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

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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.

Intendent till enheten för botanik, NRM

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Intendent till enheten för botanik

Arbetsplatsbeskrivning

Genom att vara en arena för kunskap, upplevelser, samtal och debatt vill vi bidra till att öka allas kunskap om vår gemensamma miljö och natur samt bidra till att påverka och förnya landets miljö- och naturvårdsarbete. Våra samlingar utgör ett fantastiskt arkiv med närmare tio miljoner föremål. Här kan du besöka utställningar på olika teman, lyssna till föredrag och delta i programaktiviteter.

Enheten ansvarar för museets samlingar av kärlväxter, svampar, slemsvampar, lavar, alger, mossor och bedriver forskning inom botanisk systematik och evolution. I enhetens uppdrag ligger också att digitalisera samlingarna och att på olika sätt göra samlingsinformationen tillgänglig för allmänheten och forskarsamhället.

Arbetsbeskrivning

Arbetsuppgifterna består i huvudsak av arbete med de vetenskapliga samlingarna, dataregistrering, utlån ur samlingarna och tillhörande låneadministration, korrespondens, service till gästforskare samt att delta i planering och organiserande av samlingar. I arbetsuppgifterna ingår dessutom att representera enheten i olika sammankomster, delta i publika arrangemang och hålla demonstrationer för allmänheten.

Kvalifikationer

Akademisk examen i biologi med systematisk botanik över grundnivå. Tidigare erfarenhet av arbete med vetenskapliga växtsamlingar. Dokumenterad erfarenhet av taxonomi, nomenklatur och samlingsvård. Breda kunskaper inom botanikens mångfald är meriterande.

Arbetet kräver god förståelse för botanisk nomenklatur och taxonomi, initiativförmåga, samarbetsförmåga samt förmåga att arbeta självständigt och långsiktigt mot uppsatta mål.

Anställningens omfattning

Anställningsform: Tillsvidareanställning

Omfattning:   Heltid

Tillträde enligt överenskommelse.

Vi tillämpar sex månaders provanställning.

Ansökan

Ansök senast:   2015-05-22

Referensnummer:   2.3.1-275-2015

Välkommen att söka genom att:

Lön

Löneform:   Månadslön

Anställning

Antal annonserade arbetstillfällen:   1

Arbetstid:   Dagtid

Kontakt

Kontaktperson

Arne Anderberg Professor 08-519 540 00

Facklig företrädare

Bodil Kajrup, SACO-S 08-519 540 00

Övrigt

Att dela med oss av vår kunskap ger oss motivation och inspiration i det dagliga arbetet. Vi eftersträvar att vara en jämställd arbetsplats med etnisk och kulturell mångfald.

Inför rekryteringsarbetet har vi tagit ställning till rekryteringskanaler och marknadsföring.
Vi undanbeder oss därför kontakt med mediesäljare, rekryteringssajter och liknande.

Läs mer:   http://www.nrm.se

Svenska artprojektet utlyser medel för taxonomisk forskning och inventering

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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

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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).

Jobb i Norge för molekylär systematiker

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The NTNU University Museum, Department of Natural History

Associate professor of molecular biodiversity

Application deadline: 25 May 2015.

The NTNU University Museum is seeking a highly qualified and motivated candidate for an associate professor position in molecular biodiversity. The position is part of NTNU’s strategic focus on young, ambitious and excellent researchers (the “Onsager fellowships”) and is financed for 6 years. After this time it is expected that the candidate will obtain full professor qualifications and permanent employment.

The position in molecular biodiversity is central in the Department of Natural History’s strategy for further increasing the use of next generation sequencing data in studies of patterns and changes of biodiversity in time and space. More specifically, the successful candidate will carry out cutting-edge research within the field of evolutionary and environmental genomics, and extensive experience in handling and analysing complex genomic data sets using custom scripts and open source tools is expected. Background in population genomics, phylogenetics and proficiency in statistics is considered essential. The candidate must have experience in team-work and is expected to be working with broad research topics within evolutionary biology and ecology.

The successful applicant will have a strong interest in evolutionary biology and a PhD in biodiversity science (molecular ecology, molecular systematics or closely related fields of evolutionary biology research) or bioinformatics. Experience in analyses of different types of molecular data is an advantage. Applicants must document excellence in research during and after completed PhD, be goal-oriented and able to deliver results when expected. Excellent skills in written and spoken English and creative problem-solving abilities are expected.

Full info: http://www.jobbnorge.no/en/available-jobs/job/112322/associate-professor-of-molecular-biodiversity

Molecular-Clock Dating Using MrBayes – Seminar and Workshop

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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!

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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.

Stockholm Phylogenomics Group – Talk at NRM 24 March: SUPERSMART

Publicerat av
Svara

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 15:00-16:00

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.