Job positions
A three year phd position funded by the NOAA Graduate Assistantship (Ph.D.) in the Department of Environmental Sciences at the University of Toledo is available. The graduate researcher will work with Assistant Professor, Dr. Trisha Spanbauer , to investigate the role of phytoplankton in silica and carbon cycling in the Western Basin of Lake Erie over a range of temporal scales ranging from diurnal to centennial. The successful candidate will develop ancient environmental DNA (aeDNA) datasets from sediments recovered from Lake Erie and evaluate the relationship between major biogeochemical cycles and phytoplankton community dynamics. Other duties will include processing large datasets, mentoring undergraduate students, preparing manuscripts for publication, and delivering presentations at scientific meetings. The start date is May or August 2023. Please send a statement of research interests, unofficial transcripts, and CV to Trisha Spanbauer (trisha.spanbauer@utoledo.edu) by Jan 15, 2023 , for full consideration. Please put 'Interest in NOAA-funded Graduate Assistantship' in the subject line.
A two-year Post-Doctoral fellowship is available in the field of southern African archaeology and ancient DNA, to be hosted by the Centre for Microbial Ecology and Genomics at the University of Pretoria, South Africa. The candidate will analyse shotgun metagenomic datasets generated from the sequencing of sedimentary and other ancient samples derived from southern African archaeological contexts, spanning the Holocene and Late Pleistocene epochs. In general terms, the candidate will explore whether molecular (sedaDNA) analyses could provide insight into ancient African human ecology. More specifically, the candidate will aim to detect traces ancient human bacterial and viral pathogens, and explore the evolutionary history of infectious diseases in prehistoric southern Africa. The ideal candidate will have a Ph.D. in bioinformatics or a closely related field, and demonstrate abilities to work both independently and in a team environment, with an emphasis on strong expertise in the molecular tools used in next-generation sequencing and population genomics. The candidate should have background in molecular biology, particularly in molecular methods for generating large-scale sequence and SNP datasets, and be familiar with basic concepts in computational science and optionally, with Bash or other programming languages such as R, Perl and or Python. Experience in the analysis of ancient DNA and/or Next-Generation Sequencing will be considered positively. Expressions of interest must be submitted electronically to riaanrifkin@gmail.com . Please include the following: (1) A Curriculum Vitae (with publication record, if any), (2) A Letter of Motivation of no longer than two pages, and (3) Contact details of two professional references. Our review of submitted expressions of interest will continue until the position is filled. The appointment is expected to commence in January 2023.
A two year Postdoctoral Research Fellow positionis available at the Arctic University Museum of Norway. The applicant will join an international team of researchers on the project “IceAGenT - Ice Age Genomic Tracking of Refugia and Postglacial Dispersal” financed by ERC. The main goal is to forecast the effect of environmental change on future species distribution and genetic diversity. The applicant will be given access to a unique large-scale ancient DNA dataset that can be combined with advances in machine learning technics. Sedimentary ancient DNA provides high-resolution time series from the past. The post doc will use a sedaDNA dataset covering the regions of Iceland, Svalbard, Fennoscandia, Polar Ural and south to the Alps. Both plant and mammals’ data are available from around 50 sediment cores, as well as climate reconstructions. The aplication deadline is the 16th of November 2022 . For more information click here
A invite applications to a PhD project at Newcastle University (UK) that will look at long-term changes in CO2 fixing enzyme (Rubisco) in plant species. Rubisco controls carbon fixation and is strongly temperature-dependent. Little is known about how changes in temperature and CO2 between glacial-interglacial cycles have affected the genetic adaptation of Rubisco. This project aims to use well-preserved plant remains from Late-Pleistocene and Holocene sediments to investigate genetic change in Rubisco, which will be crucial for understanding the speed at which plants can adapt their carbon fixation to future increases in temperature and CO2. Please note that this is a competitive call for funding and that funding success depends mainly on the strength of the shortlisted applicant. For informal enquiries and more information, please contact Dr Maarten van Hardenbroek (maarten.vanhardenbroek@ncl.ac.uk) or Dr Maxim Kapralov (maxim.kapralov@ncl.ac.uk).
A Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Paleogenomics/sedaDNA is available as part of a highly interdisciplinary and collaborative project funded by a new 4-year National Science Foundation Understanding the Rules of Life - Emergent Networks award. The project will study Late Pleistocene-Holocene climate change in Southeast Alaska, focusing on rapid warming events following the last glacial maximum. We are a project team of two biology and two geology professors at the University at Buffalo with expertise in the topic and region of study. The Research Fellowship is anticipated to start February, 2023, and be for 2 years with possibility for extension. For more information, please contact Charlotte Lindqvist (cl243@buffalo.edu) and see here
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