Assistant/Associate/Full Professor - Small Grains Breeding

Assistant/Associate/Full Professor - Small Grains Breeding

Texas A&M AgriLife Research seeks an innovative and dynamic research faculty in small grains breeding. Applicants will be considered for the titles of Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or Professor, depending on experience and qualifications. This appointment will be 12 months, non-tenured, 100% research, and administratively located with the High Plains Research and Extension Center in Canyon, TX. This position includes an academic appointment with the Department of Soil and Crop Sciences at Texas A&M University, College Station, TX.

The individual in this position is responsible for leadership, planning, resourcing, and conducting research in applied small grains breeding as a team member of the statewide Texas A&M AgriLife Small Grains Research and Extension Program (SGREP) to develop and release improved small grain cultivars adapted for High Plains small grains systems and other suitable areas. The SGREP is organized into two Centers of Excellence that conduct cultivar development, genetic studies, agronomic and pest-management research, and grain and forage quality studies in (primarily hard red winter) wheat, oat, and triticale. This position is located at the High Plains Center of Excellence in Canyon, TX, and targets the High and Rolling Plains of Texas. However, the incumbent will also work with the College Station Center of Excellence, which targets Central Texas, South Texas, and the Blacklands as well as conducts state-wide yield trials and nurseries on targeted diseases and insects.

Responsibilities:

(1) assemble, characterize, curate, and exchange hard red winter wheat (and, as appropriate, oat, triticale, and barley) germplasm;

(2) introgress novel sources of biotic- and abiotic-stress resistance and end-use quality from domestic and international collections;

(3) develop breeding populations and inbred lines adapted to target production environments and stakeholder priorities using appropriate approaches;

(4) deploy appropriate traditional, genomic, and phenomic breeding methods with the AgriLife Research Small Grains Geneticist;

(5) conduct small-plot yield trials across irrigated and dryland environments throughout the High Plains, Rolling Plains, and adjacent target regions; participating in regional and national nurseries;

(6) phenotype experimental lines for agronomic performance, disease and insect resistance, dual-purpose grazing tolerance, and grain- and forage-quality traits;

(7) integrate remote sensing, digital twinning, and phenotyping platforms into the program

(8) coordinate end-use grain-quality evaluation with qualified laboratories

(9) coordinate forage- and silage-quality evaluation in cooperation with livestock-systems collaborators;

(10) advance elite candidate lines through the AgriLife variety release process;

(11) prepare variety releases and licenses through Texas A&M Innovation, including coordination with prospective seed-industry licensees and post-release stewardship;

(12) publish cultivar registrations, germplasm releases, and research findings in refereed journals; and

(13) mentor and supervise graduate students, postdoctoral researchers, and technical staff.

To accomplish these tasks, collaboration with AgriLife personnel throughout the state is expected, including Texas A&M AgriLife Foundation Seed in Vernon, TX, East Texas A&M University in Commerce, TX, and Research and faculty with expertise in entomology, plant pathology, plant physiology, soil-water-plant dynamics, forage production and systems, agronomy, irrigation water management, wheat genetics, environmental and soil sciences, ruminant nutrition (beef cattle and dairy) and sustainable livestock systems engineering. In addition, communication and feedback is essential to develop program priorities, and convey progress, and outcomes to stakeholders including farmers, the Texas Wheat Producers Board, the Texas Seed Trade Association, milling and baking companies, county extension agents, and allied national associations through field days, demonstration plots, written reports, and presentations. The program will maintain accurate, secure, and transferable records of pedigrees, plot data, seed inventories, and breeding decisions in standardized data-management systems and the breeding program is expected to develop elite varieties for licensure through Texas A&M Innovation.

Administrative Relationships:

• The appointee will report to the Center Director of Texas A&M AgriLife Research-High Plains, who will conduct an annual performance evaluation with participation by the Head of the Soil and Crop Sciences Department at Texas A&M University, College Station.
• Budgets, facilities, and operations for the program are administered by the Center Director.
• Promotion decisions are the prerogative of the Director of Texas A&M AgriLife Research and are managed through Texas A&M AgriLife Research and its Promotion Committee.
• Promotion processes and decisions will conform to the policies and procedures of the agency and the Texas A&M University System.
• The appointee will also be expected to pursue adjunct faculty status with the Paul Engler College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences at West Texas A&M University.

Qualifications:

Required Job Qualifications

• Successful candidate must possess an earned Ph. D. in plant breeding or closely related discipline.
• Experience in experimental design, biometry, and statistical analysis of multi-environment trials, such as alpha-lattice and augmented designs, mixed-model and BLUP analyses, and genotype-by-environment interaction modeling.
• Knowledge of quantitative-genetic theory and its practical application to self-pollinated small-grain breeding programs.
• Proficient with statistical and breeding-informatics software, such as R, SAS, and ASReml, and breeding-management systems such as Field Book, AGROBASE, Genovix, or equivalent platforms for pedigree, plot, and seed-inventory tracking.
• Effective at planning and conducting field, greenhouse, and growth-chamber testing for agronomic, disease, insect, abiotic-stress, dual-purpose grazing, and end-use-quality traits.
• Excellence in verbal and written communication, including relevant publication records.
• Team-building skills, collaboration capacity, and project management abilities.
• Strong interpersonal communication skills.
• Organizational skills.
• Professional demeanor.
• Ability to multi-task and establish effective working relationships.
• Knowledge and understanding of the mission and role of the Land Grant University System.

Preferred Job Qualifications:

• Experience with molecular and genomic breeding tools, including marker-assisted selection, KASP and high-density genotyping platforms, genotyping-by-sequencing, genomic prediction, and the integration of genomic and phenotypic data into selection decisions.
• Experience operating, or directing the operation of UAS platforms equipped with RGB, multispectral, and thermal sensors, and processing the resulting imagery into orthomosaics, digital surface models, and vegetation indices for selection use; building, calibrating, and applying high-throughput phenotyping pipelines and digital-twin frameworks that integrate sensor, weather, soil, and genomic data to inform breeding decisions.
• Experience assessing end-use grain quality (milling yield, dough rheology, baking performance) and forage quality (fiber, digestibility, crude protein, palatability) in collaboration with appropriate analytical laboratories.
• Experience managing personnel, budgets, and projects across multiple field locations and disciplines; preparing competitive grant proposals to federal, state, commodity board, and industry sponsors.

Location and Facilities:

Headquarters: Texas A&M AgriLife High Plains Research and Extension Center (HPREC) on the campus of West Texas A&M University in Canyon, TX.

Area Served: Primarily serves the Texas High and Rolling Plains and adjacent regions in neighboring states; partners with scientists at Texas A&M and other universities, agencies, and neighboring states as appropriate.

Facilities: Current research facilities include an office in the HPREC in Canyon, TX, and plant growth greenhouses and growth chambers in Bushland, TX. Shares resources as appropriate with the wheat genetics program, including two walk-in growth chambers at HPREC, three workstations in the Porter Seed Storage and Processing Building, 4,500 ft2 of greenhouse space, and small-plot field research equipment and facilities. Where appropriate, scientific collaboration is expected with scientists at the USDA-Agricultural Research Service Conservation & Production Research Laboratory at Bushland, TX, and with closely aligned faculty at Texas A&M University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and West Texas A&M University's Paul Engler College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences.

Additional information about Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Texas A&M University Department of Soil and Crop Sciences is available at:

Texas A&M AgriLife Research:

Texas A&M AgriLife High Plains Research and Extension Center, Canyon: Home - High Plains