Category: Opportunities Outside IOB

The University of Alabama at Birmingham is seeking a postdoctoral researcher to work in Dr. Robert Thacker’s laboratory as part of a multi-institution award from the National Science Foundation’s Assembling, Visualizing, and Analyzing the Tree of Life (AVAToL) program. The Arbor team is building workflow software for comparative analyses of phylogenetic data at Tree of Life scales (www.arborworkflows.com).

The lab’s current test cases address three fundamental questions in evolutionary biology: 1.) The Evolutionary Process of Spatial Diversification, using species distribution data, phylogenetic relationships, and temporal data to understand processes underlying biogeographic patterns and ecological niche differentiation; 2.) The
Evolution of Symbiotic Communities, using natural evolutionary replicates to understand the tempo and mode of evolution in species interactions and the evolution of phylogenetic community structure; and 3.) The Evolution of Complex Interactions, using novel evolutionary models and analytical algorithms to understand functional
diversification during macroevolution and the evolution of interaction networks.

The successful applicant will contribute to Arbor design and case studies, primarily focusing on the evolution of symbioses, but will also develop her/his own comparative analysis project. This position will be for 1 year initially and is renewable for an additional year depending on applicant contributions to the project. Applicants should
have, or be close to obtaining, a Ph.D. in Biology or a related field, and are expected to have experience with phylogenetic analyses. Preferred applicants will possses a working knowledge of R, Perl, and/or Python.

To apply, email a single PDF document containing a cover letter, CV, statement of research interests, and contact information for at least three references to thacker@uab.edu. The e-mail subject line must include “Postdoctoral Research
Opportunity”. Review of applications will begin on March 1, 2013 and continue until the position is filled.

For more information, contact Bob Thacker (thacker@uab.edu). The UAB Office of Postdoctoral Education provides additional opportunities for training and career development (www.uab.edu/postdocs). UAB performs a pre-employment background investigation on candidates selected for employment.

The University of Arizona in Tucson is seeking a postdoctoral researcher in protein innovation and evolvability to work with Joanna Masel (http://eebweb.arizona.edu/faculty/masel).

The conventional view is that new proteins evolve from old proteins via gene duplication and divergence. However, this poses a chicken-and-egg problem, implying an ancient “big bang” of protein creation. This project focuses instead on the ongoing de novo evolution of protein-coding genes from previously non-coding sequences. The postdoc will investigate both case studies of this phenomena, and computational predictors of biochemical properties that might facilitate such conversions over evolutionary timescales.

The Masel group’s main research interests are in robustness and evolvability, using a mixture of analytical theory, bioinformatic and simulation approaches. This work is primarily bioinformatic, but opportunities for related, more theoretical projects also exist. Experimental collaborations with structural biologist Matthew Cordes, also at the University of Arizona, are possible as well.

Excellent computer programming skills are essential, with bioinformatics / genomics experience strongly preferred. Experience with (or at least prior interest in) evolutionary biology, protein structure and folding, statistics and other quantitative approaches are all advantages. A start date of August 2013 is preferred but negotiable, and the position is renewable, with funding secured for three years.

Contact Joanna Masel (masel@u.arizona.edu) for more information or to apply.

The University of Tromsø is seeking a postdoctoral fellow on the project ancient DNA analyses of flora and fauna in NW Europe. The position is attached to Tromsø University Museum, Department of Natural Sciences.

The position is on the project “Ancient DNA of NW Europe reveals responses to climate Change” funded by the Research Council of Norway. The primary objective of the project is to explore the occurrence of boreal species at northern latitudes by ancient DNA analyses. Subgoals are to 1) Confirm the occurrence of trees and other boreal taxa during the LGM period (22,000 -13,000 BP) at Andøya (Parducci et al. Science 2012), 2) Determine the occurrence of boreal species on Svalbard during the Holocene warm period, 3) Evaluate the representation of current surrounding vegetation in modern
lake DNA, 4) Test if pollen may contribute to DNA recovered in ancient soils, and 5) Evaluate implications for inferred species migration rates as well as climate reconstruction.

The following reference number must be quoted in your application: 2012/989. Closing date: January 31, 2013. The starting date is as soon as possible the post is a fixed term of two and a half years.

To learn more, go to: http://www.jobbnorge.no/job.aspx?jobid=89577.

For further information, contact Project Leader Professor Inger Greve Alsos (inger.g.alsos@uit.no or + 47 77 62 07 96) or Head of Department of Natural Sciences Karl Frafjord (karl.frafjord@uit.no or +47 77 64 57 25).

Max Planck Society in Tuebingen, Germany is seeking a postdoctoral research in Dr. Felicity Jones’s Friedrich Miescher Laboratory. The Jones Lab is launching a comprehensive research program to functionally dissect the molecular mechanisms underlying adaptive divergence and speciation.

The University of York is seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral researcher to work on a project using experimental evolution to investigate host-symbiont co-evolution. This project, which is partly funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), combines experimental evolution with whole-genome sequencing to understand how coevolutionary processes vary along the parasitism-mutualism continuum using bacteria-plasmid interactions as a model system.

The postholder will be responsible for the project on a day-to-day basis, performing experimental evolution experiments, a range of phenotypic and molecular analyses and large-scale whole-genome next-generation sequencing.

Applicants should hold a Ph.D. in microbiology, evolutionary biology, experimental evolution, evolutionary genomics, or a related discipline and have an advanced level of practical and theoretical knowledge of evolutionary biology. Candidates with training in experimental evolution or next-generation genomics approaches or bioinformatics are strongly encouraged to apply.

For informal inquiries, contact Professor Michael Brockhurst
(michael.brockhurst@york.ac.uk).

This post is available from February 1, 2013 for a period of up to 1 year.

To apply, go to: https://jobs.york.ac.uk/wd/plsql/wd_portal.show_job?p web_site_id=3885&p_web_page_id=159832

The University of Southern California is seeking two or more Computational/Analytic postdoctoral researchers with experience and strong computational skills in one or  more of the following areas: machine learning, computer vision, agent-based simulation, graphical processing unit (GPU) programming, Bayesian statistics and bioinformatics, population genomics, and quantiative genomics. The large multidisciplinary team is supported by an NHGRI Center of Excellence in Genomic Science and multiple NIMH and NSF grants to study genetic variation in population and community contexts.

The postdocs will be jointly advised by Simon Tavaré, Gary Chen, Paul Marjoram and Sergey Nuzhdin, and will closely collaborate with several other faculty and approximately 30 other team members, including computational and experimental scientists.

The successful applicants may need to optimize software, develop machine learning algorithms, develop conceptual or simulation models, and parallelize these on CPUs or GPUs.

The team is part of a program in Molecular and Computational Biology at USC and the Keck School of Medicine of USC, in the heart of Los Angeles, California. To apply, send a statement of interest, CV, and names of referees to Paul Marjoram (pmarjora@usc.edu) and Sergey Nuzhdin (snuzhdin@usc.edu) by February 15, 2013.