E v o l D i r
July 1, 2010
Month in Review
Foreword
This listing is intended to aid researchers in population genetics and evolution. To add your name to the directory listing, to change anything regarding this listing or to complain please send me mail at [email protected]. Listing in this directory is neither limited nor censored and is solely to help scientists reach other members in the same field and to serve as a means of communication. Please do not add to the junk e-mail unless necessary. The nature of the messages should be “bulletin board” in nature, if there is a “discussion” style topic that you would like to post please send it to the USENET discussion groups. Instructions for the EvolDir are listed at the end of this message.
/
Foreword ...... 1
Conferences ...... 2
GradStudentPositions ...... 11
Jobs ...... 24
Other ...... 36
PostDocs ...... 50
WorkshopsCourses ...... 86
Instructions ...... 93
Afterword ...... 93 2 EvolDir July 1, 2010
Conferences
Basel CichlidEvolution Aug26-29 ...... 2 Marseilles 14thEvolBiology Sep21-24 deadline ...... 8 Basel CichlidEvolution Aug26-29 reminder ...... 3 Marseilles 14thEvolutionaryBiology Sep21-24 ...... 8 BathU SexualSelection Sep1-4 ...... 3 Melbourne CaveSpeciation July23-30 ...... 8 Berlin BioSystematics Feb21-27 ...... 4 Oregon PhylogeneticsEvolutionInformatics Jun29-30 4 Brittany SocialEvolution Oct11-15 2 ...... 4 9 Coimbra Portugal SoilAdapation Jun12-16 ...... 5 Oregon PhylogeneticsEvolutionInformatics Jun29-30 CornellU HarrisonCelebration Jul22-23 ...... 6 BoFs ...... 9 Galway Ireland ElasmobranchTaxonomy Nov10-13 . .6 PacificSympBiocomp Microbiomes DeadlineExtended Hilo Hawaii ConservationGenomics Jul26-28 Deadline 10 7 UHull PopGroup Jan5-7 ...... 10 Hilo Hawaii ConservationGenomics Jul26-28 Dorm- UOttawa RECOMB Oct9-11 ...... 10 Rooms 2 ...... 7 Wageningen CoralReefs Dec13-17 ...... 11 London ASAB SexualSelection Dec2-3 ...... 8
Facebook group: “Cichlid Science 2010” confirmed speakers include: - J. Todd Streelman (Geor- Basel CichlidEvolution Aug26-29 gia Institute of Technology, USA) - Hans A. Hof- mann (University of Texas at Austin, USA) - Michael Taborsky (University Bern, Switzerland) - Walter Salzburger (University Basel, Switzerland) Dear evoldir user, If you have any questions, do not hesitate to pose them We would like to invite you to the Cichlid Science 2010 to: conference taking place from the 26th to the 29th of [email protected] August 2010 in Basel, Switzerland. It is going to be an international conference for researchers working on var- Please spread the word about this conference to your ious aspects of cichlid fish biology or which use cichlids students and collaborators! as a model system. Kind regards, This interdisciplinary venture is going to be an ideal Your organizing committee opportunity for creating new ideas and collaborations in the lovely scenery of estival Basel. We especially en- Adrian Indermaur, Britta Meyer, Moritz Muschick courage doctoral students and young postdocs to regis- and Yuri Klaefiger (PhD and Master students of the ter, since our foremost aim is to give them the oppor- Salzburger Research Group) tunity to present and discuss their research. related links: Registration deadline: 1st July Registration fee: Our research group http://evolution.unibas.ch/- 80 Swiss francs (aprox. 56 EUR, 70 USD) salzburger/ Information about University Please register via our conference website: http://- and arrival http://evolution.unibas.ch/ http://- www.evolution.unibas.ch/cichlidscience2010/ Unfortu- evolution.unibas.ch/contact.htm Information about nately, we can accept a limited number of participants Basel http://www.basel.com/en/welcome.cfm? Infor- only! mation about Hotels, Youth Hostels and Backpackers more information: http://www.basel.com/en.cfm/uebernachtungen/- hotelliste/ http://www.youthhostel.ch/ http:/- http://www.evolution.unibas.ch/cichlidscience2010/ July 1, 2010 EvolDir 3
/www.ymcahostelbasel.ch/home 1 e.php http:/- Facebook group: “Cichlid Science 2010” /www.baselbackpack.com/ Information about confirmed speakers include: - J. Todd Streelman (Geor- visa requirements to enter Switzerland from gia Institute of Technology, USA) - Hans A. Hof- abroad (we assume no liability): http://- mann (University of Texas at Austin, USA) - Michael www.bfm.admin.ch/etc/medialib/data/migration/- Taborsky (University Bern, Switzerland) - Walter rechtsgrundlagen/weisungen und kreisschreiben/ Salzburger (University Basel, Switzerland) Weisungen Visa.Par.0026.File.tmp/anh1- liste1 vorschriften-nach-staat-e.pdf If you have any questions, do not hesitate to pose them to: Moritz Muschick
We have had a large response to the first call for papers. Dear Collegues, Some people were unable to meet the deadline and have Congress organizers would be pleased to welcome you in requested an extension. To accommodate this demand, the German capital and look forward to many inspiring the new submission deadline is Friday 25th June. So contributions towards evolutionary biology: far, in addition to our four keynotes, we have selected 26 speakers arranged in the following four sessions: BioSystematics Berlin 2011 - 21-27 February 1: Sexual conflict and male-female coevolution. 2: 7th International Congress of Systematic and Evolu- Post-copulatory sexual selection. (i) Seminal fluid: evo- tionary Biology (ICSEB VII), 12th Annual Meeting of lution and function the Society of Biological Systematics (Gesellschaft f¨ur Biologische Systematik, GfBS) 20th International Sym- (ii) Sperm competition and evolution posium “Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology” of the 3: Unifying behavioural and genomic approaches. (i) German Botanical Society (DBG). Ecology, behaviour and genetics of mate choice Call for Symposia is still open. (ii) Male and female sex roles Registration and abstract submission opens in July. 4: Synthesis: next generation sequencing, transcrip- Proposals corresponding to the five major conference tomics, proteomics and beyond. topics are especially encouraged, but all relevant topics We are seeking about ten new oral papers (no limit will be considered by the organizers. Symposia across on posters). Abstracts should be to be emailed to more than one group of organisms are welcome and [email protected] Please see the attached strongly encouraged. Symposium organizers are free to pdf for further submission details. open their session for Contributed papers. (2) Booking and registration deadline: Topics: . Trends in Taxonomy . Evolution and Organ- The deadline for registration at the conference is isms in Time and Space . The Evolutionary Thought: Wednesday 21st July. To book your place, go to: History, Philosophy and Society . Evolution of Form http://www.ert-conservation.co.uk/Registration.htm and Function . Inventorying and Managing Biodiver- sity There are 200 delegate places but only 150 accommo- dation rooms available on the campus. These will be For further submission guidelines see http://- designated on a first-come first-serve basis so please www.biosyst-berlin- 2011.de/. Submissions can book your place as early as possible. be made via Congress Office. Also contact in case of any question: [email protected] We would be extremely grateful if you could forward this message to colleagues who you think might be in- Birgit Nordt Congress Office “BioSystematics Berlin terested in attending the conference, or place the at- 2011” Freie Universit¨at Berlin Botanic Garden and tached pdf on a departmental noticeboard. Botanical Museum K¨onigin-Luise-Str. 6-8 14195 Berlin Germany Phone: ++49/30/838 50 383 Fax: We very much hope you will be able to join us in ++ 49/30/841 729 52 E-mail: [email protected] September and look forward to welcoming you to Bath. Web: www.biosyst-berlin-2011.de BerlinCongress2011 With best wishes.
