Northeast Forestry University (NEFU) was established in 1952 and is a university under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. NEFU is the largest forestry university in China and was a designated 「211 Project」 institution, a project of building National Key Universities in China, and now elected as a Double First Class University (雙一流) with a First Class discipline in Forestry.
The Key Lab
The State Key Laboratory of Tree Genetics and Breeding (hereafter referred to as the Key Lab), the only state key laboratory in the forestry discipline in China, was approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People’s Republic of China and was jointly established by the Chinese Academy of Forestry and Northeast Forestry University in October 2011. The Key Lab focuses on establishing a national and international leading role for research in contemporary molecular biology/biotechnology and genetic breeding of forest tree species to address important problems in forest sciences, including tree growth and development, biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, tree breeding, forest health, biofuels/bioenergy, conservation and ecophysiology.
The Key Lab has 80 members, working on subjects described above through two 973 projects, one 863 projects, 3 National Key Research and Development Program of China projects, 4 National Natural Science Foundation of China Key Program (重點項目), 37 National Natural Science Foundation of China General Program (面上項目), 2 National Science and Technology Support Program. The members have published over 350 papers in high impact journals, including Nature Biotechnology, Science, Nature Communications, Nature Protocols, Proceeding of the National Academy of Science (USA), Plant Cell, PLoS Genetics, Plant Physiology, Plant Journal, etc. The members have also won 19 awards, 46 patents. The Key Lab has a total of approximately 3,000 square meters of office space and 12,690 square meters of lab space including walk-in growth chambers and phytotrons, and is equipped with more than ¥ 90 million worth of shared instruments.
Types of the Talents Recruitment
The Key Lab is in a phase of significant growth and offers a stimulating and interdisciplinary research environment with long-term productivity-based founding supports. Substantial collaboration among all Key Lab members is essential and a strategic direction for the growth. As also a key to the success of the growth, the Key Lab is now recruiting domestic and international candidates to fill 3 to 5 Principal Investor (PI) positions at levels of (A) Leading Talents or Teams (1st-tier of NEFU’s Talents Program), (B) Distinguished Young Scholars (2nd-tier of the Talents Program), and (C) Excellent Young Scholars (3rd-tier of the Talents Program). The position will have the academic rank of Full Professor for Types (A) and (B) recruitments, and the rank of Full or Associate Professor for Type (C) recruitment depending upon the research and academic credentials and accomplishments. Each PI will form his/her team. While each PI team has its specialized expertise, all the Key Lab’s PI teams must engage in substantial collaboration with each other. The Key Lab is also recruiting domestic and international candidates to fill four (4) postdoctoral fellow positions.
Areas of the Talents Recruitment
(I) Bioinformatics and Computational Biology
Seeking candidates with expertise in two or more of the following areas: Integrative analysis of multi-omics data and predictive modeling of perturbed regulatory (epigenetic, transcriptional and post-transcriptional) and metabolic pathways for wood cell-wall formation and plant growth; modeling biotic and abiotic response and resistance; computational analysis of large datasets (genome sequencing and epigenetic data at the cell-type and single-cell levels); network reconstruction from transcriptomics and proteomics; and experience in big data analytics and machine learning techniques is a plus.
Substantial collaboration with wet-lab PI teams generating unique data is expected. This collaborative work is designed for the advancement of the Key Lab to effectively address important questions in targeted research subjects through first access to novel wet-lab data from other PI teams without duplicating the efforts in generating such data.
(II) Biochemistry and Proteomics
Seeking candidates with strong skills in plant biochemistry/enzymology and proteomics of plant/wood secondary metabolism in response to perturbation and adaptation. Aspects of research may include protein-protein interactive regulation, chromatin modification, post-transcriptional regulation, post-translational modification, mass spectrometry based proteomics, and CRISPR based ribonucleoprotein systems.
(III) Molecular Biology and Biotechnology
Seeking candidates who will apply genome-scale, systems-level, genome editing/novel genetic engineering, or advanced genomic, epigenetic and biochemical approaches to address important problems in forest sciences, including stem-cell differentiation for wood formation, regulation of tree growth and development, biotic and abiotic stress tolerance, tree breeding, forest health, and wood properties/utilization (for lumber, pulp/paper biofuels/bioenergy). The position would be fundamentally interdisciplinary for the creation of novel research that builds on the existing strengths of the Key Lab.
General Qualifications for the Talents Recruitment
We seek highly motivated young scientists to lead strong research teams focused on innovative and interdisciplinary approaches to address the research goals of the Key Lab. Both personality and research excellence are the primary criteria for the evaluation of the applicants. Applicants must have a doctoral degree and must have demonstrated exceptional research excellence in a specific field relevant to the recruitment areas and experience in multiple fields of relevance. Applicants must be fluent in Mandarin and English and have good writing skills in both Chinese and English, and preferably have oversea research experience.
