W2 Professorship for Matter and Energy Dynamics in Agricultural Landscapes

The University of Bonn is an international research university with a wide education and research profile. With a 200-year history, approximately 31,500 students, more than 6,000 staff, and an excellent reputation at home and abroad, the University of Bonn is one of the most important universities in Germany and is recognized as a university of excellence.

The mission of the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) is to deliver solutions for an ecologically, economically and socially sustainable agriculture – together with society and based on excellent integrated research. ZALF is structured in four research areas, and two service platforms for experiments, and data and computation. It is part of national and international research networks and member of the Leibniz Association.

The Faculty of Agricultural, Nutritional and Engineering Sciences of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn and the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) are jointly seeking a

W2 Professorship for Matter and Energy Dynamics in Agricultural Landscapes 

to start as soon as possible. 

The new professorship will carry out basic and application-oriented research on soil and/or plant processes with a focus on the dynamics of matter and/or energy in agricultural landscapes. The research topics are open within the main research areas: Quantification of soil processes in agricultural landscapes with emphasis on the redistribution of carbon, nutrients and water as affected by crop management. Plant-soil interactions with emphasis on ecophysiological relationships and underlying processes in carbon, nutrients, water and energy transfer in the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. Research in these areas considers the landscape scale and works with experimental and sensing methods ideally combined with novel approaches for data analytics and modelling.

The new professorship should integrate with the PhenoRob Cluster of Excellence (www.phenorob.de).

The candidate must be internationally visible in one of the above-mentioned research areas and must be experienced in the acquisition of relevant third-party funding. The coordination of larger research proposals is expected in the future. We welcome demonstrated experience in interdisciplinary research and an interest in exploiting the research results in interactions with actors from agricultural practice and policy.

The professorship is jointly appointed by the University of Bonn and the Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF) in Müncheberg according to the Jülich Model. lt contributes to academic education in the B.Sc. and M.Sc. programs at the Faculty of Agricultural, Nutritional and Engineering Sciences of the University of Bonn with the equivalent of two hours per week per semester. It is expected that the successful candidate fosters research cooperation between ZALF and the University of Bonn in the research domain of the position.

The position will be located at ZALF in Müncheberg, close to Berlin and includes leading a working group and the opportunity to co-lead the Research Area 1 “Landscape Functioning” at ZALF for which respective leadership experiences are essential. The objective of the research area is to develop an integrated understanding of the biogeochemical (C, N, Si) cycles in agricultural landscapes, including the interactions between land and atmosphere (e.g. trace gas fluxes and dust emissions) and their relevance for agricultural production.

Prerequisites for the application are a doctoral degree and a record of research equivalent to the German “Habilitation”.

The conditions of employment are according to §36 Hochschulgesetz NRW.