Assistant Professor & Research Fellow Soil Science Positions @Mohammed VI Polytechnic University

Mohammed VI Polytechnic University

AgroBioSciences (AGBS) - Center of Excellence for Soil and Fertilizer Research in Africa (CESFRA)

Job Title: Assistant Professor – Fertilizer Chemistry

Areas of specialization: Fertilizer science, inorganic chemistry specializing in fertilizer chemistry

Job description:

The Agro-Bio-sciences program at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University University (UM6P) is seeking applications for a full-time Assistant Professor in the field of Fertilizers science or inorganic chemistry with specialization of fertilizer chemistry

The successful candidate is expected to participate in an interdisciplinary team to develop and lead research programs on formulation of new generations of fertilizers in line with the nature and properties of soils, crop types and agroecology.

Candidates should have research experience in fertilizer formulation and analytical instrumentation.

Interest in and ability to contribute to interdisciplinary research collaborations in one or more areas central to the UM6P Agricultural Sciences strategic plan is expected.

Ability to engage professionally with a diverse population of faculty, staff, and students across the university and externally is required.

Evidence of research and teaching excellence is expected. Strong English communication skills, both verbal and written, are required

Key duties:

Successful candidates are expected to:

• Lead to investigate, develop, optimize, and implement new formulations of fertilizers
• Bringing technological solutions of granulation, encapsulation, and crystallization,
• Perform related work required by CESFRA to solve problems of under-fertilization of African soils.
• Control of chemical quality control of fertilizers
• Generate external research funds to support and maintain integrated research programs.
• Establish collaboration and partnerships with industrial institutions.
• Supervise graduate students, develop teaching materials, and attract high level-students.
• Publish in well ranked and high impact journals in the field.
• Teach the principles of sciences of chemical synthetic fertilizers

Criteria of the candidate:

• PhD degree in fertilizer science, inorganic chemistry specializing in fertilizer chemistry or related field.
• At least 3 years’ experience in the field of Alternative Fertilizers
• High publication record in leading international and well ranked journals (at least 5 publications in the last 3 years)
• Strong experience in teaching and supervising students and postdocs
• Significant research record and leadership
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English

Job Title: Assistant Professor – Soil Chemistry

Area of specialization: Soil physical chemistry or soil colloidal chemistry

Job description:

The AgroBiosciences program at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) is seeking applications for a full-time Assistant Professor in the field soil chemistry.

The successful candidate is expected to participate in an interdisciplinary to develop a premier soil chemistry program that will integrate theoretical, experimental, and modeling approaches. Possible areas of research scholarship could include interactions of organic and inorganic compounds with soils; the chemistry and dynamics of soil organic matter; or redox chemistry in soils.

The candidate should develop an experience to conduct an interdisciplinary research; possibly, research areas include soil contamination and remediation, emerging contaminants, water quality, biosolids, byproducts from oil and gas production, other industrial byproducts, land application of animal waste, biogeochemical cycling, and transport of nutrients and contaminants with a focus on environmental sustainability of managed and natural ecosystems.

Interest in and ability to contribute to interdisciplinary research collaborations in one or more areas central to the UM6P Agricultural Sciences strategic plan is expected.

Ability to engage professionally with a diverse population of faculty, staff, and students across the university and externally is required.

Evidence of research and teaching excellence is expected.

Strong English communication skills, both verbal and written, are required

Key duties:

Successful candidates are expected to:

• Adapt soil diagnostic methods for edaphic variants of African soils
• Contribute to building big data for soils and crops in Africa
• Perform related work required by CESFRA to solve problems of acidity, salinity and under-fertilization of African soils.
• Developing soil quality indicators to evaluate soil fertility.
• Generate external research funds to support and maintain integrated research programs.
• Establish collaboration and partnerships with industrial institutions.
• Supervise graduate students, develop teaching materials, and attract high level-students.
• Publish in well ranked and high impact journals in the field.
• Teach the courses soil chemistry, advanced soil chemistry and mineralogy

Criteria of the candidate:

• PhD degree in soil chemistry, environmental chemistry, geochemistry, earth sciences, or related discipline, with a strong background of coursework and experience in both soil science and chemistry.
• Good experience in using novel and advanced instrumentation to address fundamental and applied research questions of soil chemistry.
• At least 3 years’ experience in teaching and research in the field of soil chemistry

• High publication record in leading international and well ranked journals (at least 5 publications in the last 3 years)
• Strong experience in teaching and supervising students and postdocs
• Significant research record and leadership
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English

Job Title: Assistant Professor – Soil Fertility

Areas of specialization: Soil Fertility; Plant Nutrition.

