Postdoctoral Fellow in Environmental Microbiology and Waterborne Pathogen Surveillance

Position Title: Postdoctoral Fellow in Environmental Microbiology and Waterborne Pathogen Surveillance

Department / Academic Unit: School of Environmental Sciences

Description of the Area/Topic of Research:

Waterborne disease kills an estimated 2.2 million people each year and antimicrobial resistance in environmental water systems is a growing global threat. The microSCAPE Lab at the University of Guelph sits at the intersection of these problems, and the Canada Excellence Research Chair in Waterborne Pathogens is the single largest national investment in this space in Canada. We are recruiting a Postdoctoral Fellow in environmental microbiology to work at the heart of the program.

This is not a position where you will be handed a protocol and asked to generate data. You will help lead a research agenda that spans pathogen detection and infectivity, microbial source tracking, wastewater-based epidemiology, and antimicrobial resistance in environmental systems, working directly with the public health agencies and government partners who use the results. Our passive samplers are currently deployed in more than 23 countries. They are incorporated into WHO and World Bank guidelines, cited by the Victorian Department of Health as having saved countless lives, and featured in Nature News. The work matters, and you will feel that.

Description of Position:

You will be supervised by Prof. David McCarthy, named Monash Postgraduate Supervisor of the Year, Executive Editor of Water Research (the leading journal in the field, impact factor 13.64), and author of more than 229 peer-reviewed publications. You will have direct access to a state-of-the-art CL2+ biosafety facility and molecular laboratory, opened in 2026 and equipped for the full range of environmental pathogen work. You will work in a team of more than 15 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and research staff spanning engineering, microbiology, molecular biology, and public health, and you will have a direct line to federal and provincial government partners who are active collaborators rather than distant end-users.

We are building a critical mass of expertise at the University of Guelph, with multiple recent early-career faculty hires including Binyam Desta (waterborne disease epidemiology), Shadman Khan (next-generation pathogen sensing technologies) and Wenxi Liao (nature-based and engineered systems for improved water treatment and pathogen removal); it is an exciting and advantageous time for a post-doctoral fellow to join the microSCAPE team as we realize our ambitions of being a world-leading interdisciplinary research
program.

What you will do:

You will lead your own research within the program, with genuine freedom to develop new directions that address pressing needs and have impact. Depending on your expertise and interests, this could sit anywhere within the group's six research themes: sampling systems for pathogen surveillance, molecular detection and infectivity assessment, microbial source tracking using next-generation sequencing, wastewater-based epidemiology, quantitative microbial risk assessment, or nature-based treatment systems for pathogen aaremoval. You will engage directly with federal and provincial partners including the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment, Conservation and Parks, as well as municipal partners and conservation authorities. You will mentor graduate students and contribute to what we believe will be one of the most important graduate training programs in this space: the Master of Pathogens and Antimicrobial Resistance in the Environment, currently in development at Guelph and the only program of its kind in Canada. You will be supported in developing your own grant applications, building your own collaborations, and shaping your own research trajectory. For candidates who want a career at the interface of research, policy, andpractice, including government and agency careers, this program offers some of the best preparation available in Canada.

Required Qualifications:

What we are looking for:

• A PhD in environmental microbiology, microbial ecology, molecular microbiology, water microbiology, or a closely related discipline, with a strong first-author publication record from your doctoral/masters research and/or previous postdoctoralpositions. 
• We want someone who is methodologically rigorous and who has worked across at least some of the following: culture-based pathogen detection, qPCR and digital PCR, next-generation sequencing, microbial source tracking, wastewater surveillance, infectivity assays, or AMR gene detection in environmental matrices.
• Demonstrated experience working with government, public health, or industry partners is essential.
• This program is built around translating research into practice, and we need someone who understands that interface and is energized by it.

Start Date & Duration of Appointment: The position is offered initially for one year and is extendable to three years as a Postdoctoral Fellow

Anticipated Hours/Days of Work (at time of posting): M-F; 9am-5pm

Salary Range (Minimum): 60,000

Salary Range (Maximum): 120,000

Salary Information: Salary starts at $60,000 per annum and scales with performance and success in grant applications, with a range of $60,000 to $120,000 per annum for exceptional candidates.

The position is offered initially for one year and is extendable to three years as a Postdoctoral Fellow, and beyond that as a Research Associate for candidates who wish to build a longer-term career within the group. This is not an unusual path: our postdoctoral fellows and research associates stay with the team for more than 13 years on average, which reflects what the program offers and the careers it enables.

Application Requirements

Documents:

• CV
• Publications

Other: Send your CV and two papers you are proud of, each accompanied by a short statement describing your contribution to the work, examples of how you impacted the research questions or design, and why it represents your best. There is no cover letter.

Special Instructions: Applications that do not include both papers and statements will not be considered. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.

Supervisor: David McCarthy

Contact Info

Name: Dr. David McCarthy
Email: david.mccarthy@uoguelph.ca

Posting Date: Wed, 09/30/2026
Closing Date: Thu, 09/30/2027