Curator of Biodiversity Data

To discover and share knowledge about plants and their environment in order to preserve and enrich life.

The Missouri Botanical Garden (MBG) is excited to announce a new position in the herbarium: Curator of Biodiversity Data. With over 7.75 million specimens, the collections at MBG are among the largest and most comprehensive in the world, and we are seeking excited, creative, collaborative, and diverse botanists and data scientists to join the over 300 scientists and support staff that make up the Garden’s international Science and Conservation team. The successful candidate will be joining the Division at a landmark point in its history as we undertake a new strategic plan to ensure we use our global leadership in botanical exploration, conservation, restoration, and education/capacity building to address 21st century global pressures like climate change, biodiversity loss, natural resource over-exploitation, and land use change.

The Curator of Biodiversity Data is responsible for the management and curation of the Garden’s botanical specimen data as well as ongoing and future digitization efforts in the herbarium. This position serves as a key link between the research staff in the Science and Conservation Division and the programmers, developers, and system administrators in the Center for Biodiversity Informatics to facilitate new initiatives, address data quality issues, evaluate data access and use policies, and establish database development priorities. The ideal candidate would also maintain an active research program in bioinformatics and data mining as they apply to plant systematics and conservation.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

–        Oversees digitization of the herbarium, including applying for and managing grant-funded digitization projects.

–        Works with department heads to develop quality control, access, and usage policies for biodiversity data in the Science and Conservation Division.

–        Collaborates with MBG researchers and external partners on data science projects using the Garden’s specimen and other data.

–        Serves as a primary contact for data inquiries from Tropicos®, one of the world’s oldest and largest sources for botanical data, as well as a liaison between Science and Conservation staff and the Tropicos® development team.

Key Qualifications and Experience:

–        At least 5 years of experience working with natural history collection databases.

–        Demonstrated success in securing competitive funding for digitization and data science / bioinformatics projects.

–        Record of publication of bioinformatics research results in peer-reviewed journals.

Application Deadline: All application materials must be received by December 31st, 2022, to guarantee consideration. However, both positions will remain open until filled.

Additional details and instructions for applying for these positions can be found at:

https://us63.dayforcehcm.com/CandidatePortal/en-US/MBG/Posting/View/1394