BEHAVIORAL ECOLOGY OF SAILFIN AND AMAZON MOLLIES Teaching Assistantship for MS or PhD.
Applications are being sought for a student interested in pursuing an academic career studying various aspects of the behavior of sailfin and Amazon mollies (or Salamanders). Amazon mollies, Poecilia formosa, are a clonal, all female species that are essentially sexual parasites as they require sperm from the closely related sailfin molly, P. latipinna and shortfin molly, P. mexicana, to start the development of their eggs but do not use it to fertilize their eggs. Conflict exists between male mollies that prefer to mate with conspecifics and the Amazon mollies that require matings with these males. We are looking for a student to work on some aspect of the system and can supply a renewable 9-mo Teaching Assistantship plus benefits and in state tuition. Preferably the position would start August 2009 with funding for this summer month ($1130). See http://www.bio.txstate.edu/~gabor/gabor.htm for details about our lab and our research interests. The Department of Biology offers a strong environment in evolutionary ecology as the basis for training in behavioral ecology. Students will benefit from interactions with other faculty interested in evolutionary questions such as: Jim Ott (Insect-plant interactions and ecological genetics), Noland Martin (Plant population genetics), and Chris Nice (Speciation in insects and phylogeography). We have both General Biology and Population and Conservation Biology MS (http://pop.bio.txstate.edu/index.html) programs and a Doctoral Program in Aquatic Biology. For more information on admissions see: http://www.bio.txstate.edu/grad/GradGuide.html. Please also see the Department of Biology (http://www.bio.txstate.edu/) and Texas State University (http://www.txstate.edu/) web sites for more information. Currently there is a soft deadline for applications to the MS program. To apply for this job please send a statement of interest and a CV/resume, relevant coursework, GPA, GRE, and any other relevant experience to Caitlin Gabor by email (gabor at txstate.edu). Reference letters for top candidates will be solicited at a later date. Applications will be reviewed as they come in.
