Undergraduate Research Assistant
Undergraduate research assistant positions are available in the lab of Dr. Yuan Zeng, Southern Piedmont AREC (Blackstone, Virginia), College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, in Summer 2025 to assist commodity board-funded research, which focuses on the development of a spatiotemporal model of fungal pathogens in field crops, including corn, and tobacco.
The selected candidates may also assist in plant disease diagnosis, pathobiomes, and/or genomic research.
Job responsibilities will vary but can include the following:
- Spore sampler and weather station assembling and deployment in field
- Soil, plant, and spore sampling in field and sample processing
- Biochemistry and molecular biology work such as DNA extraction, PCR, library preparation, nanopore sequencing, etc.
- Data collection, entry, and analysis
- Communicating the results of experiments to peers, supervisors, and the scientific community
- General cleaning, washing dishes, and preparing supplies for laboratory or field work