Employment
Society members searching for personnel are encouraged to post job announcements
here.
Other announcements with protist relevance can be found at:
http://life.biology.mcmaster.ca/~brian/evoldir.html
Current announcements:
- Postdoctoral position in protist genomics
- Graduate Student Position in Protistology
- Postdoctoral Position in Fungal Phylogenetics
- Postdoctoral Position and PhD Studentships in ciliate genome evolution and ciliate biodiversity and biogeography
BIOCEV, Prague (Czech Republic)
Postdoctoral position in protist genomics
Posting date: May 24, 2012
Postdoctoral position is available at the newly established institute BIOCEV at the suburb of Prague (Czech Republic). The post doctoral worker will join the team of Vladimir Hampl (https://web.natur.cuni.cz/~vlada/lab/) that is focused on the evolution of protists and their organelles. The team is currently running or preparing to launch several transcriptome, plastid genome and nuclear genome projects on various protists from the groups of Euglenida and Preaxostyla. These protists are interesting for example for their anaerobic or facultatively anaerobic life styles, absence of observable sexual reproduction, and massive reduction of mitochondria in Preaxostyla or evolution of secondary plastids in Euglenida. There are no published nuclear genomes from these groups. The main task of the postdoctoral worker will be to establish and maintain an annotation pipeline for the transcriptomic and genomic data and to coordinate work on selected genome projects. Mandatory part of the contract will be teaching a specialised course depending on the interest and expertise of the worker (e.g. genome annotation, phylogenetics, or genomics). The contract may start any time after the 1st of July 2012 and it finishes on the 30th of June 2015. The basic salary is 40 000 CZK (~2000 USD) per month, which easily covers the family cost of living in the locality. The contract contains also funds for travelling and consumables. Ideal candidate is an interdisciplinary person, either a keen bioinformatician/genomicist skilled in programming that is interested in microbes, genomics and evolution or a protistologist with experiences in bioinformatics, genomics and programming. If you are interested, please send your motivation letter, CV and list of publications directly to Vladimir Hampl (vlada@natur.cuni.cz).
University of Neuchâtel (Switzerland)
Graduate Student Position in Protistology
Posting date: April 23, 2012
A PhD position is available at the Laboratory of Soil Biology, Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, starting in September 2012 (or before, earliest possible date: June 1st). Full details and application information are available in the position announcement.
Clark University, Worcester, MA (USA)
Postdoctoral Position in Fungal Phylogenetics
Posting date: March 28, 2012
A Post-Doctoral position in fungal phylogenetics is available in the Hibbett laboratory at Clark University (http://www.clarku.edu/faculty/dhibbett/). The Post-doc will participate in a large collaborative endeavor supported by the NSF AVATOL Program that is aimed at synthesizing a comprehensive tree of life from published analyses, and developing novel tools for community-driven annotation of the tree. Specific responsibilities will include (1) assembly and integration of phylogenetic datasets and trees representing all groups of Fungi; (2) coordination with a multi-laboratory team including software developers and systematists to develop and test new methods for tree integration and annotation; (3) outreach to the fungal systematics community; (4) contribution to a distributed web-based undergraduate course on assembling the tree of life, and co-instruction of a linked undergraduate course at Clark University.
The ideal candidate will be a productive researcher with interests in fungal systematics and the construction and interpretation of large-scale phylogenetic trees, will have excellent communication and interpersonal skills, and will seek a career involving both research and education. Candidates lacking background in fungal systematics, but with strong qualifications in phylogenetics, and excellent potential as educators, may be considered.
It is anticipated that the position will be available beginning May 1, 2012. Up to three years of support is possible, depending on progress. Funding is contingent on final NSF approval.
To apply, e-mail a curriculum vitae, statement of research interests and career goals, PDFs of major publications, and names and e-mail addresses for three references. Applications from women and members of underrepresented groups in science are encouraged.
Clark University is an EEO/AA Employer.
David S. Hibbett
Biology Department
Clark University
Worcester, MA 01610
(508) 793-7332
Dhibbett@clarku.edu
University of Kaiserslautern, Kaiserslautern, Germany
Postdoctoral Position and PhD Studentships in ciliate genome evolution and ciliate biodiversity and biogeography
Posting date: February 15, 2012
Position 1: Postdoc position in ciliate genome evolution
A postdoctoral position testing the putative lack of meiotic sex in colpodean ciliates (Dunthorn and Katz, 2010, Trends Microbiol. 18:183-188) is available in the newly established DFG-Emmy-Noether Independent Junior Research Group for Microbial Diversity at the University of Kaiserslautern. The position is for 3 years, with the possibility of extension. The first aim is to evaluate the evolution of sex-linked genes in already published genomes of known sexual ciliates. The second aim is to evaluate the presence or absence of these same genes using Illumina whole genome sequencing in three colpodeans: Bursaria truncatella, Colpoda magna, and Sorogena stoianovitchae. Opportunities are possible to also work with evaluating these genes in other clades of putative asexual microbial eukaryotes.
The candidate for this position must have excellent bioinformatic skills.
Additional requirements: a Ph.D. in biology or computer science; good working knowledge of English, both written and verbal; motivation and ability to work independently. Salary follows DFG guidelines (E13).
The Microbial Diversity research group is headed by Dr. Micah Dunthorn. Other work in the group includes a 5-year study of the diversity and biogeography of soil-inhabiting ciliates in Neotropical rainforests using 454 pyrosequencing, and ciliate molecular phylogenetics. This group is located in the Department of Ecology, headed by DFG-Heisenberg Professor Dr. Thorsten Stoeck.
If interested, please send an e-mail with a single pdf containing your C.V., a description of your motivation and research interests, reprints of published papers, and contact details of two academic references. Applications will be screened until the position is filled. Starting date: March 2012 or soon thereafter.
Micah Dunthorn
dunthorn@rhrk.uni-kl.de
http://www.bio.uni-kl.de/microbialdiversity/
Position 2: Ph.D. position in ciliate biodiversity and biogeography
A three-year Ph.D. position is available in the newly established DFG-Emmy-Noether Independent Junior Research Group for Microbial Diversity at the University of Kaiserslautern. This work is part of a 5-year study of the diversity and biogeography of soil-inhabiting ciliates in Neotropical rainforests using 454 pyrosequencing. The aim is to evaluate the number of ciliate species, and their phylogenetic diversity, in lowland forests in Costa Rica, Panama, and Ecuador, and to uncover biogeographical patterns among these forests.
Requirements: bioinformatics skills; experience in DNA amplification and sequencing; ability to handle Neotropical fieldwork; M.S., Diplom, or equivalent in the fields of biology or computer science; good working knowledge of English, both written and verbal; motivation and ability to work independently. Salary follows DFG guidelines (E13/2).
The Microbial Diversity research group is headed by Dr. Micah Dunthorn. Other work in the group includes using Illumina whole genome sequencing to evaluate putative asexuality in ciliates and other microbial eukaryotes, and ciliate molecular phylogenetics. This group is located in the Department of Ecology, headed by DFG-Heisenberg Professor Dr. Thorsten Stoeck.
If interested, please send an e-mail with a single pdf containing your C.V., a description of your motivation and research interests, reprints of published papers, and contact details of two academic references. Applications will be screened until the position is filled. Starting date: June 2012, or soon thereafter.
Micah Dunthorn
dunthorn@rhrk.uni-kl.de
http://www.bio.uni-kl.de/microbialdiversity/