Specific Requirements for Type (A) PIs, the Leading Talents or Teams (1st-tier)
The applicants should hold a full professor or research leader position in a national or international leading university or research institute, with outstanding publication record, multidisciplinary research credentials as well as demonstrated strategic vision and leadership to direct advanced and cutting edge research in areas of the Talents of Recruitment program, leading to high impact discoveries and publications. Creating and leading national and international collaborative research projects/programs is expected. The positions are full-time or 1-3 months/year with a starting date of May 1, 2018 until the positions are filled.
Compensation and benefits for Type (A) PIs
Key compensation and benefits such as salary, housing subsidies, start-up funds, numbers of Ph.D. student slots, postdoctoral fellow and research lab assistant, and lab space are all negotiable on an individual basis (「一人一議」) with no fixed upper limits.
Specific Requirements for Type (B) PIs, the Distinguished Young Scholars (2nd-tier)
The applicants should have at least 3 first-author or first-corresponding author publications in SCI indexed journals, with at least 1 of such publications having impact factors of ~10 or higher. These publications should also demonstrate the research influence on a specific field. Or the applicants should currently be an Associate Professor, or at least five years research experience after his/her PhD, in internationally renowned universities or research institutes. Or the applicants have the demonstrated potentials for being awarded of National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, Changjiang Scholar Program for Young Scholars, or Thousand Talents Program for Young Scholars. Applicants with demonstrated potentials for securing extramural funding are preferred. In general, the applicant should be no more than 40 years of age. However, this criterion may not apply to applicants with exceptional qualifications. These are full-time positions with a starting date of May 1, 2018 until the positions are filled.
Compensation and benefits for Type (B) PIs
In principle, all compensation and benefits are negotiable on an individual basis (「一人一議」) with the following minimum standards:
1. Salary: at least ¥400,000/year
2. Housing subsidies: ¥ 300,000 to 500,000
3. Start-up Funds: ¥ 0.5 to 1 million/year
4. 2 Ph.D. student slots/year
5. 1 Postdoctoral fellow
6. At least 150 square meters lab space
Specific Requirements for Type (C) PIs, the Excellent Young Scholars (3rd-tier)
The applicants should have at least 3 first-author or first-corresponding author publications in SCI indexed journals, with 1 of such publications having impact factors of ~6 or higher. These publications should also demonstrate the research influence on a specific field. Or the applicants should have at least three years research experience after his/her PhD, in internationally renowned universities or research institutes. Or the applicants have the demonstrated potentials for being awarded of Provincial Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars or Longjiang Scholar Program. Applicants with demonstrated potentials for securing extramural funding are preferred. In general, the applicant should be no more than 35 years of age. Up to 40 years of age may also be considered for applicants with exceptional qualifications. These positions are full-time.
Compensation and benefits for Type (C) PIs
1. Salary: at least ¥ 300,000 (pre-tax)/year
2. Housing subsidies: ¥ 150,000 to 300,000
3. Start-up Funds: ¥ 200,000 to 500,000/year
4. 1-2 Ph.D. student slots/year
5. At least 100 square meters lab space
Application Procedure
Applications should be submitted electronically to Zheng Mi at zhengmi0207@163.com. Applications should consist of a single PDF file containing (1) a cover letter specifying the Type of the Talents Recruitment of interest, (2) curriculum vitae, (3) summary of research plans (maximum two pages), and (4) contact information for at least three references. Complete applications are accepted as soon as possible and remain acceptable until the positions are filled.
Postdoctoral Fellows Recruitment
As also a key to the success of the growth, the Key Lab is now recruiting domestic and international candidates to fill four (4) postdoctoral fellow positions in the Key Lab Team of Professor Vincent Chiang and Professor Wei Li. The overarching theme of the Team is to better understand tree growth, metabolism and adaptation, and uses this understanding to improve the practical utilization of wood as a raw material and to ameliorate threats to the health of trees and forests. Current focused projects include multi-omics based systems design of cell-wall biosynthesis in wood properties for utilization, field growth and adaptation of transgenic forest tree species, genome-wide epigenetic and transcriptional regulation of stress tolerance and wood quality in forest tree species, CRISPR technologies for forest trees, and cell-type molecular typing in forest trees.
We seek applicants that are independent, motivated and highly creative and resourceful to work on the Team projects. The applicants should have a strong background in two or more relevant areas including genomics, epigenetics, single-cell transcriptomics, woody plant transgenics, genome editing, protein-protein and protein-nucleic acid interactions, bioinformatics (RNA-seq and ChIP-seq analysis and integration, network construction, etc.), and biochemistry/enzymology. Hands-on experience with laser capture microdissection and flow cytometry is a plus. The Fellows will conduct their own research, supervise graduate students, help proposal preparations, and write publications. The applicants must be team-players. Both personality and research excellence are the primary criteria for the evaluation of the applicants.
We will begin to fill these positions starting from May, 2018, until the positions are filled. Each Fellow will receive an annual salary of ¥100,000-200,000 (pre-tax). The Fellow with a record of outstanding performance may be offered a faculty position after the completion of the fix-term contract.
The applicant should email Dr. Wei Li (wl830505@126.com) his/her CV and a cover letter indicating how the applicant’s past research experience, interests, and goals fit the research objectives of the Team and the Key Lab. The letter should also include the names and contact information of at least three references.