London ASAB SexualSelection Marseilles 14thEvolBiology Dec2-3 Sep21-24 deadline
Dear All, We are please to recall you that the deadline of the Subject heading: ASAB Winter Conference 14th Evolutionary Biology Meeting at Marseilles 21-24 Main text: September 2010 will be on 30th June. Interspecific Communication Do not hesitate to go on our website: http://sites.univ- provence.fr/evol-cgr Signalling and communication, in the context of sexual selection, has been one of the dominant research areas Best wishes, in animal behaviour for the last three decades. The Axelle Pontarotti 2010 Winter ASAB conference will instead focus on in- terspecific communication. This topic is rich in terms of Universite EGEE
Biodiversity Conservation at the XVIII International by the iEvoBio participants. There will be cash prizes Botanical Congress at Melbourne 23-30 July 2011. for the first place ($1,000) and runner up entries. The aim of this symposium is to exchange knowledge Challenge entries are only 1 of 5 kinds of contributed about cave species diversity and their ecology, evolu- content that iEvoBio will feature. The other 4 are: tion, and conservation. Therefore this symposium will 1) Full talks (closed), 2) Lightning talks, 3) Soft- cover two themes (which is good): systematics, evolu- ware Bazaar entries, and 4) Birds-of-a-Feather gath- tion etc. and ecology, conservation etc. Furthermore, erings. The Calls for Lightning Talks and Software it will cover both botany and zoology. Bazaar entries remain open (see http://ievobio.org/- Any botanists or zoologists who are interested in speak- ocs/index.php/ievobio/2010/), and information on the ing at this symposium are encouraged to contact me Birds-of-a-Feather session is forthcoming. immediately. More details about the program and guidelines for con- Thanks and best wishes tributing content are available at http://ievobio.org. Continuous updates can also be found on the con- Li-Bing Zhang, Ph.D. Assistant Curator Missouri ference’s Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/iEvoBio . Botanical Garden Box 299, St. Louis, Missouri iEvoBio is sponsored by the US National Evolution- 63166 Tel: +1-314-577-9454; Fax: +1-314-577- ary Synthesis Center (NESCent) in partnership with 9596 www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/curators/- the Society of Systematic Biologists (SSB). Additional zhang.shtml To discover and share knowledge about support has been provided by the Encyclopedia of Life plants and their environment in order to preserve and (EOL). enrich life. -mission of the Missouri Botanical Garden The iEvoBio 2010 Organizing Committee: Rod Page Libing Zhang
This is a reminder that the Call for Challenge entries Oregon for the inaugural conference on Informatics for Phylo- PhylogeneticsEvolutionInformatics genetics, Evolution, and Biodiversity (iEvoBio) closes Jun29-30 BoFs in two weeks on June 21, 2010. The theme of the 2010 iEvoBio conference challenge is “New visualization methods for evolutionary data”. In anticipation of the inaugural conference on Infor- Visualizing evolution is a key part of our discipline and matics for Phylogenetics, Evolution, and Biodiversity presents opportunities as much as it does obstacles. (iEvoBio), we solicit all attendees to propose and dis- The iEvoBio Challenge is deliberately wide ranging: cuss Birds-of-a-Feather gatherings. See below for de- entries could range from geophylogenies to visualizing tails. extremely large phylogenetic trees, to mashups showing Birds-of-a-Feather gatherings (BoFs) are informal, ad- relationships between lineages and other types of data hoc, focused face-to-face discussion groups that form (e.g. conservation status). around a shared interest. BoFs have a leader (usually, Further information on the nature of challenge entries but not necessarily, the proposer) who initiates or mod- and how to submit them can be found on the iEvoBio erates the discussion, but typically not a preset agenda. website at http://ievobio.org/challenge.html . Selected The topics of BoFs can range widely, including general candidates will make short oral presentations to demon- cultural or computational infrastructure issues, or nar- strate their visualization in a “Challenge session” at the rower questions such as how to make the best use of conference, and will automatically be entered into the a particular software tool or how to solve a particular Software Bazaar if suitable. computational challenge. The winners of the Challenge will be judged collectively Anyone willing to lead such a group can propose a BoF. 10 EvolDir July 1, 2010 iEvoBio will provide space that can accommodate up Abstract of special session: Microbes dominate life on to 8-10 BoFs. Sign-up sheets will be provided on-site earth, measured by biomass, habitat diversity, phylo- on the first day of the conference where attendees can genetic diversity, or metabolic potential. Nonetheless, propose a BoF or sign up for one proposed by someone microbiome studies are in their infancy. Most natu- else. BoFs will be about 1 hr in duration and take place ral ecosystems remain uncharacterized. Many human in the afternoon of the second day of the conference. microbiome sites are unexplored, with very few com- parisons of healthy versus diseased individuals. Mecha- In line with their informal nature, there is no official nisms for microbial adaption and ecological engineering prior call for or submission of BoFs. However, we en- courage those intending to propose one to sound out or are poorly understood. Supporting computational tools rally potential attendees ahead of time. We suggest to are just emerging. This session addresses these needs. employ Twitter (http://twitter.com) for this, using the For information on PSB: http://psb.stanford.edu/ #ievobioBof tag to mark BoF proposals and comments. James A. Foster Birds-of-a-Feather gatherings are only 1 of 5 kinds “James A. Foster”
Due to the great interest in this subject, we have de- cided to extend the deadline for submitting manuscripts to the Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing (PSB) spe- UOttawa RECOMB Oct9-11 cial session on “Microbiome Studies” to 18 July. Please feel free to forward this email to anyone whom you think would be interested. Attached please find an Due to numerous requests, the deadline for submitting updated poster. papers to RECOMB CG has been extended two days, July 1, 2010 EvolDir 11 to June 9, 2010. similar) message. The 2010 RECOMB Comparative Genomics Satellite sankoff@uottawa.ca conference will be held at the University of Ottawa, October 9-11, 2010. The deadline is now June 9 (please contact the organizers for additional informa- tion: sankoff@uottawa.ca, [email protected]) and notification June 28. The CFP and submission site as Wageningen CoralReefs Dec13-17 well as early registration can be reached through the website: http://recombcg.uottawa.ca/recombcg2010/- Submitted papers are allowed somewhat greater lengths than some other conferences (12 pages). The proceed- The 2010 European meeting of the International Soci- ings will be published in LNCS and we expect that se- ety for Reef Studies (13-17 December in Wageningen, lected, expanded papers will be published in JComp- Netherlands) will include a session entitled “Systemat- Bio. Our website contains links to previous proceed- ics, biogeography and evolution: the evolutionary bi- ings, which by now contain a good proportion of the ology of reef organisms, their distribution and their canon of publications in computational comparative ge- taxonomy, including systematic relationships to other nomics. organisms”. Invited speakers are: Deadline for submission of abstracts for oral presenta- Brenda Andrews (University of Toronto) Andrew G. tions: 1 July 2010 Clark (Cornell University) Nicolas Corradi (Univer- Deadline for submission of abstracts for poster presen- sity of Ottawa) Jan Dvorak (University of Califor- tations: 1 October 2010 nia at Davis) Aoife McLysaght (University of Dublin) For abstract submission, registration and further in- Nicholas Putnam (Rice University) formation, please visithttp://www.isrs2010.org/home. We have obtained some financing and expect to be able For inquiries regarding this particular session, please to contribute significantly to the travel costs of student contactjean-francois.fl[email protected]. and postdoc presenters of papers and posters. Hoping Jean-Fran¸coisFlot, Ph.D. Department of Biology Uni- to hear from you, versity of Namur Rue de Bruxelles 61 5000 Namur, Bel- David Sankoff Eric Tannier gium Apologies if you receive more than one copy of this (or jean-francois.fl[email protected]
GradStudentPositions
Belgium 2 EvolutionaryComputation ...... 12 TexasTechU PlantEvolution ...... 18 Berlin PopGenEvolution ...... 13 Tours France VirusEvolution ...... 19 DeakinU EvolutionaryGenetics ...... 13 UBritishColumbia EvolGenomics ...... 20 KULeuven Belgium 2 SocioMicrobiolEvolution . . . . 14 UKiel NematodeMicrobialDiversity ...... 20 Munich EvolutionaryProteomics ...... 14 ULaval Molecular basis of behaviour variation . . . . . 76 NewcastleU SexPolymorphism ...... 15 ULethbridge EvolDynamics ...... 21 NewZealand Biogeoinformatics ...... 15 UStirling SaltmarshGeneticBiodiversity ...... 22 NewZealand EvolBiol ...... 16 UTurku TropicalBiodiversity ...... 22 Norway SalmonLouse NaturalSelection ...... 16 UZurich PlantEvolution ...... 23 OregonStateU SystematicsBiodiversity ...... 17 SwanseaU SalmonConservationGenetics ...... 18 12 EvolDir July 1, 2010
