methods of standardized analysis to solve problems.
- Oversee the work of temporary personnel; undergraduate students; Post Docs, volunteers; and visiting scientists.
- Provide technical and administrative supervision to assigned support personnel.
- As required, travel and work with other countries in working through agreements in the exchange of information relating to the active collection.
- Coordinates the full use of all pertinent information in the computer network by keeping all data current and by providing information as needed by scientists in the user community.
Qualifications
Applicants must meet all qualifications and eligibility requirements by the closing date of the announcement including specialized experience and/or education, as defined below. Basic Requirements: Applicants must meet the basic requirements for at least one of the 3 series listed below in addition to the minimum qualifications. 0401 Series: General Natural Resources Management and Biological Sciences Series, Degree: biological sciences, agriculture, natural resource management, chemistry, or related disciplines appropriate to the position. OR Combination of education and experience: Courses equivalent to a major, as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. 0403 Series: Microbiology Degree: microbiology; or biology, chemistry, or basic medical science that included at least 20 semester hours in microbiology and other subjects related to the study of microorganisms, and 20 semester hours in the physical and mathematical sciences combining course work in organic chemistry or biochemistry, physics, and college algebra, or their equivalent. OR Combination of education and experience: courses equivalent to a major in microbiology, biology, chemistry, or basic medical science that included courses as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. Graduate Education: Microbiology, or specific area of study such as bacteriology, virology, mycology, algology, protozoology, parasitology, immunology, serology, microbial genetics, or soil microbiology; or specific applied fields of microbiology such as clinical and public health microbiology, food technology, production processes, industrial fermentation, pollution, etc. Graduate study in related fields such as experimental pathology, infectious diseases, epidemiology, biochemistry, animal or plant physiology, genetics, plant pathology, and insect disease control, may also be pertinent, provided it has direct application to microbiological work. Evaluation of Education: Microbiology is a broad field of science encompassing a number of scientific disciplines or areas of science, the fields in which this science is applied, and related fields where the work is concerned with or involves microbiology. The scientific disciplines or areas of this science include bacteriology, immunology, serology, algology, mycology, parasitology, protozoology, rickettsi-ology, tissue culture, virology, and similar disciplines or areas of science. The applied fields include environmental, food, dairy, soil, industrial, public health, clinical, and agricultural microbiology, and similar areas in which microbiology is applied. Related fields include taxonomy and systematics, plant, animal, or human physiology or pathology, infectious diseases, epidemiology, ecology, and similar areas of science where the work is directly related or applies to microbiology. Except where the course work deals with a limited and specific segment of the science, where it might be limited in usefulness, most of the work, including that dealing with the development and use of microbiological methods, procedures, and techniques, is qualifying. In interpreting the substantive value of the course work, credit may be given for courses in related fields, depending on the degree to which the courses are related to micro-biological work. Evaluation of Experience: For the GS-11 and higher grade levels of such specialized positions, the experience must have been sufficiently specialized to insure adequate familiarity with the area of specialization or applied field of microbiology, or have direct application in the area for which the applicant is being considered. 0414 Series: Entomology Degree: entomology; or a related discipline of the biological or physical sciences that included at least 16 semester hours in entomology. OR Combination of education and experience: courses equivalent to a major that included course work as shown in A above, plus appropriate experience or additional education. Evaluation of Education: Applicants with major fields of study in biology, zoology, or invertebrate zoology may fully meet the basic educational requirements if their academic preparation included substantive instruction (including appropriate laboratory and field work) in basic general entomology, taxonomy, physiology, ecology, general and organic chemistry, general physics, and mathematics or statistics that provided some training in the analysis of variables. AND Specialized Experience: Specialized experience is experience directly related to the position to be filled. Specialized experience must be described for each grade level advertised. The specialized experience requirements for this position are: Qualifying experience for GS-12 includes one year of specialized experience comparable to GS-11 which is directly related to the work of this position and which has equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. For this position, specialized experience is experience assisting in collecting or acquiring entomopathogenic fungal germplasm samples; and assisting in developing fungal strain inventory databases. Qualifying experience for GS-13 includes one year of specialized experience comparable to GS-12 which is directly related to the work of this position and which has equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. For this position, specialized experience is collecting or acquiring entomopathogenic fungal germplasm samples; assisting in developing fungal strain inventory databases; and researching and utilizing appropriate experimental and statistical designs and methods. Qualifying experience for GS-14 includes one year of specialized experience comparable to GS-13 which is directly related to the work of this position and which has equipped the applicant with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to perform successfully the duties of the position. For this position, specialized experience is experience collecting or acquiring entomopathogenic fungal germplasm samples; assisting in developing fungal strain inventory databases; researching and utilizing appropriate experimental and statistical designs and methods.; and providing technical and administrative supervision to research support personnel and projects. Experience refers to paid and unpaid experience, including volunteer work done through National Service programs (e.g., Peace Corps, AmeriCorps) and other organizations (e.g., professional; philanthropic; religious; spiritual; community, student, social). Volunteer work helps build critical competencies and can provide valuable training and experience that translates directly to paid employment. You will receive credit for all qualifying experience, including volunteer experience.
Pay Range
$76,721.00 - $140,146.00