Research Fellow in Plant Acoustics (acoustics-focus) in Southampton

You will join an interdisciplinary project delivered through a collaboration between the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research, the School of Biological Sciences, and Mechanical Engineering at the University of Southampton. Plants emit sound—particularly under stress—and may respond to sound in ways that influence physiology, root function and pollination. This project will combine experiments, analysis and multiphysics modelling to establish credible mechanisms, limits and open datasets for plant acoustic emission and reception.

We are recruiting a Postdoctoral Research Associate with an acoustics background to lead the acoustic measurement and analysis components, working closely with biology and modelling colleagues in a vibrant interdisciplinary team.

You Will

• Design, set up and deliver robust measurements of plant-generated acoustic emissions under controlled stress conditions.
• Undertake acoustic and vibroacoustic measurements including airborne acoustics, air-coupled ultrasonics, structural vibration/waves.
• Work in specialist facilities including anechoic chambers and controlled experimental environments, ensuring high-quality, repeatable data.
• Develop and apply signal processing workflows for weak transient signals, long-term monitoring, feature extraction and statistical analysis.
• Support sound playback/stimulation protocols for plant response and pollination experiments.
• Contribute to modelling activities through experimental design input and provision of validation datasets.
• Manage and curate research data, contributing to open and reproducible workflows (code, metadata and documentation) in line with project and UKRI expectations.
• Prepare research outputs including papers, conference presentations and contributions to shared project datasets.

Essential Candidate requirements

• PhD (or near completion) or equivalent qualifications and experience in Acoustics, Mechanical Engineering, Physics, Signal Processing or a closely related discipline.
• Strong practical experience in experimental acoustics/instrumentation (sensor selection, data acquisition, calibration, uncertainty/rigour and noise control).
• Strong signal processing skills (e.g., using Python and/or MATLAB).
• Ability to work effectively in an interdisciplinary team and communicate clearly across disciplines.
• Experience handling large datasets and using reproducible analysis workflows (e.g. Git/Jupyter/HDF5).

Desirable

• Experience with ultrasonics, vibroacoustics, structural waves, laser Doppler vibrometry, anechoic facilities, soil acoustics, and/or bioacoustics.

This post is aiming to start from June 2026 (by agreement).

As a university we aim to create an environment where everyone can thrive and are proactive in fostering a culture of inclusion, respect and equality of opportunity. We believe that we can only truly meet our objectives if we are reflective of society, so we are passionate about creating a working environment in which you are free to bring your whole self to work. With a generous holiday allowance as well as additional university closure days we are committed to supporting our staff and students and open to a flexible working approach.