http://distrinet.cs.kuleuven.be/ Dept. of biology, Lab- oratory of entomology Prof. Tom Wenseleers http://- bio.kuleuven.be/ento/ Dept. of mechanics, Center for Belgium 2 industrial management Dr. Paul Valckenaers EvolutionaryComputation http://www.mech.kuleuven.be/en/cib/ Saint-Lieven College, IT department Dr. Greet Vanden Berghe http://ingenieur.kahosl.be/personeel/- Three open positions for 2 PhD students and 1 post- greet.vandenberghe/ Requirements For this ambitious doc in the area of evolutionary computation / bio- project, two PhD positions and one position for a post- inspired computing Interdisciplinary research project doctoral researcher are open. We invite applications “Bio-inspired computing for coordination and control from: in large-scale and dynamic systems (BioCo3)” either people who have a strong computer science back- In this interdisciplinary project (involving computer ground (master degree for PhD positions, PhD degree science, biology, operations research and logistics ex- for the postdoc position) with a strong affinity and in- pertise) we will study decentralized approaches for con- terest in biology, trolling large-scale, dynamic systems - e.g. for control- or people who have a strong a biological background ling a large number of vehicles that need to accomplish (master degree for PhD positions, PhD degree for the transport tasks for clients (package delivery service). postdoc position) and strong affinity and interest in Achieving efficient and effective collective behavior is computer science. The positions are available from Oc- known to be quite a challenge, esp. if the systems are tober 1, 2010 (negotiable). Further requirements for large in scale and submitted to changing operating con- candidates include ditions. Complex collective behaviour occurs in many having a scientific, critical attitude being ambitious socio-biological systems. Social insects, e.g., are able having good communication and social skills, team to find the shortest path to food sources without any player having an independent working style being pro- central control, or can build enormously complex nests ficient in English experience as a researcher is welcome with built-in ventilation systems, or divide the work but not mandatory for the PhD positions. such that the chances of survival are optimal. For more information and for applying... For more in- Some socio-biological mechanisms for collective behav- formation about the project and the positions, and for ior have already been studied in the context of com- applying for a position, please contact the project co- puting (e.g. stigmergy and digital pheromones, or in ordinator: discrete optimization techniques, such as ant colony optimization, artificial immune systems, genetic algo- Prof. Tom Holvoet rithms). It becomes apparent, however, that (1) large- DistriNet Labs - Dept. of Computer Science, KULeu- scale and dynamic systems still hold major challenges, ven, Belgium and (2) many socio-biological concepts and techniques have been unexplored. http://people.cs.kuleuven.be/Tom.Holvoet For more information about the KULeuven: The project therefore aims to study advanced concepts and mechanisms, known from social biological systems, http://www.kuleuven.be/ The deadline for application and their applicability in decentralized control systems. is To guide the research, the project will use concrete ap- July 15, 2010. plication scenarios, based on decentralized control in When applying, make sure to include (pdf versions of): pickup-and-delivery problems (PDPs), and evolution- ary algorithms to evolve more efficient control strate- a detailed resume (with publications, if you have any) gies. a motivational letter specifically referring to the open positions copies of marks and degrees/certificates a list Keywords: Multi-agent systems, Discrete optimiza- of 3 references that we can contact your MSc thesis in tion, Sociobiology, Social Insects, Biologically-inspired English (or a 5-page summary in English). computing, Pickup-and-delivery problems, Ant Colony Optimisation, Evolutionary Algorithms, Genetic Algo- Please forward this message to interested rithms staff/students... – Prof. Dr. Tom Holvoet Dis- triNet labs Dept. of Computer Science KULeuven The partners in this project are Dept. of computer sci- ence, DistriNet labs Prof. Tom Holvoet http://people.cs.kuleuven.be/Tom.Holvoet Celesti- July 1, 2010 EvolDir 13 jnenlaan, 200A B-3001 Leuven Belgium +32 16 32.76.38 Dr. T. Wenseleers Dept. of Biology Zoological Institute K.U.Leuven Naamsestraat 59 B-3000 Leuven Belgium tel. +32 (0)16 32 39 64 mobile +32 (0)472 40 45 96 DeakinU EvolutionaryGenetics e-mail [email protected] / A PhD position available, Evolutionary genetics of the invasive Northern Pacific Sea Star, Asterias amurensis, in Australia This message has been arbitrarily truncated at 5000 characters. To read the entire message look it up at http://life.biology.- Supervisors: Dr Craig Sherman (PI), Dr Ben Hayes mcmaster.ca/˜brian/evoldir.html (Department of Primary Industries) Institution: The Centre for Integrative Ecology, Deakin University, Aus- tralia Aims and background: Invasive species are now recog- nised as one of the most serious threats to Australias biodiversity. While substantial work has been carried out on the ecology of invasive species, the evolutionary genetics of invasive species has received less attention. Berlin PopGenEvolution However, it is becoming increasingly evident that the establishment and spread of exotic species can be in- fluenced by their adaptive potential and that effective control requires an understanding of the evolvability of invasive species. PhD opportunity in popgen and evolution of aquatic The invasive North Pacific Sea Star is a ferocious ma- Diptera at the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology rine predator and has the potential to have a devas- and Inland Fisheries (IGB) and the Freie Universitaet tating effect on Australias aquaculture industry and Berlin significantly reduce the biodiversity of marine com- We have an open PhD student position (funded for munities. It is estimated that there are more than 3 years) for someone interested in population genetics 90 million in Port Phillip Bay, with the potential for and evolution. The student would join a large inter- this species to occupy even larger areas from Syd- disciplinary study of the effects of light pollution on ney to Perth. In spite of being listed as one of the ecological systems. The student would help to develop ten highest marine risk pests in Australia, virtually and carry out a research project on aquatic Diptera nothing is known about its potential for local adap- (mosquitoes, midges) involving field and laboratory tation and what may constrain its progression along work. Some knowledge and experience with freshwater the east and southwest coasts of the continent. This ecology, molecular ecology, bioinformatics, or statistics project will provide crucial information on the evolu- would be beneficial. The working language of the lab- tionary biology of this species and identify key life his- oratory group (currently 3 post-docs, 1 technician, 2 tory traits important for the successful management of students) is English, but a willingness to learn or some this invasive species. More information can be found previous knowledge of german would greatly enhance at: http://www.deakin.edu.au/scitech/les/research/- your time in Berlin. For further information please con- rpa/ecophysiology/opportunities/seastar.php The ap- tact Michael T Monaghan ([email protected]). plicant must hold a first class honours or masters de- Please send your application by email directly to me gree (or equivalent) in biology. The candidate should ([email protected]) including (1) your CV with have a strong interest in evolutionary and molecular ge- details of any field and laboratory experience, (2) one netics/genomics, local adaptation, quantitative genet- page stating your interests and career goals, (3) the ics and experimental molecular work. names and contact information for 2 referees. Appli- How to apply cations will be accepted until a suitable candidate is Expressions of interest with a covering letter, CV, and found. names and contact details of two referees should be sent Michael Monaghan
Interested candidates should lodge a Research Schol- Key words: experimental evolution, microbial genetics, arship application with Deakin University (http:/- high-throughput analysis, fluorescence microscopy, flow /www.deakin.edu.au/research/admin/scholarships/- cytometry, mutant construction, ecological and evo- index.php). There are three rounds of applications: lutionary theory (social evolution theory, bet-hedging The first minor round is open to international and theory). domestic applicants and closes on 30 June 2010. Two As a member of the CMPG, you will be part of a multi- major rounds follow, with one restricted to interna- disciplinary and international team of researchers using tional applications and closing on 30 September 2010 state-of-the-art infrastructure. and the other one restricted to Australian and New Zealand citizens and Australian permanent residents Start: autumn 2010 (two 4-year projects) and closing on 31 October 2010. Required: - Master in life sciences (Bioengineering, Deakins Research Scholarships are valued at A$ 22,500 Biotechnology,...). - Strong interest for science and per annum and will be topped-up by the CIE to A$ outstanding skills to work in a team on an intellectu- 30,000 per annum for successful applicants. The pro- ally and technologically challenging project. - Ready to gram will not incur any tuition fees if completed within present for an interview. the appropriate time frame. All candidates are encour- Application: send your CV and two reference letters aged to contact the director of the CIE, Prof Marcel to Prof. J. Michiels ([email protected]) Klaassen ( [email protected] ) before ap- or Prof. K. Verstrepen ([email protected] plication, including a brief CV and a statement of their kuleuven.be) before June 23, 2010. research interests. General information on the research groups in- Dr Craig D.H. Sherman Lecturer, School of Life and volved: http://www.biw.kuleuven.be/dtp/cmpg/- Environmental Sciences G%26G1/ http://www.biw.kuleuven.be/dtp/- Faculty of Science & Technology Deakin Univer- cmpg/research.aspx http://bio.kuleuven.be/ento/- sity, Pigdons Road, Geelong VIC 3217 Phone: wenseleers/twenseleers.htm http://bio.kuleuven.be/- 03 5227 1406 International: +61 3 5227 1406 de/dea/people detail.php?pass id=u0008482 Dr. T. Fax: 03 5227 1040 International: +61 3 5227 Wenseleers Dept. of Biology Zoological Institute 1040 E-mail: [email protected] http://- K.U.Leuven Naamsestraat 59 B-3000 Leuven Belgium www.deakin.edu.au/scitech/les/about/staff-profiles/- tel. +32 (0)16 32 39 64 mobile +32 (0)472 40 45 96 display/index.php?username=csherman Craig Sher- e-mail [email protected] web http://- man
KULeuven Belgium 2 SocioMicrobiolEvolution Munich EvolutionaryProteomics
Two PhD positions are available in the research groups PhD position in Evolutionary Ecology/Proteomics on of Prof. J. Michiels and Prof. K. Verstrepen in the model system Daphnia the framework of an interdisciplinary research project “Socio-evolutionary dynamics of microbes” (KULeu- A 3-year PhD position is available in the labs of PD ven, Belgium). Dr. Christian Laforsch and Dr. Georg Arnold (joined project) at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit¨at(LMU) Target organisms: Saccharomyces cerevisiae (K. Ver- in Munich. strepen) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (J. Michiels). We are looking for an enthusiastic and well-motivated Partner groups: Lab. of Entomology (Prof. T. Wense- person who would like to join our laboratories to study leers) and Lab. of Aquatic Ecology (Prof. L. De the molecular basis of adaptation to predation stress, Meester) focusing on plastic defensive traits in the water flea Topics: flocculation and green-beard recognition in Daphnia. A holistic proteome approach will be applied yeast and the evolution of antibiotic-tolerance (persis- to show differences and similarities in protein expres- tence) in P. aeruginosa. sion in D. magna faced to vertebrate and invertebrate July 1, 2010 EvolDir 15 predators to discover the proteins controlling different Dr Kirsten Wolff Reader in Evolutionary Ge- defensive strategies. The main objectives of the project netics Newcastle University, School of Bi- are: -to discover candidate proteins, which may play a ology Newcastle NE1 7RU, UK Phone: critical role in building the defensive traits -to com- 0191 222 5626 email: kirsten.wolff@ncl.ac.uk pare the expression of candidate proteins in popula- www.staff.ncl.ac.uk/kirsten.wolff/ Kirsten Wolff tions with contrasting predator coexistence history -to
