Researcher Entomology Fruit

Are you an experienced entomologist with excellent command of the Dutch language, looking to make an impact on the future of fruit production? At Wageningen Plant Research (WPR), you will work on innovative and sustainable solutions for pest management in fruit crops. Based at our research location in Randwijk, you will combine scientific research, practical application and project development to contribute to resilient and sustainable cropping systems.

At our Randwijk location, we are committed to making fruit production more sustainable. Through applied research, we develop solutions to current challenges and work towards resilient cropping systems. As an entomologist, you will develop innovative pest management strategies, contribute to ongoing projects, establish new research directions, secure funding for new projects and translate research findings into practical applications for the sector.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• develop and investigate solutions for pest management and resilient cropping systems in fruit production;
• design, conduct and coordinate field and laboratory research, while also taking an active, hands-on role in carrying out experiments;
• develop research proposals and establish new research directions in collaboration with colleagues and external partners;
• build and maintain a relevant network of researchers, fruit growers, industry partners and policymakers;
• publish and present research findings and translate them into practical applications for the (Dutch) sector.

Your team
You will join the WUR Fruit Innovation Centre in Randwijk.

Our approach combines:

• a multidisciplinary approach;
• early-warning and monitoring tools, crop management practices, biological control and the targeted, careful use of chemical pesticides;
• integration of these elements into existing and new cropping systems;
• the development of practical solutions;
• knowledge sharing and strengthening the skills of crop advisors and fruit growers.

You will also be part of the Entomology Expert Team.

Location
The position is based in Randwijk, the Netherlands.

Entomoloog Fruit

Ben jij een ervaren entomoloog die impact wil maken op de toekomst van de fruitteelt? Bij Wageningen Plant Research (WPR) werk je aan innovatieve en duurzame oplossingen voor plaagbeheersing in fruitgewassen. Vanuit onze onderzoekslocatie in Randwijk combineer je wetenschappelijk onderzoek, praktijktoepassing en projectontwikkeling om bij te dragen aan een weerbaar en duurzaam teeltsysteem.

In Randwijk werken we aan de verduurzaming van de fruitteelt. Met praktijkgericht onderzoek ontwikkelen we oplossingen voor actuele vraagstukken en bouwen we aan weerbare teeltsystemen. Als entomoloog werk je aan innovatieve strategieën voor plaagbeheersing. Je draagt bij aan lopende projecten, ontwikkelt nieuwe onderzoekslijnen, verwerft nieuwe projecten en vertaalt onderzoeksresultaten naar praktische toepassingen voor de sector.

Jouw taken:

• ontwikkelen en onderzoeken van oplossingen voor plaagbeheersing en weerbare teeltsystemen in de fruitteelt;
• opzetten, uitvoeren en coördineren van veld- en laboratoriumonderzoek, waarbij je ook zelf actief betrokken bent bij de uitvoering;
• ontwikkelen van onderzoeksvoorstellen en nieuwe onderzoekslijnen samen met collega's en externe partners;
• opbouwen en onderhouden van een relevant netwerk van onderzoekers, telers, bedrijven en beleidsmakers;
• publiceren, presenteren en vertalen van onderzoeksresultaten naar praktische toepassingen met name voor de Nederlandstalige sector.

Jouw team
Je wordt onderdeel van het WUR- Innovatiecentrum fruit in Randwijk.

Onze aanpak combineert:

• een multi-disciplinaire aanpak;
• vroegtijdige waarschuwings- en monitoringsinstrumenten, teeltmaatregelen, biologische bestrijding en een gerichte, zorgvuldige inzet van chemische middelen;
• het integreren van deze bouwstenen in bestaande en nieuwe teeltsystemen;
• praktische oplossingen;
• bijdragen aan kennisdeling en het versterken van vaardigheden van teeltadviseurs en telers.

Daarnaast ben je onderdeel van het expertiseteam entomologie.

Standplaats
De standplaats voor deze functie is Randwijk.

PhD Position: Turning Faecal Sludge into Clean Energy in Kenya and Ethiopa

Are you passionate about developing a sustainable alternative for traditional biofuel? Do you want to contribute to the just energy transition in Africa? We are seeking a highly motivated PhD candidate to join an exciting transdisciplinary research program focused on upscaling Faecal Sludge Briquettes (FSB) production as a sustainable alternative to traditional biofuels funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO), NRF-Kenya and MInT, Ethiopia. The PhD candidate is expected to work on the improvement of faecal sludge briquettes (FSB) as an alternative cooking fuel for wider FSB adoption and just energy transitions in Kenya & Ethiopia.

