Our research group seeks to hire a post-doctoral associate in the ecology and evolution of plant-associated microbes. Successful applicants will work on an experimental project with global reach as part of a team of ecologists and evolutionary biologists in the University of Minnesota's departments of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior and Plant Pathology.
The appointment is for one year (with potential for renewal), to begin as soon as possible. The scientific goal of this project is to examine the abiotic and biotic predictors of diversity in fungal, bacterial, and viral symbiont communities of plant hosts, and determine plant microbiome effects on disease transmission. Experiments will encompass scales ranging from individual hosts and local host communities to regional and global spatial scales. Research will use high-throughput sequencing, culturing, and manipulative experiments to estimate diversity in microbial communities and examine the effects of these microbial communities on host pathogen resistance, and on microbial fitness and transmission. Additional opportunities include work with mathematical modelers to test predictive models. We are particularly interested in applicants with metagenomics and fungal or bacterial organismal expertise in microbial biology and training in community ecology or evolutionary biology. Successful applicants will have experience and ability in laboratory techniques necessary for high-throughput sequencing and quantitative skills for manipulating and analyzing metagenomic, ecological or evolutionary datasets, as well as the capacity to work well in this collaborative research project. A conceptual overview of the larger project is described in Borer et al. 2013 (found at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.baae.2013.08.009). Questions about this position should be addressed to Dr. Georgiana May ([email protected]) and Dr. Linda Kinkel ([email protected]). Review of applications will begin on 15 March 2015. Apply for this position via the University of Minnesota Office of Human Resources website: employment.umn.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=128170