PhD Studentships in New Zealand on offer: The studentship will be based upon planning and ex- ecution of biological experiments in the facility above. The Allan Wilson Centre is seeking candidates for seven Lice family groups will be established by the student PhD studentships. The titles of the projects for which and challenged by environmental variables in order to candidates are sought are: study and quantify selection. These experiments will * Population-Genetic Models for the Maintenance of require meticulous planning and attention to detail. In- Genetic Variation * Discrete random models in evolu- dividual lice surviving the experiments will be identi- tionary biology * The evolution of sex pheromone re- fied by parentage testing using microsatellites. Thus, ceptors and speciation in New Zealand endemic leafrol- the position will include a mixture of experimental, and ler moths * Biodiversity science: biogeoinformatics * some DNA laboratory work. Mathematical and statistical analysis of SNP data * We wish to appoint a highly motivated person with a Visualising evolution * New Combinatorial and Algo- masters degree in a biological discipline. The ideal can- rithmic Tools for Network Reconstruction * Population didate will be able to document first-hand experience genetics of tetrodotoxin-producing sea slugs of designing, planning and executing biological experi- To make application for a studentship please contact ments, preferably with sea lice, and has experience of the academic listed in the first instance. This in- basic molecular techniques such as DNA isolations and formation is at http://www.allanwilsoncentre.ac.nz/ PCR. However, candidates showing relevant experience [email protected] with other experimental systems will be considered. The Institute emphasizes personal qualities such as good communication and cooperative skills, the ability to work independently and as part of an active research team. Norway SalmonLouse We offer: NaturalSelection * a positive, challenging and creative work environment * the opportunity to work in a national institute with a high level of international contact * flexible hours, a START OF PhD STUDENTSHIP ADVERT good pension scheme and a wide range of welfare ser- PhD studentship: studying natural selection and evolu- vices. July 1, 2010 EvolDir 17
The Institute offers governmental regulated salaries as the Warner, Goose Lake, Harney and Malheur systems. PhD student (code 1017). Minimum requirements for the position include strong For more information, please contact Research Group interest in the systematics and conservation of fishes Leader Terje Svaasand, and a solid background in organismal biology as demon- Email: [email protected], tel: +47 strated by a bachelor’s degree in biology, fisheries and wildlife, zoology, evolution, ecology, or a related field. 55236891 or Project leader Kevin Glover, Email: [email protected], tel: +47 4755236357, or visit Prior experience in a molecular lab (DNA extraction, our web-site at http://www.imr.no/ The Institute of PCR, sequencing, phylogenetics, microsatellite geno- Marine Research is an “inclusive work-life” employer typing in Genemapper or similar) is highly desirable. that encourages diversity, and we encourage all quali- The ideal candidate will also have prior classwork in fied candidates to apply for this position. Women are ichthyology, anatomy, genetics, evolution and statistics and possibly work experience in an ichthyology collec- particularly encouraged to apply. tion. Please apply in writing, enclosing a CV, copies of rel- evant recommendations and academic transcripts to- Seven quarters of support including tuition, stipend and gether with a set of publications, to: Institute of Marine health insurance are available from a combination of re- search assistantships and online teaching assistantships Research, Personnel Division, P.O. Box 1870 Nordnes, NO-5817 Bergen, Norway. Application number: “30- (Principles of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, Ichthyol- 10”. Closing date for applications: 01.07.2010. ogy), as are funds to support initial field and lab work. Applications for additional grant support are pending. Dr Kevin Glover Senior Scientist Institute of The successful candidate would need to relocate to Cor- Marine Research Bergen 55236357 48040035 Scientific presentation: http://www.imr.no/- vallis, OR by September 1, 2010 in order to partici- om havforskningsinstituttet/ansatte/g/kevin glover/- pate in planned fieldwork in early and mid September. nb-no “Glover, Kevin”
GRADUATE OPPORTUNITY (MSc) FALL 2010 About the Sidlauskas Lab: We research the systemat- ics, biodiversity and conservation of freshwater fishes SYSTEMATICS, BIODIVERSITY and CONSERVA- with a combined morphological and molecular ap- TION of NATIVE FISHES in the OREGON DESERT proach. Ongoing projects range from local to global and As part of a new research program on the biodi- include research in North America, South America and versity of fishes in the Department of Fisheries and Africa. Our facilities include a newly renovated molec- Wildlife at Oregon State University, Dr. Brian Sid- ular lab, a top-of-the line Zeiss V20 stereomicroscope, lauskas is searching for a talented, highly motivated morphometric, x-ray and photography equipment, and masters student to investigate the systematics, popula- an ichthyology collection of more than 20,000 lots of tion structure and conservation status of daces (genus fishes from the Pacific Northwest and beyond. For Rhinichthys) in the arid drainages of eastern Oregon. more information, see http://people.oregonstate.edu/- The planned project will combine phylogenetics, mi- ˜sidlausb/ – crosatellites and geometric morphometrics to test the Brian Sidlauskas Assistant Professor Department of distinctiveness and diagnosability of dace populations Fisheries and Wildlife 104 Nash Hall Oregon State Uni- throughout Oregon’s desert rivers and lakes. Particular versity Corvallis, OR 97331-3803 attention will be paid to assessing the taxonomic status, evolutionary relationships and population structure of Voice: 541-737-1939 Fax: 541-737-3590 the threatened and federally listed Foskett Spring Dace Email: [email protected] Web: (Rhinichthys osculus ssp.). The project will also exam- http://people.oregonstate.edu/ ˜ sidlausb/ ine dace populations from adjacent drainages, including [email protected] 18 EvolDir July 1, 2010
Universities, in collaboration with an industry partner, the Environment Agency Wales, based in Llandarcy. Applicant requirements: We are looking for a highly motivated student with a First or Upper Second Class SwanseaU Honours degree in Biological Sciences or related field. SalmonConservationGenetics Knowledge of fish biology, molecular ecology, and con- servation biology is desirable. Acquaintance with salmonid conservation, evolutionary ecology and popu- lation genetics will also be an advantage. Optimization of captive breeding systems for salmonid stock enhancement using molecular tags Fully-funded Scholarship value: The scholarship covers University KESS PhD Scholarship 2010/2011 entry tuition fees (3440 in 2010/2011) for three years and a stipend of 13,290 per annum for three years. Generous Closing date: 23 July 2010 support for consumables, equipment and travel is also Supervisors: Dr Carlos Garcia de Leaniz (Swansea Uni- available. versity, Pure & Applied Ecology) Dr Sofia Consuegra Training: The achievement of a Higher-level Skills De- (Aberystwyth University, IBERS) Dr John Taylor and velopment Award (HSDA) is compulsory for each KESS Dr Peter Gough (Environment Agency Wales) scholar. The HSDA is based on a 60 credit award, which Project Description: Aquatic ecosystems provide key is an additional award to the PhD. resources for humans but tend to be less resilient than Eligibility: - Applicants must be UK/EU citizens. - Ap- terrestrial environments, being home to endangered plicants must reside in the Convergence Area of Wales organisms that are often easily damaged by anthro- at the time of enrolment, and must also be able to take pogenic activities. Developments such as tidal barrages paid employment in the Convergence Area on comple- can have catastrophic consequences for aquatic fauna tion of the scholarship. The Convergence Area means (particularly for migratory species) and demonstrate the following counties of Wales: Blaenau Gwent, Brid- the need for knowledge on a range of aquatic issues. gend, Caerphilly, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion, Conwy, Molecular tags are increasingly being used to assign fish Denbighshire, Gwynedd, Isle of Anglesey, Merthyr Tyd- to their population of origin, to determine paternity and fil, Neath Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire, Rhondda Cynon establish pedigrees, and to distinguish hatchery from Taff, Swansea and Torfaen. wild fish. In salmonid restoration programs, the use of molecular tags for mark-and-recapture will dispense How to apply: To apply, please send the following to with the need to physically tag hatchery fish and will Dr. Carlos Garcia de Leaniz (address below) by 23 allow for identification of stocked juveniles and return- July 2010: - A completed KESS application form - The ing adults. This will result in considerable savings and names of two personal referees - An up to date CV - improved management of endangered salmonid stocks, A covering letter, in which you expand on the relevant and will also permit the estimation of fitness parame- contents in your CV and wider experience, and why ters of relevance for conservation you consider yourself a good candidate. - KESS appli- cations forms can be obtained from Mrs Sandra Kram- The objectives of this research project are: 1. To assess cha ([email protected]) or from Carlos Garcia the contribution of stocked (hatchery-reared) and wild de Leaniz ([email protected]) Atlantic salmon using inherent, non-intrusive molecu- lar tags to the River Taff; 2. To estimate the genetic Contact details: Dr Carlos Garcia de Leaniz School of diversity and effective populations sizes of the wild and the Environment & Society Pure & Applied Ecology stocked salmon populations; 3. To assess the effects of Wallace Building Swansea University Swansea SA2 8PP multiple paternity and breeding design on survival and [email protected] fitness of juvenile salmon; 4. To develop guidelines for GarciaDeLeaniz C.
