Lynker Technologies

Job Description

Lynker Corporation is expecting the need to hire a Phytoplankton Geneticist and IFCB Engineer to support a contract with NOAA's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Northwest Fisheries Science Center (NWFSC). This is a full-time position that is anticipated to begin as early as May 1, 2024 and will be based at the NWFSC facility in Seattle, WA with some related field work. Hiring for this position will be contingent on contract award.

**The quantity and quality of food for juvenile salmon when they first enter the ocean is important for their growth and survival. This project will develop new indicators of food quality at the base of the marine food web (i.e., phytoplankton) to better parameterize salmon life cycle models, improving estimates of growth, survival, and adult return forecasts. Indicators will be developed using phytoplankton community composition data collected by a robotic microscope (Imaging FlowCytobot [IFCB]) and from environmental DNA (eDNA) sample collections. The IFCB is an automated imaging flow cytometer that generates on the order of 30,000 images of particles (i.e. phytoplankton) per hour in the size range of