The widespread dependence on traditional biofuel such as firewood and charcoal for cooking in East African countries contribute significantly to deforestation, environmental degradation, biodiversity loss and adverse climate change impacts. Indoor air pollution caused by biofuel burning leads to severe health risks, particularly for women and children. Simultaneously, inadequate wastewater and faecal sludge management in many urban areas pose environmental and public health hazards. To address these interlinked challenges, faecal sludge briquettes (FSB) is seen as a sustainable alternative to traditional biofuels and by utilizing waste-to-energy innovations, FSB production promotes resource recovery, climate resilience, and the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) nexus. However, scaling up production and wider adoption of FSB require a deeper understanding of the enabling environments facilitated by technical improvements, economic viability, social and political acceptability, participatory infrastructure planning, supportive policy landscape and technological improvements.

Your Job
The PhD candidate will conduct a laboratory-intensive project investigating the development and optimization of FSB. The candidate will systematically characterize the physico-chemical and microbial properties of faecal sludge from different sanitation facilities, establishing a rigorous understanding of feedstock variability and pre-treatment requirements. Then, you will design and conduct laboratory experiments to identify optimal combinations of locally available binding materials that maximize the strength, calorific value and storage stability of the briquettes. Necessary tests will be conducted to determine the emission profile of the briquettes while improving the overall caloric value of the fuel.

PhD: viral manipulation of caterpillar behaviour in a multidimensional context

Many parasites, including viruses, manipulate the behaviour of host organisms to increase their own transmission, linking to the concept of the ‘extended phenotype’. Fascinating examples include behavioural manipulation of caterpillars by baculoviruses, with infected caterpillars expressing hyperactivity as well as climbing to elevated positions on plants just prior to death. These behavioural alterations have a crucial evolutionary benefit to the virus, enhancing its transmission. Until now, parasitic manipulation of host behaviour has been investigated as a bidirectional interaction between the manipulative parasite and the host.

While the possible influence of the host or parasite microbiome on host behavioural manipulation is starting to be recognized, the influence of the host’s resident virome has so far been ignored. The past decades, evidence has accumulated that insects harbour a wide range of covert virus infections that do not cause any signs of disease. In this project, you will study manipulative parasite-host interactions in a multidimensional context, by investigating how covert virus infections modulate crosstalk between manipulative baculoviruses and their caterpillar host.

You will start with analysing the phenotype of baculovirus-induced behavioural manipulation across several closely and more distantly related baculoviruses and lepidopteran hosts, and determine the impact of the insect’s virome on the manipulation. Next, you will investigate in detail the molecular mechanisms underlying the manipulation, especially focusing on changes induced in the lepidopteran central nervous system (CNS). You will specifically perform an in-depth analysis of viral CNS invasion and determine localisation of baculoviruses as well as covert virus infections.

Furthermore, you will validate putative mechanisms by functional analyses of candidate genes and proteins, using a range of techniques including RNAi and CRISPR/Cas9 technology. This research will aid in identifying how virus-induced manipulation has evolved across lepidopterans and identify commonalities and differences in underlying mechanisms, and will also reveal how the behavioural outcome of manipulation is dependent on the context of resident viruses present in the host.

This PhD project is part of a larger Vici project, funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). As such, you will closely collaborate with another PhD student and a postdoc in this project, working on related questions.

As a PhD candidate you will contribute to fundamental science in the context of insect virology. In addition, you will participate in cursory teaching of the chair group. You will be embedded in the Laboratory of Virology. In addition, you will collaborate with (inter)national colleagues from both in- and outside Wageningen University & Research.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• Designing and executing experiments with insects and viruses, measuring behavioural manipulation;
• Investigating the molecular mechanisms underlying behavioural manipulation using dissections, transcriptome, proteome and small RNA profiling;
• Studying virus invasion of the lepidopteran central nervous system, using GFP-labelled viruses, hybridisation techniques, antibody labelling and microscopy;
• Teaching in courses and supervise BSc and MSc students;
• Writing and presenting research at/in internationally renowned conferences/journals.

You will work here
You will work with in the Insect Virology group, as part of the NWO Vici project ‘Invisible influencers: How hidden virus infections shape insect life’ led by Dr. Vera Ros. The project is aimed at disentangling how the insect’s virome (i.e. the assemblage of viruses) impacts insect immune responses, fitness and behaviour, and thereby influences interactions with and effects of incoming virus infections.