Department. Several ecological genomics laboratories are part of the Institute and the Biology department, allowing for enriched interactions with members of the other laboratories working in this field. DEADLINES: ULaval Molecular basis of behaviour Our laboratory must receive applications before July 23, 2010. We will then proceed to select candidates variation that will be able to apply to the University pre-selection committee with a deadline of August 9th 2010. Can- didates selected by the university will then be allowed Our laboratory is eager to receive application from to apply to the general competition in Fall 2010, with highly motivated scientists with an excellent record to results given in April 2011. Start date can be between apply to a Quebec government fellowship available for May and December 2011. non-Canadian candidates to study in a Quebec- based Contact me directly by email for more information laboratory. Doctoral fellowships are available. Further- about the program and opportunities in our laboratory. more, internships are available for a visit to our labora- tory (3000$can/ month, up to 4 months) during gradu- [email protected] ate studies in another laboratory. Pre-selection by the Nadia Aubin-Horth host university and our laboratory is mandatory. Assistant professor Candidates from all over the world are invited to ap- ply. Additionally, specific fellowships are available for Department of Biology candidates from Mexico, Brazil, China and Wallonie. Institute of Integrative and Systems Biology We are in the Department of Biology at Laval Univer- Pavillon Charles-Eugene-Marchand sity, located in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Our lab- 1030, Avenue de la Medecine oratory is part of the Institute of Integrative and Sys- tems Biology (IBIS). We study the underlying molec- Laval University ular and hormonal causes of variation in behaviour in Quebec city (Quebec) G1V 0A6 vertebrates. We are interested in personality with an emphasis on the stress response and correlation among Canada behaviours, as well as in reproductive tactics. We are [email protected] also interested by the effects of the environment on de- velopment of behaviour, such as environmental enrich- ment in captive animals, maternal/paternal and social group effects, and endocrine disrupters. We therefore have a strong interest for phenotypic plasticity, along ULethbridge EvolDynamics with the effects of genetic variation. We favour an in- tegrative approach by linking data from the same in- dividual: neuropeptides, neurotransmitters and their receptors (quantitative Real-Time PCR, microarrays, Graduate position in Evolutionary Dynamics, Depart- in situ hybridization, HPLC), hormones (EIA, HPLC), ment of Biological Sciences, University of Lethbridge physiology and behaviour. Our model system is the threespine stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus, a small An NSERC-funded graduate student position (MSc fish studied in behavioural biology, which can be kept or PhD) is available in the Department of Biologi- easily in the lab and whose genome is sequenced. cal Sciences at the University of Lethbridge (Alberta, Canada). The focus of this position is evolutionary dy- Laval University is one of the ten main Canadian uni- versities. Quebec City is dynamic with all the advan- namics. Potential project topics include, but are not tages of a large city while still allowing for very easy limited to, (1) evolution of senescence, (2) evolution of access to wilderness and very reasonable cost of living. cooperation, and (3) non-transitive competition. Inter- ested candidates should visit http://people.uleth.ca/- The chosen candidates that are successful at obtaining ˜ robert.laird/ for lab details, and then email me (Dr. a fellowship will be part of the Institute of Integrative Rob Laird: [email protected]). In your email, and Systems Biology. They will have access to core genomics and molecular biology facilities, lab meetings please include your CV and a brief statement of your and Institute-wide group meetings, journal clubs and research interests. weekly seminars at the Institute and in the Biology [email protected] 22 EvolDir July 1, 2010
submit a CV, covering letter and two letters of rec- ommendation from academic referees. Your covering letter should clearly set out why you are suited to this project, with reference to your relevant experience, and UStirling your motivation for undertaking research leading to a PhD. SaltmarshGeneticBiodiversity Applications should be sent by mail to Dr Alistair Jump, SBES, University of Stirling, Stirling, FK9 4LA or emailed to [email protected]. Does the recovery of genetic diversity within species Applications must be received by June 24thth 2010 for parallel the recovery of species diversity in restored salt- an expected start date of October 1st 2010. Shortlisted marsh systems? candidates will be interviewed during the week begin- Saltmarshes are highly important for biodiversity, sup- ning July 5th. Due to funding restrictions, applicants porting a high density of invertebrates, and large num- must be a national of a country within the European bers of wading birds and wildfowl. In addition to their Union. biodiversity value, saltmarshes provide essential ecosys- Dr Alistair Jump tem services to human communities, such as flood de- fence and control of estuarine nutrient pollution. How- Lecturer in Plant Ecology School of Biological and En- ever, a combination of anthropogenic pressures has re- vironmental Sciences University of Stirling Stirling FK9 sulted in ongoing loss and degradation of saltmarsh in 4LA UK the UK. Saltmarshes are now a priority habitat under Tel: +44 1786 467848 Fax: +44 1786 467843 the UK Biodiversity Action Plan, under which restora- www.biogeo.org www.sbes.stir.ac.uk Alistair Jump tion and creation of new saltmarsh is a key objective.
Jobs
AlbertEinstein SystemsBiology ...... 24 UCollegeDublin 1year VertebrateEvolution ...... 30 IGFL Lyon JuniorSeniorGroupLeaders ...... 25 UdelosAndes BotanistPlantPhysiologist ...... 31 MuseumVictoria SeniorCuratorBirds Mammals . . . . 26 ULiverpool Evolution ...... 32 Netherlands GenomicSelection ...... 26 USouthCarolina GenomicsPopulationGenetics . . . . . 32 OkinawaInstSciTech EvolutionaryBiol ...... 27 UTennessee NIMBios EducationOutreach ...... 32 OxfordBrookesU EvolutionLecturer ...... 27 UTexasAustin LabTech SticklebackParasites ...... 33 SouthernCrossU PlantConservationGenetics ...... 28 UWesternAustralia BeeEvolutionaryProteomics . . . .34 TUMunchen PopulationGenetics ...... 28 Vienna DrosophilaGenetics ...... 35 UArizona PlantTree of life analyst ...... 29 WoodsHole EvoDevo ...... 35 UArizona PlantTree of life analyst correction ...... 30 UCapeTown AvianEvolution ...... 30
Multiple Tenure Track Faculty Positions Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva Univer- sity AlbertEinstein SystemsBiology Bronx, NY 10451 July 1, 2010 EvolDir 25
The Albert Einstein College of Medicine, one of the leading medical schools in New York City, is seeking to fill multiple tenure track faculty positions in the newly formed Department of Systems and Computational Bi- ology. Established in April 2008, the main goal of the IGFL Lyon new department is to advance our understanding of liv- ing systems by developing theoretical, computational JuniorSeniorGroupLeaders and experimental approaches to study complex biolog- ical systems. The College has 750 medical students, 325 graduate JUNIOR/SENIOR GROUP LEADER POSITIONS students and 360 post-doctoral fellows in training and LYON, FRANCE boasts a strong research faculty covering broad areas of experimental biology, offering outstanding opportuni- The Institut de G´enomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon ties for collaborative interactions. The 200,000 square (IGFL) is a research institute run by the French Cen- foot Center for Genetic and Translational Medicine at tre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Einstein, which opened in late 2007, locates compu- Ecole Normale Sup´erieure de Lyon (ENS Lyon), the In- tational, systems and experimental scientists in physi- stitut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) cal proximity to foster interdisciplinary communication and the Universit´eClaude Bernard Lyon 1 (UCBL). and collaboration. Highly competitive start-up pack- The IGFL will be moving during autumn 2011 to a ages are available. new 3200 m2 building located next to the ENS Lyon, within a multidisciplinary campus which includes more We seek outstanding scientists with broad experience than 1000 scientists, carrying out research in all areas and demonstrated collaborative interactions with ex- of biology. perimental or clinical investigators. Candidates should have strength in a physical, mathematical or computa- The IGFL currently consists of 10 research groups and tional field at the Ph.D. or equivalent level. Experience will eventually bring together 18 research groups, repre- applying these skills to a biological or biomedical area senting a total of approx. 200 persons who will conduct (demonstrated through publications or support) is also fundamental (basic) research in integrative biology, de- required. Areas of interest include, but are not limited velopmental biology, evolutionary sciences and bioin- to: Modeling cellular processes, such as signaling, tran- formatics/modelling at the genomic scale. The research scriptional regulation and immune response; Pathway groups strongly interact with medical and agronomical analysis; Genetic networks; Functional proteomics and research via regional, national and international net- genomics; Evolution of structure and function; Com- works (see http://igfl.ens-lyon.fr/). putational neuroscience; Mathematical and computa- The IGFL, in view of its new facilities, is recruiting out- tional modeling of complex traits and diseases. standing scientists for junior/senior group leader posi- Applicants should send a letter of interest, C.V., state- tions. The IGFL welcomes projects addressing whole- ment of research and teaching interests, and names of organism level research, with a special focus on animal- three referees, in electronic format to: based research. Systems and Computational Biology Search Committee Groups will benefit from easy access to state-of-the-art core services, including cell and small animal imaging, Albert Einstein College of Medicine transgenic animal facilities (mouse, fish, drosophila), Jack and Pearl Resnick Campus paleogenomics, bioinformatics, mass spectrometry, pro- teomics, transcriptomics, FACS sorting, histology and 1300 Morris Park Ave. Price Center, Rm. 153 electron microscopy. Bronx, New York 10461 Applications (in English) should include curriculum vi- E-mail Address: [email protected] tae, a short description of achievements and records Subject line should be: SCB Faculty Search of self-financing, a proposed research program of ap- prox. 10 pages and contact details of 3 professional Yeshiva University is an equal opportunity employer references. The deadline for applications is July 10th committed to workforce diversity 2010. Please send as a single PDF named LAST- [email protected] NAME IGFL 2010.pdf to direction.igfl@ens-lyon.fr . Enquiries should also be directed to this address. Frederic Brunet
