Engineer position in marine benthic biology and ecology, ENIB Brest, France

Job Offer: 4 Years Engineer position in marine benthic biology and ecology
‘Quantitative 3D imaging to assess the diversity, ecology, and ecosystem functions of infaunal microscopic benthic communities’

Employer: ENIB (Brest National School of Engineering), France
Work locations: Ifremer and ENIB in Brest (~40% time) and Station Biologique de Roscoff (~60% time), France
Department and team: Lab-STICC UMR CNRS 6285 (ENIB) and Deep Sea Laboratory (Ifremer)
Duration: 2 years, renewable 2 years
Deadlines (2021): Application: March 1st; candidates interview and selection: Early March; starting date: from March.
Research context and objectives: Given the growing anthropogenic pressures on benthic marine ecosystems, it is urgent to develop tools and methods for fast and accurate characterization of biodiversity. The BLUE REVOLUTION project (2021 – 2025) unites an international consortium to develop in-situ/onboard/in-the-field innovative imaging methods (holographic microscopy and 3Dfluorescence imaging) linked to AI-based recognition and classification tools, allowing the generation of transformative knowledge on marine benthic communities at speeds unseen before.
Job description: The candidate will apply pioneering quantitative 3D imaging technologies for environmental cell biology and ecology (Colin et al. 2017) to marine benthic ecosystems. The eHCFM framework enables quantitative analysis of environmental cell/micro-organisms structures, including shape, organelles, symbionts, and potentially expressed genes, across the full diversity of microbial eukaryotes. The technology will be adapted to infaunal microscopic benthic samples with the final objective of building a reference training dataset based on processed images (features extraction) focusing on the two most abundant groups (Copepoda and Nematoda).

For additional information please check the job offer.