Job description:

The AgroBiosciences program at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) is seeking applications for a full-time Assistant Professor in the field of Soil Fertility and Plant Nutrition.

The successful candidate is expected to participate in an interdisciplinary team to develop and lead research programs on soil fertility evaluation, plant nutrition, nutrients use efficiency, fertilizer recommendation, soil constraints and amendments, fertilization management and yield gap analysis.

Candidates should have research experience in the use and development of soil extractants to evaluate nutrients and toxic elements bioavailability, including the use of modern spectroscopic techniques; use of models for nutrients uptake and fertilizer recommendation (e.g. QUEFTS); fertilizer application methods, including foliar spray; and use of plant tissues to evaluate plant nutritional status and equilibrium.

Priority will be given to the candidates having research experience and publication record in the field of improvement of nutrients use efficiency, working with methods of soil fertility evaluation; modeling for fertilizer recommendation; evaluation of plant nutritional equilibrium; and fertilizer recommendation methods, including foliar spray.

Interest in and ability to contribute to interdisciplinary research collaborations in one or more areas central to the UM6P Agricultural Sciences strategic plan is expected.

Ability to engage professionally with a diverse population of faculty, staff, and students across the university and externally is required.

Evidence of research and teaching excellence is expected. Strong English communication skills, both verbal and written, are required

Key duties:

Successful candidates are expected to:

• Develop a platform to evaluate and update methods of soil fertility evaluation, including advanced spectroscopic techniques.
• Develop research aligned with UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, particularly the Global Partnership on Nutrient Management (GPNM), to increase nutrients’ use efficiency and decrease the excess of nutrients causing environmental problems worldwide.
• Support the development of models to evaluate nutrients availability and plants uptake under different conditions to come up with site and crop-specific fertilizer recommendation.
• Support the testing and development of new fertilizer technologies.
• Generate external research funds to support and maintain integrated research programs.
• Establish collaboration and partnerships with industrial institutions.
• Supervise graduate students, develop teaching materials, and attract high level-students.
• Publish in well ranked and high impact journals in the field.
• Teach the principles of sciences related to soil fertility, nutrients bioavailability, plants’ nutritional equilibrium, and soil fertility evaluation.

Criteria of the candidate:

• PhD degree in Soil Science and Plant Nutrition or related fields.
• At least 3 years’ experience, in the field of soil fertility evaluation and fertilizer recommendation and management.
• High publication record in leading international and well ranked journals (at least 5 publications in the last 3 years)
• Strong experience in teaching and supervising students and postdocs
• Significant research record and leadership
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English

Job Title: Assistant Professor – Soil Physics

Area of specialization: Soil Physics

Job description:

The AgroBiosciences program at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) is seeking applications for a full-time Assistant Professor in the field of Soil Physics.

The successful candidate is expected to participate in an interdisciplinary team to develop and lead research programs on water, solute, gas, and energy transport in the soil; soil-water relationship; soil porous media; soil aggregation; soil physical degradation; integration of soil physics into biogeochemical models; hydrological modeling, from lab scale to watershed scale; and soil architecture and its evolution across scales.

Candidates should have research experience in modeling water movement in the soil and its impact on solute transport; integration of soil physics with biogeochemical models, coupling soil physics with soil fertility and soil health; translating lab scale measurements and studies into field scale soil management; and application of noninvasive in situ techniques to evaluate soil architecture.

Priority will be given to the candidates having research experience and publication record in the field of coupling soil physics, especially water and solute movement, with biogeochemical models and the use of noninvasive techniques to evaluate soil architecture, from small to field scale, including modern spectroscopic techniques, electron microscopy, computed tomography, and ground-penetrating radar.

Interest in and ability to contribute to interdisciplinary research collaborations in one or more areas central to the UM6P Agricultural Sciences strategic plan is expected.

Ability to engage professionally with a diverse population of faculty, staff, and students across the university and externally is required.

Evidence of research and teaching excellence is expected. Strong English communication skills, both verbal and written, are required.

