Postdoctoral Research Assistant – Behavioural and Evolutionary Ecologist/Computational Biologist
Fixed-‐term for up to three years Department of Zoology, South Parks Road, Oxford Grade 7: £29,249-‐£35,938 p.a. A postdoctoral position is available, for up to three years, from 1April 2012 or as soon as possible thereafter, to study social structure in wild bird populations from an ecological and evolutionary perspective. The post is funded as part of an ERC Advanced Investigator grant of €2.5M over five years to Prof Ben Sheldon. The post will be based in the Edward Grey Institute, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford. The post-‐holder will join a research team examining the causes and consequences of variation in social structure in wild populations. Candidates should have a PhD in behavioural or evolutionary ecology, or a related subject or in computational biology,particularly as applied to the study of social networks, group and population structure or collective behaviour. The successful candidate will have proven skills in computationally intensive analyses of biological systems and in writing and publishing papers in leading journals in the field. The post is based in a dynamic research-‐active institute, of c. 55 people, fully integrated within the Department of Zoology. Further details about the institute available at: http://www.zoo.ox.ac.uk/egi/ Informal inquiries (with CV) to Prof Ben Sheldon ([email protected]). Only applications received before midday on 29 March 2012 can be considered. If you would like to apply please go to http://www.ox.ac.uk/about_the_university/jobs/research/ and search using reference 102358. Cheers, Colin -- Colin Garroway Edward Grey Institute, Department of Zoology, South Parks Road, University of Oxford, OX1 3PS http://sites.google.com/site/colingarroway2/home Further particulars: DEPARTMENT OF ZOOLOGY TINBERGEN BUILDING SOUTH PARKS ROAD OXFORD OX1 3PS Tel: 01865271278 Job description and selection criteria Job title Postdoctoral Research Assistant Division MPLS Department Zoology Location South Parks Road Grade and salary Grade 7: £29,249-£35,938 per annum Hours Full time Contract type Fixed-term for up to three years Reporting to Professor Ben Sheldon Vacancy reference 102358 Introduction The University The University of Oxford is a complex and stimulating organisation, which enjoys an international reputation as a world-class centre of excellence in research and teaching. It employs over 10,000 staff and has a student population of over 21,000. Most staff are directly appointed and managed by one of the University’s 130 departments or other units within a highly devolved operational structure - this includes 5,900 ‘academicrelated’ staff (postgraduate research, computing, senior library, and administrative staff) and 2,820 ‘support’ staff (including clerical, library, technical, and manual staff). There are also over 1,600 academic staff (professors, readers, lecturers), whose appointments are in the main overseen by a combination of broader divisional and local faculty board/departmental structures. Academics are generally all also employed by one of the 38 constituent colleges of the University as well as by the central University itself. Our annual income in 2010/11 was £919.6m. Oxford is one of Europe's most innovative and entrepreneurial universities: income from external research contracts exceeds £376m p.a., and more than 70 spin-off companies have been created. For more information please visit www.ox.ac.uk About the Mathematical, Physical, and Life Sciences Division The Mathematical, Physical, and Life Sciences Division (MPLS) is one of the four academic divisions within the University, (that is, Humanities Division, Social Sciences Division, Mathematical, Physical, and Life Sciences Division, Medical Sciences Division). It comprises ten academic departments: Chemistry, Computing Laboratory, Earth Sciences, Engineering Sciences, Materials, the Mathematical Institute, Physics, Plant Sciences, Statistics, Zoology. The MPLS Division also encompasses the Begbroke Science Park, the Life Sciences Interface Doctoral Training Centre, and the Oxford e-Research Centre. The constituent units of the Division enjoy an international reputation for excellence in the mathematical, physical, and life sciences, as well as in interdisciplinary areas, particularly at the interface with the medical and environmental sciences. Each division has its own academic Head of Division and a divisional secretariat, led by the Divisional Secretary. Each division is responsible for academic oversight of the teaching and research of its various departments and faculties, for strategic and operational planning, and for personnel and resource management. Much of this is undertaken by the divisional board and its principal committees. The Head of the Mathematical, Physical, and Life Sciences Division is Professor Alex Halliday, and the Divisional Secretary is Dr Saira Shaikh. The Divisional Office for Mathematical, Physical, and Life Sciences is based at 9 Parks Road, in the heart of the science area. For more information please visit www.mpls.ox.ac.uk The Department The Department of Zoology, within the Mathematical, Physical and Life Sciences Division at the University of Oxford, has a long-standing reputation for world class research and teaching. Research in the Department is organised into several research themes; these span a broad spectrum of biology ranging from ecology and behaviour, through to molecular evolution, development and infectious disease biology. The Department participates in teaching a B.A. degree in Biological Sciences. We were awarded full marks, 24 out of 24, in the official Subject Review (formerly known as Teaching Quality Assessment). The Department of Zoology currently has approximately 70 academic staff. It also houses a very large and interactive group of post docs (~100) and graduate students (~150). Ten members of the Department are Fellows of the Royal Society including Lord May, President (2000-2005). For more information about the department, please visit the web site http://www.zoo.ox.ac.uk Overview of the role This post is funded as part of a €2.5M grant from the European Research Council to Prof Ben C Sheldon (BCS), which runs from April 2010-March 2015. The first two years of the grant, to date, have involved designing and setting up a large-scale automated system for recording social associations in multiple wild bird populations. This system now constitutes an array of logging stations (>100) distributed on a regular grid across two woodlands, which record foraging visits by individually marked birds at pre-determined intervals between September-March. These generate large volumes of data (e.g. >10 million records of >3000 individuals in winter 2011/12) which, together with other detailed information about the study