Assistant Professor Position in Integrative Genomics

The Department of Biology (http://biology.louisiana.edu) at the University of Louisiana, Lafayette seeks to fill a tenure-track position at the Assistant Professor level to complement our strengths in evolutionary, molecular, and coastal biology.  We are searching for an outstanding scientist using genomics, bioinformatics and molecular biology tools to address important questions in evolution, behavior, physiology, or environmental biology.

Minimum qualifications are a Ph.D. in a relevant field and postdoctoral experience. Successful applicants will be expected to establish a vigorous, externally-funded research program, provide instruction to undergraduates and participate in our Ph.D. program in Environmental and Evolutionary Biology. Cover letter, curriculum vitae, statement of research interests, statement of teaching interests, and a list of three references (including postal and email addresses) should be emailed as a single pdf attachment to: genomicssearch.search@louisiana.edu. Please refer to Integrative Genomics search in the subject line. To ensure full consideration, applications should be received by October 16, 2015.

UL Lafayette is an EEO/AA employer.

ForBio course: Introduction to Bioinformatics for Biosystematics

ForBio course: Introduction to Bioinformatics for Biosystematics

Time and place: Oct 5, 2015 Oct 9, 2015, Natural History Museum, Oslo, Norway

Basic programming skills are essential for handling large datasets and performing complex analyses in biosystematics. This course aims to provide the students with tools to solve practical problems often encountered in biosystematic research. Course topics include Python, R, and SQL. An introduction is arranged October 3-4 (Saturday and Sunday) for participants without previous experience of GNU/Linux and Bash.

Click here for more information about the course.

Click here to apply now.

Application deadline: September 11, 2015.

Symposium on Biodiversity and DNA barcoding in Trondheim, November 11-12, 2015

Symposium banner

The Norwegian Biodiversity Information Centre and the Norwegian Barcode of Life Network (NorBOL) have the pleasure of inviting you to a symposium on Biodiversity and DNA barcoding in Trondheim November 11-12, 2015. The goal of this conference is to communicate new knowledge on Norwegian species and show how DNA barcoding contributes to our understanding of species diversity, biology and ecology. We think the symposium will be an attractive venue for researchers, student and managers of biodiversity and are pleased to have distinguished speakers from Canada, UK, Finland, Sweden and Norway. Among the confirmed participants are Paul Hebert, Sujeevan Ratnasingham, Natasha de Vere and Tomas Roslin. For more information on the conference, speakers and registration, please visit the symposium website: Biodiversity and DNA barcoding. Welcome!

The organizing committee
Ingrid Salvesen
Ingrid Ertshus Mathisen
Aina Mærk Aspaas
Torbjørn Ekrem

 

Researcher in Botany, Swedish Museum of Natural History

A position as Researcher (Senior Curator, with the possibility of promotion to Professor) in Botany (Systematic Botany in the widest sense, including mycology and lichenology) is open at the Swedish Museum of Natural History in Stockholm. Deadline for application June 18th 2015. More details in the pdf on the nrm website:

http://www.nrm.se/download/18.4a349ce514c29d2b7519738f/1431086492505/Forskare+BOT+engelsk.pdf

TWO PHD POSITIONS IN SYSTEMATIC BOTANY / PHYLOGENETICS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH

PROJECT DESCRIPTION: The selected student will work with Dr. Colin Hughes http://www.systbot.uzh.ch/Personen/ProfessorenundDozenten/ColinHughes.html on a research project entitled “Global Legume diversity patterns: macroevolutionary and ecological processes shaping biodiversity”, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation in the Institute of Systematic Botany at the University of Zürich. http://www.systbot.uzh.ch/index_en.html

We are interested in how diversity evolves and understanding the processes and factors that determine the spatial distribution of life on Earth. Using comparative approaches and one of the most evolutionary successful families of flowering plants, the legumes (Leguminosae = Fabaceae), as a study system, we are addressing a set of inter-related questions about global plant diversity patterns. We are making use of recent developments in comparative phylogenomics and global-scale species distribution modelling to quantify phylogenetic turnover and the ecological factors underlying patterns of diversity across large-scale ecological gradients.

The PhD projects will focus on specific legume clades, and especially subfamily Mimosoideae, a pantropical clade spanning all lowland tropical biomes and potentially involve fieldwork, laboratory work to generate DNA sequence data using NGS, herbarium specimen database work, and phylogenetic/ macroevolutionary analysis. This will build on foundations – genomic data, development of NGS approaches, taxonomic knowledge and research material – already established in Zurich.

POSITION CHARACTERISTICS: The Institute of Systematic Botany in Zurich offers excellent research facilities and a stimulating working environment for graduate students in plant systematics and evolution. The project will also involve collaboration with legume researchers in Brasil, the Netherlands, U.K., U.S.A. and Canada. Salary is according to the Swiss National Science Foundation guidelines. Funding, including for laboratory and field work, is available for 3 years.

