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University of California, Davis

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Postdoctoral Scholar in AI and Foundation Models for Plant Genomics at UC Davis University of California, Davis in United States

Degree Level

Postdoc

Field of study

Computer Science

Funding

Full funding available

Deadline

Sep 18, 2026

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Country

United States

University

University of California, Davis

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Keywords

Computer Science
Agriculture
Deep Learning
Biology
Artificial Intelligence
Computational Biology
Genomic
Plant Genomics
ML

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About this position

Postdoctoral Scholar in AI and Foundation Models for Plant Genomics at the University of California, Davis.

This postdoctoral opening is in the UC Davis Genome Center and focuses on computer science, machine learning, deep learning, computational biology, genomics, and agriculture. The project is a collaboration between Richard Michelmore (Genome Center), Xin Liu (Computer Science), and Christine Diepenbrock (Plant Sciences).

The research aims to develop one of the first crop-specific multimodal foundation models using more than 100 telomere-to-telomere lettuce genomes, population-scale genomic variation, transcriptomics, and phenotypic datasets. The model will be used to predict allelic variation, genome editing outcomes, and genotype-by-environment interactions, with a strong emphasis on reproducible research and open-source software.

The successful candidate will fine-tune a pretrained foundation model for lettuce, optimize and benchmark models, collaborate on multi-omic and phenotypic data curation, and help generate hypotheses for model training. There are also opportunities to publish methodological advances in AI and biological discoveries enabled by the models.

Eligibility highlights: Ph.D. in Computer Science, Computational Biology, or a related field; Python programming; experience developing/training/adapting deep learning models; willingness to learn genome biology; and evidence of research productivity. Preferred experience includes ML for scientific data, LLM fine-tuning, multimodal learning, interpretability, representation learning, and variant effect prediction.

Funding: Salary range is USD 71,491-$85,736. This is a postdoctoral scholar appointment rather than a scholarship.

Location: Davis, California, United States.

Deadline: Final date for full consideration is September 18, 2026.

How to apply: Apply via UC Davis Recruit. Upload a CV, statement of research, and the required Authorization to Release Information form. Cover letter and teaching statement are optional. Provide 3-5 references with contact information only.

Funding details

Full funding including tuition fees and living expenses is available for this position. The scholarship covers all educational costs and provides a monthly stipend.

How to apply

Please submit your application including a cover letter, CV, academic transcripts, and contact information for two references. Applications should be sent via the online portal before the deadline.

More information can be found here

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