Projectleider Marine Research

Als projectleider versterk jij met jouw enthousiasme en organisatorische vaardigheden ons team. Voor diverse complexe of omvangrijke (onderzoeks)projecten binnen het expertisegebied van Marine Research ondersteun jij de onderzoeker of eindverantwoordelijk projectleider.

Jouw taken en verantwoordelijkheden als projectleider zijn:

• Ondersteunen acquisitietrajecten en -mogelijkheden monitoren;
• samen met de projectleider/onderzoeker bewaken dat projecten binnen randvoorwaarden van kosten, kwaliteit, tijd, organisatie en communicatie wordt gerealiseerd;
• bewaken van de voortgang van het project en zorgen dat de afspraken met de opdrachtgever worden nagekomen. Tussentijds evalueren, tijdig afwijkingen signaleren en actief meedenken en met oplossingen komen;
• contacten met opdrachtgever en/of derde partijen en het aansturen van interne medewerkers, tevens werk je aan een verdere versterking van de relatie met onze klanten;
• zorgen voor de project coördinatie c.q. leiding van complexe projecten en organisatorische werkzaamheden;
• organiseren en faciliteren van overleggen met het projectteam, met de opdrachtgever en/of met andere stakeholders;
• zorg dragen voor projectarchivering en -documentatie. In het kader van de ondersteuning van de clusterleider beleidsondersteunend onderzoek.

Wageningen Marine Research
Je gaat werken in een internationale toegepast wetenschappelijke omgeving (mariene en zoet water ecologie), waar (veld)gegevens worden verzameld en opgeslagen die vervolgens worden gebruikt voor analyses en complexe modellen. De projecten en programma’s variëren van de uitvoering van veldonderzoek, experimenteel onderzoek, datamanagement en literatuurstudies. Jij krijgt daardoor een breed inzicht in wat er allemaal aan beleidsondersteunend onderzoek Wageningen Research breed plaats vindt. Je werkt in principe één dag in de week op locatie IJmuiden en één dag in week in Den Helder. Daarnaast ben je flexibel en is thuiswerken bespreekbaar.

Postdoctoral researcher - Sweetspot: impact of (novel) sweeteners on gut microbial ecology.

Are you an enthusiastic postdoc-level researcher who wants to study the effect of non-nutritive sweeteners on the ecology of intestinal microbes? Are you an expert in microbial ecology, culturing of anaerobic microbes and do you have strong interest in human nutrition & health? Then we are looking for you!

The position is embedded in a PPS project called Sweetspot funded by TKI and private partners which investigates the effects of non-nutritive sweeteners (NNS) and novel sugars on the gut microbiome and food-products. NNS are commonly integrated into products and presumed to be inert. However, recent evidence suggests that supplementation of specific NNS may induce person-specific, microbiome-dependent glycemic alterations. Although recent studies provoke considerable debate, the precise implications of these effects are still largely unknown. It is therefore essential to create further insights into possible health effects of NNS, novel sugars and/or novel sweeteners and how these sweeteners affect the ecology of intestinal microbes.

What is your role in the project?
In this project, you will study the effect of novel sweeteners on intestinal microbes. You will study if specific microbes can grow on these, how microbial growth is impacted by these sweeteners and how sweeteners will affect trophic interactions between intestinal microbes and the intestinal microbiome in general.

Your duties and responsibilities include:

• cultivating intestinal microbes in single cultures, synthetic communities, and/or intestinal samples to study the impact of non-nutritive sweeteners;
• contribute to the writing of peer-reviewed manuscripts on the project results;
• presenting findings to key project stakeholders and the scientific community;
• assist in teaching in courses offered by the Laboratory of Microbiology.

Technical Assistant Microbiome Research

Are you just as excited as we are about the fascinating world of microorganisms, and how they can help us improving human, animal and environmental health? As a technical assistant with experience in molecular biology, you will join the Molecular Ecology research team at the Laboratory of Microbiology of Wageningen University & Research, where you will also be part of a new research facility called UNLOCK that enables innovative research on microbiomes. Are you our new colleague?

As research technician you will work in a large team of motivated researchers, technicians and students that are developing and applying state of the art research tools to investigate the occurrence and functioning of microorganisms in interaction with each other and their environment.

