USDA-ARS Postdoctoral Fellowship in Insect Population Genomics

ARS Office/Lab and Location: A research opportunity is currently available with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Agricultural Research Service (ARS), located in Manhattan, Kansas. The Agricultural Research Service (ARS) is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's chief scientific in-house research agency with a mission to find solutions to agricultural problems that affect Americans every day from field to table. ARS will deliver cutting-edge, scientific tools and innovative solutions for American farmers, producers, industry, and communities to support the nourishment and well-being of all people; sustain our nation’s agroecosystems and natural resources; and ensure the economic competitiveness and excellence of our agriculture. The vision of the agency is to provide global leadership in agricultural discoveries through scientific excellence.

The fellowship is based in the Stored Product Insect and Engineering Research Unit at the USDA-ARS Center for Grain and Animal Health Research in Manhattan, KS. The unit's mission is to develop economical, effective, and ecologically sound methods for managing insect pests of grain and processed commodities, improve post-harvest management practices, and develop methods to rapidly evaluate grain quality. Research combines cutting-edge tools such as chemical ecology, molecular biology, genomics, and artificial-intelligence-driven monitoring systems to forecast and manage stored product insect populations and insecticide resistance.

Manhattan, KS, home to Kansas State University and The Flint Hills, offers a blend of academic energy and outdoor lifestyle in a college-town environment.

About the role

Under the guidance of a mentor, you will use population-genomic datasets generated by USDA scientists to characterize movement patterns of stored-product insects across U.S. agroecosystems and to identify invasion pathways. This includes:

• Modeling environmental variables that predict population expansions.
• Conducting genomic analyses to detect resistance alleles in populations recovering from fumigant or insecticide exposure.
• Evaluating how the implementation of rotational integrated pest management (IPM) tactics alters resistance-allele frequencies and assessing whether tactic alternation can mitigate or prevent resistance resurgence.
• Developing high-quality reference genomes for key stored-product pest species using long-read sequencing and advanced annotation methods.
• Enabling comparative genomic analyses to determine how variation in gene content and genome architecture contributes to differences in susceptibility to pest-management tactics, insecticides, and fumigants among different stored product insect species.

Learning Objectives

During the course of this appointment, you will have the opportunity to:

• Gain experience using population genomics to study movement patterns and invasion pathways of stored-product insect pests across U.S. agroecosystems.
• Develop skills in genomic data analysis to identify resistance alleles associated with insecticide and fumigant exposure.
• Learn how environmental and ecological variables influence insect population expansion and resistance dynamics.
• Gain experience evaluating integrated pest management (IPM) strategies and their effects on resistance-allele frequencies over time.
• Develop experience in long-read sequencing, genome assembly, and genome annotation for agricultural pest species.
• Learn comparative genomics approaches to investigate how genome variation influences susceptibility to pest-management tactics and chemical controls.
• Gain interdisciplinary exposure to genomics, bioinformatics, agricultural science, evolutionary biology, and pest management research.

Mentor

The mentor for this opportunity is Erin Scully (erin.scully@usda.gov). If you have questions about the nature of the research, please contact the mentor.

Requirements

• The qualified candidate should be currently pursuing or have received a doctoral degree in one of the relevant fields (e.g., Bioinformatics, Ecology, Entomology, Evolutionary Biology, Genetics, including Genome Sciences).
• U.S. citizenship is required.

Preferred Skills

• Experience in analyzing population genetics or genomics datasets and bioinformatics.

Pay

Stipend range: $70,000 – $90,000 yearly.

Schedule

• Anticipated appointment start date: October 2026 (flexible depending on various factors).
• Full-time participation.
• Initial appointment is for one year, renewable upon recommendation and contingent on the availability of funds.