Available Positions

Interested in joining our group? We are interested in highly motivated new colleagues to expand our research group. Students and researchers at any level in their career (postdoc, PhD, MSc, BSc) and with outstanding training in plant molecular biology, genetics, genomics, bioinformatics, computer science, or statistics are invited to contact Dr. Hudson Ashrafi at hashraf2@ncsu.edu to discuss possible projects.

Current Available Positions

Undergraduate Internship

We are seeking to recruit two undergraduate interns to work on molecular genetics of blueberry. Our lab primarily focuses on improving blueberries for its quantitative and qualitative characteristics. We use various molecular, genetic, and genomic tools to achieve these goals.

The selected candidate will work on one of the following projects.

1. Study the molecular phylogeny and genetic diversity among the cultivated
   blueberries.
2. Understand the cause of high frequency of unreduced gamete formation in some
   blueberry cultivars.

The intern is expected to dedicate 5-10 hours per week to the project. The exact schedule can be discussed in person to accommodate your availability and interests. You will learn how to: extract DNA and RNA from plant material, design primers, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), gel electrophoresis, bioinformatics analysis and interpretation of the results by the end of the project. You should be willing to take an online EHS safety training test before starting to work in the lab.

Past Available Positions

Post-Doctoral Research Scientist

• Term Length: 1 year with option to renew Requested Appointment Date: 05/01/2016
• Contract Type: 12-month with the option to extend for subsequent year(s) upon satisfactory performance

A Postdoctoral position in plant genomics and bioinformatics is available to join a multidisciplinary blueberry genomic and breeding project at the North Carolina State University (NCSU) located in the Department of Horticultural Science, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695. The successful candidate will focus on using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) based genomic tools to study differentially expressed genes during flower and fruit development, and to generate genomic resources such as genetic linkage maps using genotyping by sequencing technique.