Key duties:

Successful candidates are expected to:

• Develop a platform at UM6P to allow state of the art studies related to soil physics and its integration with related fields.
• Improve soil-solution-plant models by integrating water and solute transport (hydropedology), helping improving fertilizer recommendation models currently being developed at UM6P.
• Contribute to the improvement of soil health initiatives related to fertilization and nutrient management worldwide by the inclusion of soil physical parameters.
• Integrate soil physics into CESFRA and UM6P initiatives to support the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, especially fighting soil degradation and recovering of degraded land.
• Incorporate landscape features into water and solute models.
• Generate external research funds to support and maintain integrated research programs.
• Establish collaboration and partnerships with industrial institutions.
• Supervise graduate students, develop teaching materials, and attract high level-students.
• Publish in well ranked and high impact journals in the field.
• Teach the principles of sciences related to the physical properties of the soil, water and solute transport in the soil, soil physical degradation and hydropedology.

Criteria of the candidate:

• PhD degree in Soil Science, Environmental Science, and related areas with strong Soil Physics background.
• At least 3 years’ experience, in the field of water and solute movement in the soil, soil physical degradation and application of advanced techniques to study soil physics in lab and field scale.
• High publication record in leading international and well ranked journals (at least 5 publications in the last 3 years)
• Strong experience in teaching and supervising students and postdocs
• Significant research record and leadership
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills in English

Job Title: Research Fellow in Land Use

Job description:

The AgroBiosciences program at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) is seeking applications for a full-time research fellow in the field of land use planning.

The successful candidate is expected to involve in research, development and implementation of land use policies and procedures for Africa land resource sustainable use & development being affiliated at the Center of Soil and Fertilizer Research in Africa.

Candidates should hold a PhD in physical geography or land use planning.

Interest in and ability to contribute to interdisciplinary research collaborations in one or more areas central to the UM6P Agricultural Sciences strategic plan is expected.

Ability to engage professionally with a diverse population of faculty, staff, and students across the university and externally is required.

Evidence of research and teaching excellence is expected. Strong English communication skills, both verbal and written, are required

Key duties:

Successful candidates are expected to:

• Have the desire and ability to teach courses at the undergraduate level as well as courses at the graduate level related to the candidate's areas of research interest.
• Pursue research support including submission of proposals and contact with funding organizations.
• Have a strong collaboration with the program faculty, perform multidisciplinary research, and develop a funded research program.
• Publish the results of personal and sponsored research in international journals refereed by his/her peers.
• Pursue and/or propose scholarly and professional activities that will keep him/her at the leading edge of his/her field.
• Supervise Master-students, PhDs, and Post-docs.
• Organize and/or attend seminars and workshops.

Criteria of the candidate:

• PhD in soil science, physical geography, soil science or land use planning from a recognized University
• Postdoctoral experience in soil geography, physical geography, soil science and other related fields.
• At least 2 years’ experience in research in the field of agricultural land use planning, land evaluation or physical geography
• Experience in agricultural land use analysis and multi-functional land evaluation
• Skill with GIS and experience working with remote sensing data
• Experience in spatial modelling (e.g. with Bayesian Networks) and with programming are an advantage
• High publication record in leading international and well ranked journals (at least 2 publications in the last 3 years)
• Ability to generate new ideas, links, and to build upon existing ideas to generate good concepts and solutions
• An experience in supervising of Master and PhD students
• Experience in conducting fieldwork.
• Maintains positive attitude in changing fast-paced environments and
• Active participant in continuous improvement of self, processes, and goals and
• Excellent English verbal and written skills

 Job Title: Research Fellow in Pedology

Job description:

The AgroBiosciences program at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) is seeking applications for a full-time research fellow in the field of pedology.

The successful candidate is expected to participate in an interdisciplinary team of researchers who are actively engaged in inventory and mapping of the soils of Africa at the Centre of Soil and Fertilizer Research in Africa.

Candidates should hold a PhD in soil science specializing in pedology/pedometric.

Interest in and ability to contribute to interdisciplinary research collaborations in one or more areas central to the UM6P Agricultural Sciences strategic plan is expected.

Ability to engage professionally with a diverse population of faculty, staff, and students across the university and externally is required.

Evidence of research and teaching excellence is expected. Strong English communication skills, both verbal and written, are required.

