Assistant Professor/Vegetable Horticulturist

Job Description
The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences is committed to creating an environment that affirms diversity across a variety of dimensions, including ability, class, ethnicity/race, gender identity and expression. We particularly welcome applicants who can contribute to such an environment through their scholarship, teaching, mentoring, and professional service. We strongly encourage historically underrepresented groups to apply.

If an accommodation due to a disability is needed to apply for this position, please call 352-392-2477 or the Florida Relay System at 800-955-8771 (TDD) or visit Accessibility at UF .

This is a 12-month tenure-accruing position that will be 60% extension (Florida Cooperative Extension Service) and 40% research (Florida Agricultural Experiment Station), available in the Southwest Florida Research and Education Center,Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, at the University of Florida. This assignment may change in accordance with the needs of the unit. The extension and research programs shall support major commercial vegetable production in the region while investigating innovative production systems that lead to increased diversification of alternative crops and incorporation of precision plant production, to assure sustainability and profitability for vegetable specialty crop farms in Florida. Sustainable production systems will include implementation of state best management practices (BMP) for improved fertilizer use. Promotion and research of these BMP systems should be a key component of the vegetable horticulture position. The development of crop production systems that assist growers to compete in the global economy and reduce the impact of agricultural activities in the south Florida environment is an imperative. Research outcomes from this and complementary programs will be integrated into a strong extension program to support county and state extension faculty farmers and allied industry representatives statewide.

Major goals for this position include the development of effective field production strategies for promoting the production of high yield and quality vegetables in a manner consistent with good stewardship of the land and natural resources. Approaches could relate to study of cultural practices to promote conventional and organic production and optimization of current and innovative production practices, such as protected agricultural/hydroponics and grafting. Duties will include development of interdisciplinary studies with faculty in such areas as breeding and genetics, soil and water sciences, entomology, plant pathology, weed sciences, food and resource economics, and precision agriculture. Interaction with the South Florida Water Management District, Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services and Environmental Protection, USDA/ARS, USDA/Natural Resources Conservation Services, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and other local, state, and federal agencies is important to this position.

Tenure will accrue in the Department of Horticultural Sciences (http://www.hos.ufl.edu). The faculty member will actively seek competitive contract and grant funding to support his/her program. The faculty member will engage in Extension activities in their program area.

The faculty member will actively participate in undergraduate and graduate education by chairing graduate committees, serving on graduate committees, supervising thesis and dissertation research, supervising undergraduate research, and publishing the results with her/his graduate students. Faculty are encouraged to participate in professional development activities related to teaching and advising and may teach courses/seminars. Because of the IFAS land-grant mission, all faculty are expected to be supportive of and engaged in all three mission areasResearch, Teaching and Extensionregardless of the assignment split specified in the position description.
YourMembership. Keywords: Assistant Professor, Location: Immokalee, FL - 34142