Open Positions
Postdoctoral Fellow – Soil Surveillance for Infectious Disease – We are seeking a postdoctoral fellow to work on a new NIH funded research study focused on optimizing soil surveillance methods for monitoring soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections and other pathogens in high disease burden communities. The project is a collaboration with Christian Medical College (India), University of Abomey-Calavi (Benin), Smith College, and the University of Washington. The goal is to develop and validate scalable methods for using environmental sampling to profile STH human infection prevalence at the community level to inform public health control programs. Required qualifications include a PhD in environmental engineering, biological engineering, environmental health, or related field, molecular lab experience (DNA extraction, real-time PCR), data analysis (biostatistics, comfortable with R), field experience, and strong interest in developing innovative tools for environmental surveillance for infectious disease. Desired qualifications include international field research experience, Nanopore sequencing, Illumina sequencing, droplet digital PCR, and bioinformatics. The position will be based at UC Berkeley. To apply please email Dr. Pickering (pickering[at]berkeley.edu] a single PDF containing your CV, three references (names and email addresses), and a cover letter stating why you are interested in the position. Please put in the email subject “soil epidemiology postdoc”.
Postdoctoral Fellows – We welcome inquiries from prospective postdoctoral fellows interested in leveraging metagenomics to study the transmission of enteric pathogens and antibiotic resistance across humans, animals, and the environment. Experience with Nanopore, Illumina, and bioinformatics is desired. Applying for external fellowships is encouraged, such as the NSF eFellows program, the NSF Postdoc Fellowship in Biology, and the NIH K99. Please email Dr. Pickering a single PDF containing your CV, three references (names and email addresses), and a cover letter stating why you are interested in a postdoc with the lab.
PhD Students – Prospective students are encouraged to apply to the Environmental Engineering PhD program in Civil and Environmental Engineering in the School of Engineering. Dr. Pickering also advises graduate students in Environmental Health Sciences in the School of Public Health.
MS Students – Dr. Pickering advises MS students in Environmental Engineering and in Development Engineering.
Racial justice and support for marginalized communities cannot be separated from the practice of science. We must actively work to recognize the obstacles that scientists (and potential scientists) from marginalized communities face, and dismantle structures of power that prevent them from succeeding. We must also consider the effects of our research and research choices on marginalized communities. Credit: Sammy Katta.