Key duties:

Successful candidates are expected to:

• Conduct research on spatial distribution of soils in the landscape and methods for mapping, modelling and quantifying soil diversity in the African continent,
• Produce high resolution digital, conventional soil and geospatial maps
• Teach pedology, soil survey and other soil sciences graduate courses,
• Supervise closely graduate students and postdoc fellows
• Coordinate graduate program in soil science
• Assist in establishing state-of-the-art Soil Informatics Laboratory
• Contribute to the establishment of African Soil Data Bank
• Establish and maintain close working relationships with the private and public sectors in order to promote soil science teaching and research.
• Data generation, analysis, interpretation and publish of research activities in well reputed journals and
• Actively participate in the academic activities of the University including seminar presentations, etc.

Criteria of the candidate:

• PhD in soil science, physical geography, earth science or other related fields from a recognized University
• Postdoctoral experience in relevant fields.
• At least 2 years’ experience in research in the field of pedology/pedometric
• High publication record in leading international and well ranked journals (at least 2 publications in the last 3 years)
• Ability to generate new ideas, links, and to build upon existing ideas to generate good concepts and solutions
• An experience in supervising of Master and PhD students
• Experience in conducting fieldwork.
• Maintains positive attitude in changing fast-paced environments and
• Active participant in continuous improvement of self, processes, and goals
• Excellent English verbal and written skills.

About UM6P:

Located at the heart of the future Green City of Benguerir, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P), a higher education institution with an international standard, is established to serve Morocco and the African continent. Its vision is honed around research and innovation at the service of education and development. This unique nascent university, with its state-of-the-art campus and infrastructure, has woven a sound academic and research network, and its recruitment process is seeking high quality academics and professionals to boost its quality-oriented research environment.

OCP group (http://www.ocpgroup.ma/en/home), a world leader in fertilizer production plays a great role as a starter client for the University. A new portfolio of client is growing in an open spirit, in parallel with the development of an R&D cluster around the university.

UM6P is a very ambitious university, enjoying ample research funding, moderate teaching load, and excellent facilities.

In its research approach, the UM6P promotes transdisciplinary, entrepreneurship spirit and collaboration with external institutions, both international ones for developing up to date science, and at continent level to address real African challenges.

All our programs run as start-ups and can be self-organized when they reach a critical mass. Thus, academic liberty is promoted as far as funding is developed by research teams.

The research programs are integrated from long-term research to short-term applications in linkage with incubation and start-up ecosystems.

UM6P offers highly competitive salaries at the international level. Our researchers get incentives through a participation to the intellectual property they develop.

We invite you to visit UM6P virtually via the website: http://visite.um6p.ma/models.php

About AgBS:

The AgroBioSciences (AgBS) program is a component of the Science & Technology pole of Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P). It constitutes a structure of higher education and practical-based research with a vision of solving real African agriculture challenges leveraging up to date science and technology.

Oriented towards Africa, AgBS acts in connection with a wide network of universities and research centers around the continent to link real field issues with up to date science.

AgBS is composed with four main units:

• School of Agriculture (ESAFE) which is oriented towards graduate studies, in linkage with specific African agriculture scientific challenges. Its vision is to have a recognized reputation in Africa with a strong E-Learning Platform. The majority of the ESAFE students comes from abroad, all around the continent. The ESAFE target is to reach around 1.000 full-time students by 2024.
• AgriBioTech Research Center leverages up to date technologies in the service of African agriculture challenges. It is a multidisciplinary research center with the ambition to conduct relevant and cutting-edge research with a positive impact on the African agriculture.
• Center of Excellence for Soil and Fertilizer Research in Africa (CESFRA) aims to be a reference in Africa for soil analysis, soil mapping and fertilization recommendations.
• African Innovation and Technology Transfer Center (AITTC) is a sustainable farming center that is aiming to develop a network of 14 operational experimental farms in Africa in collaboration with local institutions to address real field challenges.

AgBS is linked to a wide network of development institutions that aim to improve agriculture in Africa.

Application process:

Application should be sent before 31/07/2020 and contain the following documents :

- Curriculum Vitae

- A letter (maximum 1 page) explaining the motivation for the position

- Research & teaching statement

Application are to submitted on the recruitment platform by following the link :

https://career2.successfactors.eu/sfcareer/jobreqcareer?jobId=1071&company=ump

Or by e-mail to [email protected] stating in object “Assistant Professor or Research Fellow in …”.