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A complete application consists of:

• An application
• Transcripts – Click here for detailed information about acceptable transcripts
• A current resume/CV, including academic history, employment history, relevant experiences, and publication list
• One educational or professional recommendation. Your application will be considered incomplete, and will not be reviewed until one recommendation is submitted.

All documents must be in English or include an official English translation.

*Applications will be reviewed on a rolling-basis.

CDC Office and Location: A research opportunity is available in the Bacterial Diseases Branch within the Division of Vector-Borne Diseases (DVBD) of the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Fort Collins, Colorado.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is one of the major operation components of the Department of Health and Human Services. CDC works to protect America from health, safety and security threats, both foreign and in the U.S. Whether diseases start at home or abroad, are chronic or acute, curable or preventable, human error or deliberate attack, CDC fights disease and supports communities and citizens to do the same.

Research Project: The Bacterial Diseases Branch is responsible for public health and research activities aimed at diagnosis and characterization of vector-borne bacterial diseases, including Lyme disease, relapsing fever, plague, and tularemia. Infectious diseases transmitted to humans by the bite of an arthropod vector constitute a significant and growing public health threat in the United States. Research is focused on enhancing next generation diagnostic and bioinformatics capabilities in order to transform how the CDC detects, characterizes and responds to vector-borne diseases.

Learning Objectives: Under the guidance of a mentor, the selected participant will gain experience in a public health diagnostic laboratory at the Federal level, and will be involved in a variety of cutting-edge research projects focused on improving the diagnosis and characterization of bacterial tickborne pathogens using a variety of advanced molecular detection methods and bioinformatics.

Mentor(s): The mentor for this opportunity is Luke Kingry (vtx8@cdc.gov). If you have questions about the nature of the research, please contact the mentor.

Anticipated Appointment Start Date: May/June 2023.  Start date is flexible and will depend on a variety of factors.

Appointment Length: The appointment will initially be for one year, but may be renewed upon recommendation of CDC and is contingent on the availability of funds.

Level of Participation: The appointment is full-time.

Participant Stipend: The participant will receive a monthly stipend commensurate with educational level and experience. 

Citizenship Requirements: This opportunity is available to U.S. citizens only.

ORISE Information: This program, administered by ORAU through its contract with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to manage the Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), was established through an interagency agreement between DOE and CDC. Participants do not become employees of CDC, DOE or the program administrator, and there are no employment-related benefits. Proof of health insurance is required for participation in this program. Health insurance can be obtained through ORISE.

The successful applicant(s) will be required to comply with Environmental, Safety and Health (ES&H) requirements of the hosting facility, including but not limited to, COVID-19 requirements (e.g. facial covering, physical distancing, testing, vaccination).

Questions: Please visit our Program Website. After reading, if you have additional questions about the application process please email ORISE.CDC.NCEZID@orau.org and include the reference code for this opportunity.

The qualified candidate should have received a bachelor's degree in one of the relevant fields, or be currently pursuing the degree with completion before June 1, 2023. Degree must have been received within five years of the appointment start date.

Preferred skills:

• Strong organizational, analytical, and interpersonal skills
• Background with hands on experience with wet lab molecular techniques for preparation and generation of next generation sequence data
• Experience with computational resources for Molecular Biology ie BLAST, primer design software, multiple sequence alignments

• Citizenship: U.S. Citizen Only
• Degree: Bachelor's Degree received within the last 60 months or anticipated to be received by 6/1/2023 12:00:00 AM.
• Discipline(s):
  • Life Health and Medical Sciences (5 )
• Veteran Status: Veterans Preference, degree received within the last 120 month(s).

I certify that I have not previously been employed by CDC or by a contractor working directly for CDC.  I understand that CDC does not permit individuals with a prior employment relationship with CDC or its contractors to participate as trainees in the ORISE program. (Exceptions may be granted for individuals who, since the previous CDC employment, have obtained a new STEM degree which necessitates training in a new field.)