At the Multiscale Mathematical Biology group of Leiden University (www.mathbioleiden.nl) led by Prof. Roeland Merks, we have two upcoming vacancies, one for a PhD student and a second one for a postdoc within the NWO Gravitation project Green Tissue Engineering (GreenTE).

GreenTE is a multidisciplinary consortium of 7 Dutch universities. Together, GreenTE will unravel how plants sense and respond to mechanical stimuli. These fundamental insights will be the basis to develop engineering interventions to improve plant regeneration, seed longevity and defenses against disease. The successful applicants will be an integral member of the GreenTE community, which offers an open, diverse and inspiring environment to engage in multidisciplinary mechanobiology research at the intersection of biology, chemistry and physics, and is expected to participate in GreenTE events, training and collaborations.

In Leiden, we are looking for a PhD student on the mathematical and computational modeling of the mechanical regulation of plant development and regeneration using our existing two-dimensional plant simulation code VirtualLeaf, and for a postdoc whose primary responsibility will be to extend our plant tissue simulation codes (VirtualLeaf) and models of plant tissue growth to three dimensions. 

Both projects’ key aim is to help answer the biological and biophysical questions coming up in the consortium, and they will therefore contain a substantial degree of theoretical biology. They will be carried out in close collaboration with experimental and theoretical scientists in the GreenTE consortium. Specifically, the PhD student will be co-supervised by Prof. Dolf Weijers, of Wageningen University and the postdoc will be co-supervised by Prof. Jasper van der Gucht of Wageningen University. The PhD student and postdoc will be based at the Faculty of Science of Leiden University with the Multiscale Mathematical Biology group (www.mathbioleiden.nl). 

For more information and application (deadline September 9th, 2024), see:

1. PhD student: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/vacancies/2024/q3/24-43915049phd-modeling-the-mechanical-regulation-of-plant-development-and-regeneration-1.0-fte

2. Postdoc: https://www.universiteitleiden.nl/en/vacancies/2024/q3/24-43815050postdoc-three-dimensional-simulation-models-of-plant-tissue-mechanobiology-1.0-fte-for-three-years

For questions, contact Roeland Merks (merksrmh@math.leidenuniv.nl); please note that applications by e-mail cannot be considered.