[Hiring] Post Doctoral Research Associate @Texas Tech University

Role Description

Performs specialized Post Doctoral work in the planning, conducting and/or supervision of original research. Responsible for participating in a research project associated with PhD studies and the interpretation of the results of publication. Work is performed under supervision of graduate faculty members with evaluation based on accomplishment of assigned objectives and overall effectiveness of project. May supervise research and student assistants.

The Department of Plant and Soil Science in the Davis College of Agricultural Sciences & Natural Resources at Texas Tech University (Lubbock, TX) invites applications for a Post Doc focused on precision-managed grass-alfalfa grazing systems for beef-on-dairy production in the semi-arid Southern High Plains. The successful candidate will combine field-research and quantitative skills to evaluate:

• Alfalfa integration
• Adaptive grazing
• GPS-enabled virtual fencing across forage, livestock, soil-water, and resource-use outcomes

This position offers an opportunity to work within a coordinated multi-state research and extension team involving Texas Tech University, Oklahoma State University, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, and the Texas Alliance for Water Conservation. The Post Doc will:

• Lead field experimentation
• Coordinate adaptive grazing and virtual-fencing activities
• Integrate agronomic, livestock, environmental, and geospatial data
• Translate results into publications, producer recommendations, and extension products

• Lead multi-year field experiments comparing old world bluestem and old world bluestem-alfalfa pastures under conventional rotational and virtual-fencing-enabled adaptive grazing
• Oversee adaptive grazing and GPS-enabled virtual fencing, including collar deployment, virtual-boundary setup, grazing allocations, technology performance, and coordination with livestock monitoring
• Coordinate forage biomass, botanical composition, alfalfa persistence, forage quality, soil, soil-moisture, and livestock-related sampling and measurements; maintain rigorous field and laboratory protocols
• Manage, quality-control, and integrate forage, soil-moisture, weather and irrigation, GPS and virtual-fencing, grazing-behavior, livestock-performance, soil-health, and environmental datasets
• Analyze project data using mixed-effects and repeated-measures models, regression, and geospatial analyses to quantify forage utilization, grazing distribution, nutritional water productivity, and integrated system performance
• Collaborate with investigators at Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, and TAWC to coordinate activities, synthesize results across objectives, and support reporting and data stewardship
• Mentor undergraduate trainees and collaborate with graduate students; support field logistics, sample processing, documentation, and safe execution of research activities
• Lead interdisciplinary manuscripts and scientific presentations; contribute to research proposals, pasture walks, field demonstrations, producer engagement, extension publications, infographics, and decision-support resources

Qualifications

• PhD in area of project specialization
• Knowledge of modern research practices, the methods, resources, and standards thereof
• Ability to organize work effectively, conceptualize and prioritize objectives and exercise independent judgment based on an understanding of organizational policies and activities
• Ability to integrate resources, policies, and information for the determination of procedures, solutions and other outcomes
• Ability to establish and maintain effective work relationships with other employees and the public
• Ability to plan and allocate the workload of employees, providing direct training and supervision as needed