The Insect Virology group is part of the chair group Laboratory of Virology, and research in Insect Virology focuses on multiple aspects of insect-virus interactions including mechanisms behind viral manipulation of insect behaviour, virus discovery, covert virus infections (i.e. infections without clear symptoms) in insects and the use of viruses for biological control of insect pests. You will be supervised by Dr. Vera Ros (WUR Laboratory of Virology) and Prof. Monique van Oers (chair of the WUR Laboratory of Virology). In addition, you will also be embedded in the PE&RC graduate school (Home | PE&RC), which will allow you to follow a wide variety of training courses and will provide support during your academic journey.

The Laboratory of Virology is part of the Plant Sciences Group of Wageningen University. It is located at the Wageningen Campus in the Radix building. We provide virology teaching at Wageningen University within BSc and MSc programs across various disciplines. The Virology chair group comprises around 35 members, including research/teaching staff, technicians, PhD candidates, postdocs and visiting researchers. Each year, an average of 25 BSc and MSc students undertake their final-year thesis research within Virology. The Virology group conducts fundamental research into plant viruses, insect viruses and arboviruses. Where possible, the knowledge generated is translated into applications aimed at improving food production and human and animal health.

PhD Insect Virology: impact of the insect’s virome on insect immunity & fitness

Insects are exposed to a diverse range of infectious viruses throughout their lives. In recent years, advances in largescale sequencing technologies have accelerated virus discovery, revealing a rich and diverse resident assemblage of viruses or 'virome' in insects, including covert viral infections that appear asymptomatic. To date it is unclear how such a virome impacts insect life.

In this project you will investigate how the resident virome impacts insect immune responses and fitness and thereby influences interactions with and effects of incoming virus infections. First, you will define the virome in several lepidopteran species and determine how the virome impacts insect life history traits and responses to incoming infections. In a next step, you will study in detail vertical transmission of the virome and investigate how the virome affects transgenerational immune priming (TgIP), a process whereby incoming infections lead to immune protection against secondary infections in the next generation.

By integrating virome sequencing and experimental infections with -omics approaches, microscopy, and gene editing tools, you will reveal fundamental mechanisms of insect immunity and virus-induced TgIP and the impact of the virome thereon.

This PhD project is part of a larger Vici project, funded by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). As such, you will closely collaborate with another PhD student and a postdoc in this project, working on related questions.

As a PhD candidate, you will contribute to fundamental science in the context of insect virology. In addition, you will participate in cursory teaching of the chair group. You will be embedded in the Laboratory of Virology and be co-supervised by the Laboratory of Entomology. In addition, you will collaborate with (inter)national colleagues from both in- and outside Wageningen University & Research.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• Designing and executing experiments with insects and viruses, measuring life history traits, immune traits and responses to virus infections;
• Investigating virus transmission using hybridization techniques and confocal microscopy;
• Analysing complex datasets involving genomics, transcriptomics, small RNA sequencing and proteomics;
• Teaching in courses and supervising BSc and MSc thesis students;
• Writing and presenting research at/in internationally renowned conferences/journals.

You will work here
You will work within the Insect Virology group, as part of the NWO Vici project ‘Invisible influencers: How hidden virus infections shape insect life’ led by Dr. Vera Ros. The project is aimed at disentangling how the insect’s virome impacts insect immune responses, fitness and behaviour, and thereby influences interactions with and effects of incoming virus infections.

The Insect Virology group is part of the chair group Laboratory of Virology and research in Insect Virology focuses on multiple aspects of insect-virus interactions including mechanisms behind viral manipulation of insect behaviour, virus discovery, covert virus infections (i.e. infections without clear symptoms) in insects and the use of viruses for biological control of insect pests. You will be supervised by Dr. Vera Ros, Dr. Astrid Bryon (both WUR Laboratory of Virology) and Prof. Bregje Wertheim (WUR Laboratory of Entomology). In addition, you will also be embedded in the PE&RC graduate school (Home | PE&RC), which will allow you to follow a wide variety of training courses and will provide support during your academic journey.

The Laboratory of Virology is part of the Plant Sciences Group of Wageningen University. It is located at the Wageningen Campus in the Radix building. We provide virology teaching at Wageningen University within BSc and MSc programs across various disciplines. The Virology chair group comprises around 35 members, including research/teaching staff, technicians, PhD candidates, postdocs and visiting researchers. Each year, an average of 25 BSc and MSc students undertake their final-year thesis research within Virology. The Virology group conducts fundamental research into plant viruses, insect viruses and arboviruses. Where possible, the knowledge generated is translated into applications aimed at improving food production and human and animal health.