Nurture Future Scientists - Graduate Opportunities Await

Kathryn Turner, lead researcher in crop protection genetics, instructs interns on transplanting silphium in a Land Institute test plot.

Empowering new generations

Throughout our history, The Land Institute has designed innovative educational opportunities, and seen students become research residents, post-baccalaureates, postdoctoral, and staff members. We continue to evolve our training pathways in our commitment to inspire the next generation of researchers and technicians, broaden participation, and connect our work to the needs and interests of human communities.

Student opportunities

Search career opportunities

View our careers page to search for available post-baccalaureate, postdoctoral, and research assistant openings with The Land Institute.

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Join our early career researchers network

For students currently working on perennial grain research, we invite you to join our early career researchers network to connect with the larger research community.

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See past and future perennial grain leaders

From field hands to post docs, communications interns to graduate fellows, The Land Institute has trained and educated generations of perennial leaders since 1976.

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Tour The Land Institute

Visit our prairie headquarters in Salina, Kansas to engage with our scientists and teams on the latest innovations in perennial grain research.

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Graduate student research

Silphium, being developed as a perennial oilseed crop.

Ecological research with the perennial oilseed Silphium integrifolium

Kansas University graduate student Amanda Gehin pursued a study investigating how mycorrhizal fungi and Silphium (silflower) possess a mutualistic relationship that impacts the plant's defense and resistance to insects that act as pests to the plant.

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Ethnobotanical study with silflower

Marcela Paiva Veliz, an Indigenous Studies student at Kansas University, researched the historical ethnobotany of Silphium, the several Tribal Nations that hold relationships with the plant, and the implications of these findings for domestication efforts and decolonization of ethnobotany.

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Silflower studies receive outstanding project honors from Kansas University

The siflower research from both Marcela Paiva Veliz and Amanda Gehin received honors for Outstanding Master's Thesis or Research Project Award from KU in 2025.

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FAQs

Where are perennial grain researchers located?

Researchers are located all over the globe. View our collaborators map to see where and what they focus their work.

Are there other connections opportunities for early career perennial grain researchers?

You can also connect with the Tri-Societies (The American Society of Agronomy (ASA), Crop Science Society of America (CSSA), and Soil Science Society of America (SSSA) group working perennial grains here.

Does The Land Institute offer opportunities to get started with perennial grain research?

We offer various part-time and full-time contract post-baccalaureate, postdoctoral, and research assistant openings at The Land Institute throughout the year. Visit our careers page.