the coming of new marker and sequencing technologies. The implementation of these technologies and use of genotypic information requires new specialisations. For this reason we open this new position. MuseumVictoria As a Breeder for genomic selection you will support SeniorCuratorBirds Mammals breeders and prebreeders of our fruit crops (tomato, pepper, cucumber, melon and* *eggplant) and lead them in the process of optimal application of genomics Dear all, information and large scale marker usage. You will be responsible for developing protocols and methodologies We are seeking a new Senior Curator of Birds and/or for integrating genotypic data in breeding as well as Mammals at Museum Victoria in Melbourne, Australia. the development of decision-support tools for breeders We are seeking an enthusiastic and skilled researcher to link and* *interpret genotypic and phenotypic infor- in the fields of ornithology and/or mammalogy to join mation. our active science department of 40 research staff and You will work with teams of highly motivated breed- 27 postgraduate students. Museum Victoria is home ers. Also you will co-operate with other research teams, to a natural sciences collection of more than 16 million e.g. in the field of bio-informatics, quantitative genet- lots dating back to 1854. It is also a modern research ics*, *molecular genetics and with our high through- institution with excellent laboratory and field research put* *genotyping laboratory. capabilities including molecular and ancient DNA lab- oratories. Your education at university level is followed by a PhD in the field of bio-informatics and/or quantitative ge- The position is full time and ongoing. netics or relevant work experience in this field. You JOB DETAILS: have experience in the design and use of genetic stud- MV/0025 - Senior Curator Terrestrial Vertebrates ies, knowledge of statistical software, bio-informatics, (Birds/Mammals) Grade 5, Value Range 1 MAS, advanced QTL mapping, genome wide selection and association mapping. You are a creative and prac- Applications close: Wednesday 30 June 2010 COB tical personality, who is able to identify and iniate new Applicants are advised to refer to the Museum Victoria projects and lead them to readily-usable tools or infor- website link: mation. Your good communication skills are required to integrate cross-functional projects and to bring state- http://www.museumvictoria.com.au/About/Work- of-the-art research to practical breeding. Besides being Opportunities/Employment/ If you need any more fluent in English, also being able to communicate in information regarding the post, feel free to contact me, Dutch would be beneficial. Jane Melville For more information about this vacancy and our com- Senior Curator, Terrestrial Vertebrates Museum Victo- pany please contact Jair Haanstra, telephone number: ria Department of Sciences GPO Box 666 Melbourne, +31 174 532300. You may send your CV and covering VIC 3001 Australia letter to Rijk Zwaan, f.a.o. Emilie ten Bokkel Huinink Email: [email protected] PH: INT + 61 3 8341 to: [email protected]. 7444 FAX: INT + 61 3 8341 7442 We prefer an e-mail, but you can also send your letter [email protected] and CV by mail: Rijk Zwaan f.a.o. Emilie ten Bokkel Huinink P.O. Box 40 2678 ZG De Lier The Netherlands Evert Gutteling
Breeder for genomic selection For our glasshouse vegetable crops in De Lier (NL) OkinawaInstSciTech Rijk Zwaan is looking for a Breeder for genomic se- EvolutionaryBiol lection.The field of breeding has changed rapidly with July 1, 2010 EvolDir 27
The Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology encourages applications from women. More details (OIST http://www.oist.jp) invites applications for new regarding the aims of the search and advantages of faculty positions as it enters a period of growth in working at OIST are available in the Information for preparation for transition to an international graduate Applicants in the application package that is down- university in 2012. Approximately 15 faculty positions loadable from the website (http://www.oist.jp/en/- will be filled during this search. OIST provides a world- newsevent/careers/542-faculty-positions.html). Appli- class research environment in newly completed facilities cations should be submitted in accordance with the in- in an area of distinctive culture, unique ecology, and structions in the application package. Applications for outstanding natural beauty. the current search close 31, July 2010. Interviews will Successful candidates will be given the opportunity to take place in late August/September, with a view to excel in their chosen area of research, and will be ex- making appointments early in 2011. pected to contribute to graduate teaching, research su- Please don’t hesitate to contact me with any ques- pervision and other academic activities. Applicants tions. Alexander Mikheyev Principal Investigator Ok- should have a PhD or equivalent degree, and demon- inawa Institute of Science and Technology < http://- strate excellence in research. www.oist.jp/ > Research Lab 1, Level D 1919-1 Tan- The initial appointment will be as Principal Investiga- cha, Onna-son, Kunigami Okinawa 904-2234 Japan tor (PI) or Independent New Investigator (INI) for a [email protected] term of five years. When the transition to a graduate university is completed in 2012, it is planned that PI and INI positions will change to a tenure track sys- tem with Assistant Professors, Associate Professors, and Professors. Some appointments will be made on a joint or part-time basis. Substantial internal fund- OxfordBrookesU EvolutionLecturer ing will be provided to support the faculty member’s research, based on a 5-year research plan, which is re- Dear everybody, newable after scientific review. We are looking for a senior lecturer in biology, This search is targeted broadly. The non-departmental to strengthen our evolutionary ecology depart- structure of OIST and orientation toward interdisci- ment here at Oxford Brookes University. The plinary research permits flexibility in appointing appli- full details of the job can be found here: https:/- cants who are able to introduce new research areas or /edm.brookes.ac.uk/hr/hr/vacancies.do;jsessionid=- enhance existing areas. Established research areas in- d3289131a45a949f530f07cf59b2e7cc6da1c723bc30ab34894f49e81193b5f1.e34LbNmNbhiQaO0Pa3yRaNyMb310n6jAmljGr5XDqQLvpAe?id= clude genomics, developmental biology, mathematical 7522048 In summary, and computational biology, molecular and cell sciences and neuroscience. New research areas include struc- Salary scale: Aˆ£36,716, rising annually to Aˆ£45,156 tural biology, biological physics, biological chemistry, Qualifications required for post: A higher degree (PhD) marine sciences, ecology and evolutionary biology, and in a relevant biological or related subject. microbial and plant genetics. Experience required for post: at least 3 years relevant At a time when worldwide support for research is in- postdoctoral research experience. creasingly risk-averse, and grant funding places an ever- growing burden on faculty, OIST promotes innovative Overall purpose of post: To undertake academic and research in a highly facilitating and supportive envi- academic related responsibilities in the area of evolu- ronment. This is achievable because OIST has internal tionary ecology or conservation biology that comple- research funding, offers outstanding central research fa- ments existing research in the School. To undertake and cilities, and consults faculty on the design of new labo- support interdisciplinary research across the research ratory space. Central research facilities at OIST include groupings of the School. To contribute to teaching core facilities for genomics, rodent vivarium, radioiso- quantitative skills across the UG and PG curriculum, tope use, electron microscopy, and supercomputing fa- and in particular to take the lead in developing MSc cilities. provision with a focus on ecological and evolutionary informatics. OIST is committed to being international with more than 50% of faculty and researchers from outside Japan. Main duties: The official language of OIST is English. OIST is 1. To teach UG and PGT students using appropri- an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer and ate instruction methods such as lectures, tutorials, lab- 28 EvolDir July 1, 2010 oratory practical classes, seminars and other formal e-mail: [email protected] pedagogic work, particularly in the fields of ecologi- cal informatics (candidates with expertise that extends from traditional (molecular) bioinformatics to the level of biogeographic analysis and evolutionary ecological models would be particularly welcome). 2. To super- SouthernCrossU vise UG and PGT student projects and dissertations. 3. To supervise students engaged on higher degree work PlantConservationGenetics by research. 4. To mark and assess studentsˆawork and to invigilate. 5. To establish a research group that Seeking outstanding Plant Geneticist complements existing areas of expertise in the School or to contribute to an existing research group; to attract Southern Cross University, located on the picturesque external funding and publish work of a quality suitable east coast of Australia, is seeking a visionary Scientific for return in the REF. 6. To undertake and support in- Director for its Centre for Plant Conservation Genetics. terdisciplinary infomatics across the research groupings The Centre delivers internationally significant, innova- in the School. 7. To undertake other forms of schol- tive solutions in research, education and commerciali- arly activity and to take part in School Academic De- sation of Plant Molecular Genetics. velopment activities related to enhancing the standard Full details of the position can be found at of teaching and student experience. 8. To undertake www.scu.edu.au/jobs . For further informa- curriculum development work including identification tion contact Emeritus Professor Peter e-mail pe- of consumer requirements, planning, development and [email protected] or phone +61(0)421491353 evaluation of courses and course materials and super- vise course provision. In particular the appointee will Emma Evans