REQUIREMENTS: Applicants should hold a Masters degree in systematics, biodiversity or evolutionary biology. Experience in molecular laboratory techniques, working with NGS data, phylogenetic analysis, macroevolutionary analysis, fieldwork and GIS are all potentially relevant. Excellent knowledge of English, written and oral, is essential.

HOW TO APPLY: Send the following documents by email AS A SINGLE PDF FILE to Dr. Colin Hughes, colin.hughes@systbot.uzh.ch: i) a two-page application letter describing your research interests, outlining why you think working on mimosoid legumes is interesting, why are you interested in a Ph.D. position in systematic botany and your career goals; ii) your CV, including a list of publications (if applicable); iii) a copy of your undergraduate and graduate academic record; iv) names and contact details of at least two referees selected from your academic advisors.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION: Applications will be screened from May 25th 2015 onwards until the positions are filled.

STARTING DATE: Sept/Oct 2015.

Svenska artprojektet utlyser medel för taxonomisk forskning och inventering

Årets utlysning av medel från Svenska artprojektet för taxonomisk forskning och inventering gällande dåligt kända organismgrupper ligger nu ute på ArtDatabankens hemsida. Sista ansökningsdag är 1 juni 2015.

Summer school on Tropical Biology in Tanzania 2015

Ansökningsfrist för att kunde komma med på kursen, som är i Udzungwa Mts 24 augusti – 6 september 2015, är slutet på juni. För mer information och hur man ansöker: http://www.muse.it/it/La-Ricerca/Biodiversita-tropicale/Proposte-formative/Pagine/Summer-School-2015.aspx

Kontaktperson för kursen är Nikolaj Scharff (nscharff@snm.ku.dk).

Molecular-Clock Dating Using MrBayes – Seminar and Workshop

Molecular-Clock Dating Using MrBayes – Seminar and Workshop

  • 22 April – Stockholm: 09:30-11:30, Rum 540, Botaniska Institutionen, Stockholms universitet
  • 23 April – Uppsala: 13:15-15:15, Lärosal 4, Evolutionsbiologiskt Centrum, Uppsala universitet

Chi Zhang*, Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm
Johan Nylander, BILS/Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm

MrBayes – the most often used software for Bayesian phylogenetic analysis – has included many new features since version 3.2. In this seminar, we will highlight some newly implemented functionality, with focus on the molecular-clock dating capacities of the current version (v.3.2.4). The seminar will consist of two parts, where following a presentation* giving the necessary backrground information, there will be a hands-on tutorial where participants are encouraged to bring their own data (and computers).

Abstract
There are two approaches on dating using molecular data: node dating and total-evidence dating. Node dating calibrates the internal nodes of the tree by assigning distributions using information from external sources, such as the fossil record. Total-evidence dating uses the morphological data from fossil record and morphological and sequence data from recent organisms together to infer the dates. Several steps involve in Bayesian dating analysis, including data partitioning, node or fossil age calibration, and setting priors for the tree and the molecular clock model. I will describe the available calibration probability distributions, clock tree priors – especially the fossilized birth-death prior for total-evidence dating, and relaxed clock models, through a step-by-step tutorial of MrBayes.

The program (MrBayes v.3.2.4) is available from http://mrbayes.net (alternatively https://sourceforge.net/projects/mrbayes/files/mrbayes)

Participants in the practical part are encouraged to bring their own computers with the software installed from the above mentioned URL’s.

Stockholm Phylogenomics Group – Talk at NRM 24 March: SUPERSMART. Change in time!

Dear All!

Reminder and change of starting time!

Stockholm Phylogenomics Group announces – Upcoming talk at the Naturhistoriska riksmuseet, Stockholm, March 24.

Speakers: Alexandre Antonelli (University of Gothenburg),
Hannes Hettling and Rutger Vos (Naturalis Biodiversity Center,
the Netherlands)

Title: SUPERSMART: Ecology and evolution in the era of big data

Time: March 24 at 15:30-16:30

Venue: Room 525, Naturhistoriska riksmuseet, Stockholm

Host: Fredrik Ronquist

Abstract: Rapidly growing biological data volumes – including
molecular sequences and fossil records – hold an unprecedented
potential to reveal how evolutionary processes generate and
maintain biodiversity. However, most studies integrating these
data use an idiosyncratic step-by-step approach for the
reconstruction of time-calibrated phylogenies. We will present a
novel conceptual framework, termed SUPERSMART (Self-Updating
Platform for Estimating Rates of Speciation and Migration, Ages,
and Relationships of Taxa), and present our proof of concept for
dealing with the moving targets of biodiversity research. This
framework reconstructs dated phylogenies based on the assembly
of molecular and genomic datasets. The data handled for each step
are continuously updated as databases accumulate new records. We
believe that this emerging framework will provide an invaluable
tool for a wide range of hypothesis-driven research questions in
systematics and evolution. For more information please see

http://www.supersmart-project.org.