Faculty position for a Human Experimental Muscle Physiologist (assistant professor)

Are you a human muscle physiologist aiming to understand the functioning of human skeletal muscles in (molecular) detail? Are you interested in the functional role of metabolism and mitochondria in skeletal muscle and how these can be affected in health and/or disease? Are you passionate about scientific research and do you enjoy transferring your knowledge, then Wageningen University has the perfect position for you!

We are looking for a human muscle physiologist who wants to understand how skeletal muscles work by investigating how muscle function is supported by the underlying metabolic mechanisms, taking the whole-body metabolic status into account. The existing metabolic, human muscle and biomolecular knowledge and infrastructure provides the embedding that is necessary to fulfill this function focused on mechanistic understanding at a high level. As human application areas we see opportunities for muscle recovery after exercise, inactivity or recovery, or for counteracting muscle loss in the aging trajectory (which may include the role of innervation), but we are also open to alternative areas of interest; quality prevails. The position concerns research, education and acquisition and is part of our skeletal muscle theme. We are looking for someone with an excellent publication record, proven acquisition capabilities and enthusiastic teaching skills. We look for a scientist with a PhD plus at least three years of additional research experience, with the position and salary scale depending on experience and track record.
This position is within the professor path of the Academic Career Framework (ACF) (former Tenure Track) at Wageningen University. The ACF offers differentiation in academic career paths emphasizing the quality of work, taking team collaboration and the unique talent of individual into account.

In your career trajectory:

• you perform mechanistic research on human skeletal muscle;
• You acquire, lead and implement innovative and creative (inter-)national research projects;
• you collaborate with colleagues and supervise and train PhD students;
• you participate in our curricular education and MSc and BSc thesis supervision;
• you contribute to the further development of Human and Animal Physiology.

Requirements:

You are open minded, enthusiastic and enjoy working in a multidisciplinary academic environment.

You also possess:

• a PhD and at least three additional years of experience in human skeletal muscle physiology;
• proven expertise in mechanistic experimental human (molecular) physiology;
• familiarity with biomolecular methodology;
• proven expertise in supervising PhD students as well as MSc and BSc students;
• proven acquisition skills;
• relevant and well evaluated teaching experience;
• strong command of Dutch and English language (at least C1), both verbally and in writing.

You will work here
Your position is within the chair group Human and Animal Physiology.
Human and Animal Physiology (HAP) strives to conduct cutting-edge physiological and molecular physiological experimental research focused on increasing the fundamental and mechanistic understanding of energy and substrate metabolism and mitochondria in health and disease in humans and animals, with the ultimate goal to improve human health and quality of life. Our research-driven teaching spans undergraduate to the postgraduate levels, providing mammalian physiology and biomolecular education across a wide range of academic disciplines, and aims to deliver highly trained academic professionals ready to address societal health issues, primarily via research.

HAP’s specific research aims are i) to obtain new mechanistic insights in how metabolism influences health of humans and animals, including improved translational physiological understanding of metabolism, and ii) to significantly contribute to preventive human metabolic health, with emphasis on the prevention and treatment of mitochondrial, metabolic, lifestyle and age-related disease of humans. We obtain our results by performing experimental research in humans, model animals (including invertebrates), organs/tissues, and cells. We do this using state-of-the-art physiological, functional, computational, biomolecular and related bioanalysis tools in an integrated manner. While our experimental cell and animal work is integrative over (metabolic) organs, tissues and cell types, our experimental human interventions focus on skeletal muscle taking whole body responses into account. In addition, we solidly train BSc, MSc and PhD students in physiology, biomolecular physiology, morpho-functional physiology and in experimental research.

HAP, headed by Prof. Dr. Jaap Keijer, is one of the 92 chair groups of Wageningen University (WU), the basic organizational units at the university. Together with 11 other chair groups, HAP is part of the Animal Science Group (ASG). HAP is affiliated with two graduate schools, VLAG (Biobased, Biomolecular, Chemical, Food and Nutrition Sciences) and WIAS (Animal Sciences), with most PhD students in VLAG. HAP is a viable chair group with one full professor (chair), 13 academic members of staff with a different emphasis on research, teaching and academic services, all with a PhD. In addition, HAP employs 7 high level technicians including a research physician-assistant, two experienced secretaries, and 26 PhD students.

Salary Benefits:

Wageningen University offers excellent terms of employment. A few highlights from our Collective Labour Agreement include:

• working hours that can be discussed and can be set in mutual agreement;
• there is a strong focus on vitality and you can make use of the sports facilities available on campus for a small fee;
• a fixed year-end bonus of 8.3%;
• excellent pension scheme.

In addition to these first-rate employee benefits, you will be offered a fixed-term contract (18 months), which, upon positive evaluation, can lead to a permanent employment contract. Based upon the your experience, the salary scale will be determined; a competitive gross salary of between € 4.537,- and € 7.056,- for a full-time working week of 38 hours in accordance with the Collective Labour Agreements for Dutch Universities (CAO-NU) (scale 11/12).

Wageningen University & Research offers plenty of opportunities for growth and development, with excellent training programmes.

You will work on the greenest and most innovative campus in the Netherlands, in an international and open working environment. For 20 consecutive years, we have been voted the "best university" in the Netherlands! A place to be proud of.

Coming from abroad
Wageningen University & Research is the university and research centre for life sciences. The themes we deal with are relevant to everyone around the world and Wageningen, therefore, has a large international community and we have plenty to offer to international employees.

Because we expect you to work and live in the Netherlands our team of advisors on Dutch immigration procedures will help you with the visa application procedures for yourself and, if applicable, for your family. Certain categories of international staff may be eligible for a tax exemption on a part of their salary during the first five years in the Netherlands.

38 hours per week

Droevendaalsesteeg