The iPlant Tree of Life (iPToL) project (http://- [email protected] Google Voice: (203) 701-9204 iptol.iplantcollaborative.org) is seeking an engagement Sheldon McKay
partment of Biology on the University of South Car- olina, Columbia campus. This Postdoctoral Fellow will be supervised and work closely with Stephen Kreso- vich, South Carolina Center of Economic Excellence ULiverpool Evolution Endowed Chair of Genomics and Vice President for Research and Graduate Education at the University of South Carolina. A Ph.D. degree is required, and salary is commensurate A permanent teaching position (0.8 FTE) is available with experience. Specific requests for information may at the School of Biological Sciences, University of Liv- be sent to Stephen Kresovich at [email protected]. Submit ap- erpool. Applicants from areas of quantitative biology, plications via the University of South Carolina employ- behaviour, evolution and ecology are especially encour- ment job site (https://uscjobs.sc.edu), and also please aged to apply. Further details can be found below. send application letter, including a CV, statement of http://www.liv.ac.uk/working/job vacancies/- research interests, and names and addresses of three academic/A-570918.htm Informal enquiries to our references to: Dr. Stephen Kresovich, Office of Re- Head of School, Prof. Steve Edwards, [email protected] search and Graduate Education, Osborne Administra- Dr Steve Paterson School of Biological Sciences Univer- tion Building, Suite 202, University of South Carolina, sity of Liverpool Liverpool L69 7ZB, UK Tel (+44) 151 Columbia, SC 29208. Applications should be received 795 4521 Mob (+44) 151 794 7668 Fax (+44) 151 795 immediately with the positions ready to be occupied as 4408 Email [email protected] soon as possible. [email protected] The University of South Carolina is an affirmative action, equal opportunity employers. Minorities and women are encouraged to apply. The University of South Carolina does not discriminate in educational or employment opportunities or decisions for qualified per- sons on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, national USouthCarolina origin, age, disability, sexual orientation or veteran sta- GenomicsPopulationGenetics tus. “CAFFEE, AMY”
Lab Manager and Post Doctoral Associates - Ge- nomics/Population Genetics The Department of Biology at the University of South Carolina is seeking applicants for the positions of lab- UTennessee NIMBios oratory manager and post doctoral research associates EducationOutreach in the areas of comparative genomics and population genetics. We are seeking researchers with expertise in comparative, evolutionary, and population genomics, I think this job posting (which I pasted below) might applications of high-throughput genomic technologies, be of interest to the EvolDir folks. and interests in diversity analyses across a range of eco- nomically important animal and plant species. This Thank you, research initiative will focus on discovering, character- Catherine izing, and benefiting (both academically and econom- – Catherine Crawley, Ph.D. Communications Co- ically) from unique and important organisms of South ordinator National Institute for Mathematical and Carolina, including terrestrial, aquatic, and marine an- Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) University of Ten- imals, microbes, and plants (including those used for nessee 1534 White Avenue Knoxville, TN 37996-1527 agriculture, horticulture, forestry, and pharmaceuti- Phone: (865) 974-9350 Fax: (865) 974-9461 Email: cal/industrial use). [email protected] http://www.nimbios.org http:/- The ideal candidates will be highly motivated, creative, /twitter.com/nimbios Staff Position - Education and and energized by working in an interdisciplinary en- Outreach Coordinator - National Institute for Mathe- vironment, and have a record of distinguished perfor- matical and Biological Synthesis (NIMBioS) This full- mance. The positions are to be located in the De- time position is responsible for coordinating all out- July 1, 2010 EvolDir 33 reach and education research activities of NIMBioS in The Bolnick lab in the Section of Integrative Biology at collaboration with the Director and the Associate Di- the University of Texas at Austin, is seeking a highly rector for Education, Outreach and Diversity. This po- motivated research technician to assist with a study of sition develops the array of outreach activities of NIM- the ecology and evolution of stickleback fish (Gasteros- BioS including activities with the general public, K-12 teus aculeatus) and their macroparasites. The techni- programs at schools, collaboration networks for high cian’s job will focus on documenting geographic vari- school teachers, coordination of summer undergraduate ation in parasite communities of the threespine stick- research programs, mentoring networks for undergrad- leback and corresponding variation in stickleback im- uates, coordination of outreach-linked-to-research with munogenetics. For more information on the Bolnick the staff of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and lab, visit: organization of workshops and conferences related to https://webspace.utexas.edu/dib73/Bolnicklab/- education and outreach. A MS in a quantitative sci- Bolnicklab.html The research associate will be an entific field (e.g., Mathematics, Statistics or Computer employee of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Science) or an area of the Life Sciences or equivalent ex- perience is required; a PhD is a plus. Applicants should Responsibilities will include: also have experience working in collaboration with re- Quantifying parasite incidence and identity in wild- searchers with BS, MS and PhD degrees to meet project caught fish specimens, measurements of fish morphol- tasks and the ability to communicate scientific topics ogy and diet, DNA extraction, PCR, and next-gen se- to diverse audiences. Position Title: Research Asso- quencing. Training will be provided as needed. The ciate II. Pay Grade 41. To apply, submit a CV with technician will have the opportunity to assist with peri- cover letter and names of two references to: Dr. Chris odic field work on Vancouver Island, Canada, to obtain Welsh via email to [email protected]. The University specimens. The technician may also assist with daily of Tennessee is an EEO/AA/Title VI/Title IX/Section management of the laboratory, including purchasing, 504/ADA/ADEA institution in the provision of its ed- equipment maintenance, database management, and ucation and employment programs and services. All animal care. qualified applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national ori- Minimum qualifications: gin, religion, sex, pregnancy, marital status, sexual ori- A Bachelor’s degree in biology or equivalent field. A entation, gender identity, age, physical or mental dis- strong work ethic, an ability to work independently and ability, or covered veteran status. meticulously, and good organizational skills. Catherine Crawley
on the Neusiedler See, ice skating, biking and hiking in the Viennese woods and the nearby Alps. Moreover, the city has a wide range of great restaurants, bars, wineries, cinemas, clubs, libraries, galleries, and art col- Vienna DrosophilaGenetics lections. The Vienna area is also an exceptional and highly international research environment. Four major life science universities and three world-class research institutes (GMI, IMBA, IMP) provide a dynamic and PART-TIME TECHNICIAN POSITION IN interactive setting. Vienna hosts an active Drosophila DROSOPHILA GENETICS community, and the onsite availability of the Drosophila A part-time technician position in the biology of RNAi center (VDRC) provides a great opportunity for Drosophila aging is available in the group of Thomas functional Drosophila work. Flatt at the University of Veterinary Medicine (Depart- To apply for this position, please send your applica- ment of Biomedical Research, Institute of Population tion, including a cover letter, as a single pdf file to the Genetics), Vienna, Austria. The position is funded by following email address: thomas.fl[email protected] a grant from the Austrian Science Foundation (FWF) and will be for at least two years, part-time (3 days per Informal inquiries are welcome and should be sent week). to the same e-mail address. For further in- formation see (http://i122server.vu-wien.ac.at/pop/- We are seeking a well trained and self-motivated techni- Flatt website/flatt home.html ). cian with good social, management, and organizational skills. The successful applicant should have prior lab- The deadline for submission is 15 August 2010. oratory experience with basic molecular biology tech- Dr. Thomas Flatt Institute of Population Genetics De- niques and genetics, a strong work ethic, and the abil- partment of Biomedical Sciences University of Veteri- ity to work independently. A degree in biology or a nary Medicine Vienna Veterin¨arplatz 1 A-1210 Wien related field would be a plus. Applicants with expe- Austria/Europe rience in Drosophila maintenance and genetics would be highly desirable and will be given preference. The VOX +43-1-25077-4334 FAX +43-1-25077-4390 E-mail: working language in the laboratory is English, so the thomas.fl[email protected] candidate should be proficient in spoken and written Lab Website: http://i122server.vu-wien.ac.at/pop/- English. German