Activities will include:

• molecular analysis of microbial composition and function in a broad range of different natural and man-made environments (i.e. DNA, RNA and protein based analyses);
• operation of automated liquid handling systems;
• operation of Oxford Nanopore sequencing equipment;
• microfluidic techniques for in situ analysis of microbial communities, including single cell approaches;
• logistics and organization of laboratories;
• support in teaching of basic and advanced practical courses.

Postdoc Development of an optics- and microfluidics-based single-cell platform for microbiome research

Are you just as excited as we are about the fascinating world of microorganisms, and how they can help us improving human, animal and environmental health? As a Postdoc with experience in single-cell research, you will be part of a new, innovative research facility called UNLOCK that enables innovative research on microbial communities. Are you our new colleague?

You will work in a dynamic team of motivated researchers, technicians and students that are developing and applying state of the art research tools to investigate the occurrence and functioning of microorganisms in interaction with each other and their environment.

As postdoc within UNLOCK you will focus on further optimizing our existing Raman-assisted single cell platform for the characterization and cultivation of yet uncultured microorganisms. Your activities will be embedded in the Biodiscovery platform that allows its users to discover and characterize new microorganisms. We invite applications for a 2-year postdoc. This challenging and interdisciplinary position is at the cross-roads of engineering of advanced optical systems for single-cell imaging, microfluidics, and microbiology. The position will be shared and supported by the Laboratory of Microbiology (Smidt group), the Laboratory of Biophysics (Hohlbein group) and the Laboratory of Physical Chemistry and Soft Matter (Deshpande group).

In this position you will:

• optimize and further expand single-cell based systems for discovery and characterization of novel microorganisms;
• operate in an interdisciplinary team of microbiologists, physicists, chemists, and engineers;
• provide expertise and support to internal and external users of the UNLOCK facilities;
• participate in our educational activities.

What is UNLOCK
UNLOCK is a national research facility with the goal to unlock the potential of microbial mixed cultures for a broad range of societal and biotechnological applications. Microorganisms are born team-players, and having the right team is essential for the cleaning of polluted water and soil, biobased production of e.g. bioplastics, stimulation of plant growth, production of fermented foods as well as for a healthy digestion of humans and animals. The Dutch Research Council (NWO) invests together with Wageningen University & Research and Delft University of Technology twenty-five million euro in UNLOCK.
UNLOCK consists of four complementary, fully integrated state of the art research platforms; a Biodiscovery platform (WUR-Microbiology), a Modular bioreactor platform (WUR-Environmental Technology), a Parallel Bioreactor platform (TUD-Biotechnology) and a FAIR data platform (WUR-Systems & Synthetic Biology).

PhD position - Multimodal machine learning to understand food structures

We are seeking a PhD candidate to apply multimodal machine learning techniques to understand the structure and functionality of food materials. The project combines high-throughput experimentation, multimodal machine learning, and food science to explore how food structures evolve from ingredients to products.

Food structure data are inherently scattered and heterogeneous, originating from diverse measurements such as imaging, spectroscopy, thermal analysis, and rheology. Each of these methods captures different scales of food structure, such as microscopic morphology, molecular organization, and physical properties, resulting in fragmented datasets that are often analyzed in isolation. This PhD project aims to integrate these multimodal data sources using multimodal machine learning approaches to create a unified, comprehensive understanding of how food structures from ingredients to food products. By linking these data streams, we seek to reveal hidden patterns and interactions within food systems that are critical for optimizing their quality and functionality.

What are you going to do?
As a PhD researcher, you will develop high-throughput experimental methods to efficiently collect multimodal measurements of food structures, enabling the generation of robust, large-scale datasets. You will then analyze the datasets via advanced machine learning techniques, such as multimodal data fusion, predictive modeling, and computer vision. The insights from predictive models are linked to key outcomes, such as consumer preferences, techno-economic performance, and life cycle analysis, improving product quality, sustainability, and cost efficiency of food production.

In your position as a PhD researcher, you will:

• develop high-throughput experimental methods to collect multimodal measurements of food structures;
• apply machine learning techniques from computer vision, deep learning, and contrastive learning to interpret complex datasets;
• publish research outcomes through publishing datasets, scientific software, research articles;
• connect and collaborate with researchers in the food sciences and in computer science.

You will work here
The research is embedded within the chair groups of Food Process Engineering & Food Quality and Design. You will work under the supervision of Yizhou Ma. You will be co-supervised by Remko Boom and Vincenzo Fogliano.