Jobs and Opportunities

Advertised in December 2013

Graduated: Dr. Emily Humble

Supervisors: Dr Joe Hoffman (Bielefeld University, Germany) and Dr Jaume Forcada (British Antarctic Survey, UK).

Many studies of wild populations reveal links between heterozygosity and fitness, with highly heterozygous individuals carrying fewer parasites, living longer and being more attractive to mates. However, because most studies use only around ten microsatellite markers, we do not yet know which of two possible mechanisms is most important nor which types of gene could be involved. This studentship will take full advantage of emerging next-generation technologies to elucidate the relationship between heterozygosity and fitness in a natural vertebrate system based on a large body of genetic and observational data from an intensively studied colony of Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella). The objective is to determine the main mechanism(s) responsible for heterozygosity-fitness correlations using a combination of high-density SNP genotyping, linkage mapping and comparative genomics.

We seek a bright and highly motivated student who ideally holds an M.Sc. or equivalent in a relevant topic (e.g. population, evolutionary or conservation genetics, bioinformatics). Experience of working with next generation sequence data (including writing custom scripts), SNP discovery and genotyping (including RAD sequencing and high-density SNP arrays) and quantitative genetics (including linkage mapping) would be advantageous, but full training will be provided. The ideal candidate will also be able to work both independently and as part of a team. A high standard of spoken and written English is required.

The student will be based at the Department of Animal Behaviour at Bielefeld University (www.uni-bielefeld.de/biologie/vhf/index.html). The department is the oldest of its kind in Germany and currently hosts six principal investigators, seven postdocs and twenty PhD students. It offers a stimulating international environment and an excellent research infrastructure including a brand new molecular laboratory. The working language of the Department is English. The student will also have the opportunity to interact with cooperation partners (Prof Jon Slate and Dr Jochen Wolf) through placements at Sheffield and Uppsala Universities respectively.

Bielefeld is a city of 325,000 inhabitants with an attractive historical centre and easy access to the Teutoberger Wald for hiking and other outdoor pursuits. It offers a very high standard of living and is well connected to most major European cities.

This generous studentship, which provides a net salary of at least 1500 euros per month and includes health insurance, is funded by the German Science Foundation (DFG) for a period of three years. Funding is also available for attending conferences. To apply for the position, please provide: (i) a letter of motivation including a maximum 2-page statement of your research interests, relevant skills and experience; (ii) a CV including publication list; and (iii) names and contact details of three referees willing to write confidential letters of recommendation. All materials should be emailed as a single PDF file to: joseph.hoffman@uni-bielefeld.de with 'PhD application' in the subject line.

The University of Bielefeld is an equal opportunity employer. We particularly welcome applications from women. Given equal suitability, qualifications and professional achievement, women will be given preference, unless particular circumstances pertaining to a male applicant apply.

The application deadline is January 10th 2014 and interviews will take place shortly afterwards. The preferred start date is flexible and will depend on the timeframe of the most qualified applicant. For further information, please see http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/biologie/vhf/JH or contact Joe Hoffman via email (joseph.hoffman@uni-bielefeld.de) with any informal inquiries.

For representative publications, please see: Hoffman et al. (2003) Evolution, 57: 1917?1930; Hoffman et al. (2007) Nature, 445: 912?914; and Hoffman et al. (2013) BMC Genomics, 14: 52.

Advertised in December 2013

Graduated: Dr. David Vendrami

Supervisors: Dr Joe Hoffman (Bielefeld University, Germany), Dr Liz Harper (Cambridge University, UK) and Dr Melody Clark (British Antarctic Survey, UK) ).

There is mounting concern over the acidification of the World?s oceans. In the 250 years since the onset of the industrial revolution, atmospheric CO2 levels have risen from 280 to 381 ppm and ocean pH has fallen from an average 8.16 to 8.05. Human-driven emissions of CO2 continue to rise and have begun to outstrip even the most pessimistic of IPCC model scenarios. How will life in the oceans adapt to this changing environment? Particular concern has been expressed over organisms with heavily calcified shells such as molluscs, as their ability to extract carbonate ions from seawater and incorporate these into their skeletons may be increasingly compromised.