populations and study sites (see below), will be used to generate and test hypotheses about the causes and consequences of social network structure in these populations. There are three distinct sub-projects, each of which is funded with separate postdoctoral and research assistant support, where necessary, as well as core administrative, technical and fieldwork assistance, and extensive equipment and consumables support for the whole project. Sub-project 1 (2011-2013; PDRA is Dr Colin Garroway) addresses the effect of social environments on life-history decisions in great tits, specifically aiming to manipulate social environments to test effects on traits like dispersal and local recruitment. Sub-project 2 (2012-2014; PDRA is Dr Reinder Radersma) deals with genetic effects on social relationships and social structure in tits, using both quantitative genetic (pedigree-based) methods, and extensive data from a 10K SNP chip applied to >2500 individual great tits from the study population. Sub-project 3 (this post) aims to understand higher-level variation in social structure within populations. In addition to these research areas, other postdoctoral and graduate student projects will work under the aegis of this project (though separately funded) to study social transmission of information, interspecific social structure, transmission of disease and pathogens in social networks and social and genetic aspects of dispersal, among other areas. Further, a collaboration together with Prof Steve Roberts (Engineering, Oxford) and a PhD student funded by Microsoft has begun developing new statistical methods for detecting group structure and network analysis in data of this type. We expect there to be continuous feedback between the theoretical and empirical aspects of the work. Research questions for the present post will be developed in collaboration with the PI and other members of the research group, but include the following broad areas: (i) What determines the network properties of individuals (i.e. nodes)? Can these be understood in terms of interactions between the social environment (i.e. other birds) and other aspects of the environment? What links are there between social network properties and fitness of individuals? (ii) How does social network structure vary over time and space? Multiple networks are available at a range of levels of spatial (different study populations) and temporal (dailyannual) replication, as well as within and between multiple species. (iii) How structured are social networks with respect to the state (e.g. age, sex, experience) of those individuals comprising them? What consequences does non-random structure have for movement, pairing and dispersal strategies? (iv) How stable are social networks to perturbation? A range of experimental manipulations, from temporary removal of individuals to simulated changes in the risk of predation, or food availability can be carried out from 2012-13. Responsibilities/duties This post occupies an important role in this research programme. In addition to working on the scientific questions outlined above, the post holder will also be expected to be an active member of a collaborative team. The main duties of the post-holder are as follows: (1) Conducting research addressing the causes and consequences of variation in social network structure. (2) Preparation of papers for submission to peer-reviewed journals. (3) Assistance in the design and execution of field experiments to test social network resilience. (4) Working effectively as part of a moderately-sized team (comprising at least Principal Investigator, three postdocs, four doctoral students, three research assistants, a technician, a data-base manager and up to six field assistants) to ensure prompt and accurate collection of data, identification and trouble-shooting of problems. Selection criteria Essential 1. Doctorate (or very clear expectation of impending submission for one) in behavioural ecology or evolutionary ecology, or computational biology; 2. Proven skills in writing and publishing papers in leading journals; 3. Proven skills in analysis of complex biological problems; 4. Proven skills in the use of appropriate techniques for complex analysis (e.g. programming in R, MATLAB, C++, Python) Desirable 1. Experience of working as part of a multi-disciplinary team linking computational approaches with other forms of biology; 2. Experience of analysis of biological networks, particularly social networks; Working at the University of Oxford For further information about working at Oxford, please see: http://www.ox.ac.uk/about_the_university/jobs/research/ How to apply If you consider that you meet the selection criteria, click on the Apply Now button on the ‘Job Details’ page and follow the on-screen instructions to register as a user. You will then be required to complete a number of screens with your application details, relating to your skills and experience. When prompted, please provide details of two referees and indicate whether we can contact them at this stage. You will also be required to upload a CV and supporting statement. The supporting statement should describe what you have been doing over at least the last 10 years. This may have been employment, education, or you may have taken time away from these activities in order to raise a family, care for a dependant, or travel for example. Your application will be judged solely on the basis of how you demonstrate that that you meet the selection criteria outlined above and we are happy to consider evidence of transferable skills or experience which you may have gained outside the context of paid employment or education. Please save all uploaded documents to show your name and the document type. All applications must be received by midday on the closing date stated in the online advertisement. Information for Priority Candidates A priority candidate is a University employee who is seeking redeployment owing to the fact that he or she has been advised that they are at risk of redundancy, or on grounds of illhealth/ disability. Priority candidates are issued with a redeployment letter by their employing departments and this letter must be attached to any application they submit. The priority application date for this post is Tuesday 13 March 2012. Full details of the priority application process are available at: http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/personnel/end/red/redproc/prioritycandidate Should you experience any difficulties using the online application system, please email [email protected] To return to the online application at any stage, please click on the following link www.recruit.ox.ac.uk Please note that you will be notified of the progress of your application by automatic e-mails from our e-recruitment system. Please check your spam/junk mail regularly to ensure that you receive all e-mails.
