The Medicinal Plant Collections Research Scientist is responsible for coordinating and performing activities related to a) assembling a use-driven medicinal plants collection at the San Diego Botanic Garden; b) establishing a consortium of experts to advise the ongoing development of the collection; c) developing collection maintenance strategies and coordinating with partners to enable metabolite discovery; and d) establishing a publicly accessible medicinal plants garden for public education and engagement. The position will also perform other duties to advance SDBG’s science, conservation, and education objectives, to include acquiring new funding opportunities to potentially extend the position. This is a two-year, full-time (40 hours/week), exempt position with starting pay at $65,000-70,000 plus benefits per year. This position reports to the Senior Director of Science and Conservation.
https://www.sdbgarden.org/employment.htm
•Contributes to accomplishing the objectives and activities of the national medicinal plants collection project.
•Manages an expert consortium of multi-institutional partners ranging from scientists to community partners.
•Strategizes and designs a collections management scheme for the medicinal plants collection, including their mobilization for use.
•Develops medicinal plant curation protocols, in partnership with horticulture staff.
•Works with diverse partners to acquire medicinal plants by exchange, purchase, and wild collection.
•Coordinates with metabolomic/genomic discovery partners on exploration of target plants in the collection.
•Coordinates with Garden horticulture and education staff on development of a medicinal plant demonstration garden.
•Contributes to grant proposals to support SDBG projects and its collaborations.
•Teaches classes on topics relevant to the collection and the Garden.
•Contributes to building a culture of evaluation, reflection, continuous improvement, and quality execution for programs and activities.
•Contributes to building a safety-first culture for all who come to the Garden.
•Contributes to building a culture of respect, inclusion and diversity, where all are empowered to learn and shine.
•Ph.D. in natural products discovery, pharmacognosy, biology, botany, chemistry, genetics, horticulture, germplasm management, human health/medicine or equivalent with interest in developing and investigating plant collections for research purposes.
•Demonstrated capacity in consortium/group building, preferred.
•Demonstrated capacity in science communication, research and engagement, preferred.
•3 years related experience in natural products discovery or related fields, preferred.
•Record of research accomplishments and acquisition of funding, preferred.
•Experience managing operational and grant/contract budgets, preferred.