This PhD position forms part of a Marie Curie Initial Training Network entitled CACHE: Calcium in a Changing Environment, funded by the EU (ref: 605051) and co-ordinated by the British Antarctic Survey. The aim of this network is to take a co-ordinated multidisciplinary approach to understanding calcium regulation and shell production in four commercially important shellfish species, the king scallop (Pecten maximus), the Pacific oyster, (Crassostrea gigas), the blue mussel (Mytilus edulis) and the soft shell clam (Mya arenaria). The network comprises 10 partners from 6 European countries, including research institutes, universities and SMEs. As a member of the network, the student will be expected to work co-operatively within the network, participate in European training events and spend up to 30% of their training with another network partner. Full details of the network can be found at www.cache-ITN.eu.

The PhD project will use high-density SNP genotyping to examine the population genetic structure of the four shellfish species along a European latitudinal cline. The resulting data will be interpreted in the light of both life-history variation and oceanography, and will be analysed together with shell morphological data to explore the extent of phenotypic plasticity. Candidate genes involved in calcium regulation and deposition will also be assayed to test for fingerprints of natural selection.

We seek a bright and highly motivated student who ideally holds an M.Sc. or equivalent in a relevant topic (e.g. population, evolutionary or conservation genetics, bioinformatics). The student will be responsible for developing a bioinformatic pipeline to analyse Illumina Restriction Site Associated DNA (RAD) sequence data. Experience of installing and working with Linux systems, analysing high-throughput sequence data and writing custom scripts is therefore highly desirable, although full training can be provided. The ideal candidate will also be able to work both independently and as part of a multidisciplinary team. A high standard of spoken and written English is required.

The student will be based at the Department of Animal Behaviour at Bielefeld University (www.uni-bielefeld.de/biologie/vhf/index.html). The department is the oldest of its kind in Germany and currently hosts six principal investigators, seven postdocs and twenty PhD students. It offers a stimulating international environment and an excellent research infrastructure including a brand new molecular laboratory. The working language of the Department is English..

Bielefeld is a city of 325,000 inhabitants with an attractive historical centre and easy access to the Teutoberger Wald for hiking and other outdoor pursuits. It offers a very high standard of living and is well connected to most major European cities.

To apply for the position, please provide: (i) a letter of motivation including a maximum 2-page statement of your research interests, relevant skills and experience; (ii) a CV including publication list; (iii) names and contact details of three referees willing to write confidential letters of recommendation; (iv) for monitoring purposes only, please clearly state your nationality, sex, and where you saw the advert. All materials should be emailed as a single PDF file to: joseph.hoffman@uni-bielefeld.de with 'CACHE PhD application' in the subject line.

The application deadline is January 12th 2014 and interviews will take place shortly afterwards. The preferred start date is flexible and will depend on the timeframe of the most qualified applicant. For further information, please see http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/biologie/vhf/JH or contact Joe Hoffman via email (joseph.hoffman@uni-bielefeld.de) with any informal inquiries.

If you are interested in a second CACHE project, please list that in your application. Any candidates short-listed, but not offered a PhD position with their first choice, will be have their candidature papers automatically transferred to their second choice project to be included in the sift for that post, if the vacancy is still open.

Eligibility: Please note that this is an EU funded Marie Curie post and therefore certain eligibility criteria apply: (i) The applicant must be in the first four years (full time equivalent research experience) of their research careers and not yet have a doctoral degree. This is measured from the date when they obtained the degree which would formally entitle them to embark on a doctorate; (ii) At the time of recruitment by the host organisation, researchers must not have resided or carried out their main activity (work, studies etc) in the country of their host organisation for more than 12 months in the 3 years immediately prior to the reference date; (iii) The PhD candidates can be from any nationality, including non-EU.

The University of Bielefeld is an equal opportunity employer. We particularly welcome applications from women. Given equal suitability, qualifications and professional achievement, women will be given preference, unless particular circumstances pertaining to a male applicant apply.

If you are interested in joining our group, either as a PhD student or postdoc, please do not hesitate to get in touch.  Candidates with a background in bioinformatics who wish to apply their talents to behavioural or conservation genetics are particularly encouraged.