skills, although helpful, are not es- Flatt website/flatt home.html Vienna Graduate sential. The initial appointment will be made for 6 School of Population Genetics: http://www.popgen- months, with a possible extension to up to two years. vienna.at Thomas Flatt <fl[email protected]> The annual salary is 17,016 Euro (before tax) for part- time work (3 week days). The position is available as of September or October 2010. The responsabilities of the research assis- tant/technician will include: assisting in the daily WoodsHole EvoDevo operation and maintenance of the lab; ordering supplies; preparing reagents and fly food media; maintaining fly stocks; assisting with and performing experiments. Bench and lab work will include standard Position Title: Postdoctoral Scientist, Evo-Devo of molecular biology procedures such DNA and RNA Gene Regulatory Networks, Bay Paul Center extraction, PCR, RT-PCR, cloning, fly genetics, and Description: An anticipated postdoctoral position in immunohistology. Prior experience in performing the Evo-Devo of Gene Regulatory Networks will be Western and Northern blots would be a plus. available in Joel Smith’s lab at the Marine Biological In a 2009 world-wide survey by the William M. Mercer Laboratory in Woods Hole. Institute, Vienna ranked first world-wide in terms of We seek a talented and enthusiastic researcher to con- standards of living. Vienna is a beautiful, historical yet tribute to funded investigations into the evolution of de- modern city, located in the heart of Europe, close to the velopmental Gene Regulatory Networks (GRNs). The Alps and to major cities like Munich, Zurich, Prague, successful candidate will conduct molecular biology and and Budapest. Being famous for its concert sites, opera functional genomics studies in non-vertebrate model or- houses, theathers, museums, and coffee shops, Vienna ganisms, including the sea urchin, Strongylocentrotus also provides great outdoor activities, such as sailing purpuratus - the pioneering system for GRN research 36 EvolDir July 1, 2010
- and the starlet sea anemone, Nematostella vectensis, references, including your Ph.D. supervisor by complet- to determine the regulatory mechanisms governing axis ing an application using the MBL website: http://- specification and pattern formation during early stages www.mbl.edu/hr/employment.html . Please email Joel of embryogenesis. The Postdoctoral Scientist will be Smith ([email protected]) with any questions about part of a collaborative team, sharing expertise in gene the position. regulation, cell and evolutionary biology and working Posting Number: 0000320 to gain a deep mechanistic understanding of the origins of the bilaterian body plan. Deadline: Until a suitable candidate is found. The successful applicant will hold a Ph.D. in one of the The MBL is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action biological sciences. Necessary skills include standard Employer/Non- smoking workplace. molecular biology techniques, with experience in em- “Katie K. Newhall”
Other
Biotechniques reprint ...... 37 PhilTheoryBiol ...... 43 CallInterest FourthIntlBarcodeConference ...... 37 Predicting PathogenEvolution funding ...... 44 Cichlid evolution ...... 37 RepublicCapeVerde VoluntaryFieldAssist ...... 44 Clustering PhylogeneticTree ...... 38 Scaleboot use ...... 45 Divergence rate To Mutation rate conversion ...... 38 ShortCourses YouWouldLike 3 ...... 45 Dmelanogaster samples ...... 39 Small scale SNPs ...... 46 Invasive species survey ...... 39 Software NewVersionFLOCKProgram ...... 46 London SpeakersCorner June14 ...... 39 Software PhyRe PhyloRepresentativeness ...... 47 London SystematicsAssociationLecture 7thJuly . . . .40 Software TreeSnatcher Plus ...... 47 Mediterranean Flora ...... 40 SouthAfrica Volunteers MammalEvol ...... 47 Micro examples ...... 41 SwedishUAgric FieldVolunteer LifeHistoryEvolution 49 MrBayes aarevmatpr parameters ...... 41 TravelGrants SpeciationResearch ...... 49 MrBayes problem ...... 42 Tropical bird feather DNA ...... 49 MrBayes taxon names ...... 42 Viral qRT-PCR ...... 50 NationalScienceFoundation forum ...... 42 Yasuni diversity ...... 50 NCBI to Wikipedia taxon mapping ...... 43 Pacific Symposium ...... 43 July 1, 2010 EvolDir 37
meeting venue that will be of interest to scientists; hir- ing a conference management company with which lo- gistical arrangements will be made; and obtaining par- Biotechniques reprint tial funding of the conference from co-sponsors. The conference chair will be a member of the technical pro- gram committee that will plan the conference agenda Dear all, and select speakers. If anybody has: CBOL Member Organizations are invited to express their interest in hosting the conference by contacting Walsh, P.S., Metzger, D.A. & Higuchi, R., 1991. Chelex David Schindel ([email protected]). Please include the 100 as a medium for simple extraction of DNA for PCR- name and contact information for the proposed confer- based typing from forensic material. BioTechniques, 10, ence chair. 506-513. Expressions of interest are requested by 15 July 2010. I would be very thankful if you could email me a copy Organizations that respond to this call will receive as a pdf please. Our library seems to have ’filed’ every- guidelines for preparing their proposals to CBOL’s thing older than 1996 now. Executive Committee which must be received by 1 Best, September 2010. The final selection of the conference Mark. venue will be made by CBOL’s Executive Committee by 1 October 2010. Dr. Mark I. Stevens South Australian Museum North Terrace, Adelaide SA 5000, GPO Box 234 Science Cen- David E. Schindel, Executive Secretary tre, Morgan Thomas Lane (off Kintore Ave) [courier Consortium for the Barcode of Life 202/633- address], Tel: +61 8 82077685, Mob: 0466672727, Fax: 0812; fax 202/633-2938; portable 202/557-1149 +61 8 82077222, [email protected], Email: [email protected] CBOL WEBSITE: http://- http://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au and www.barcoding.si.edu Office and overnight delivery ad- Senior Lecturer (Affiliate), University of Adelaide, dress: School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Fac- National Museum of Natural History Room CE-119 ulty of Sciences, SA 5000 Australia, http://- 10th & Constitution Avenue, NW Washington, DC ees.adelaide.edu.au/disciplines/eeb/ “Stevens, Mark 20560 (SAM)”
The Consortium for the Barcode of Life (CBOL) will be holding the Fourth International Barcode of Life Con- Cichlid evolution ference in late 2011 and invites expressions of interest from organizations interested in hosting the conference. Previous conferences have been hosted by The Natural Cichlid Evolution: Lessons in Diversification Call for History Museum, London (February 2005), Academia Papers Sinica (September 2007) and Universidad Nacional Au- With an estimated 3000 species, distributed from Cen- tonoma de Mexico (November 2009) and preference will tral and South America, across Africa to Madagascar, be given to organizations in regions that have not pre- the Middle East, and southern India, cichlid fishes (Ci- viously hosted a barcode conference. chlidae) represent the most species-rich family of ver- The host organization will be asked to designate a con- tebrates, accounting for about 10% of extant teleost ference chair and local organizing committee who will diversity. Throughout their distributional range, ci- work closely with CBOL in planning the conference. chlids have repeatedly demonstrated their capacity for The committee will be responsible for: providing a undergoing adaptive radiation, generating an outstand- 38 EvolDir July 1, 2010 ing variation of body shapes, colour patterns, and be- www.kfunigraz.ac.at/zoowww/personal/kobl/kobl.htm haviour, and an enormous diversity of trophic and [email protected] ecological specializations, making them an important model system for evolutionary biology. With the com- pletion of the first cichlid genomes in the foreseeable future, cichlid fishes will receive even more attention in evolutionary research. We invite investigators to con- tribute original research as well as tutorial or review Clustering PhylogeneticTree articles that seek to advance our knowledge of mech- anisms underlying processes generating and maintain- ing the tremendous diversity of cichlid fishes. Potential topics include, but are not limited to: Dear all, * Advances in phylogenetics, phylogeography, and pop- I have a phylogenetic tree of 695 phoB proteins, now I ulation genetics * Genomic and transcriptomic research want to estimate the the optimal number of clusters on * Role of behavioral and ecological specializations this tree. However, before choosing any statistic to es- in cichlid diversification * Physiological/morphological timate the number of clusters I have to slide a vertical adaptations to particular environments * Importance of line along the phylogenetic tree in order the decide the hybridization for generating diversity * Sexual versus current number of clusters. If this could be done auto- natural selection * Evolution of developmental mecha- matically, it means we have to handle the newick string nisms of this tree. How should I write the code dealing with the newick string, which amounts to slide a vertical line Before submission authors should carefully read to decide the subgroups. Thanks in advance! over the journal’s Author Guidelines, which are lo- cated at http://www.sage-hindawi.com/journals/ijeb/- Sincerely, guidelines.html. Prospective authors should sub- shan mit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript – Shan Li Bioinformatics UNC Charlotte through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.sage-hindawi.com/ according to the follow- Shan Li
Guest Editors I would like to calculate a mutation rate per site, per * R. Craig Albertson [email protected], Department generation, from a mtDNA control region divergence of Biology, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY 13244, rate reported in the literature in units of divergence per USA * Martin J. Genner [email protected], million years. In my calculation, I am assuming that School of Biological Sciences, University of Bris- each species diverges at an equal rate, and I have a gen- tol, Woodland Road, Bristol BS8 1UG, UK * eration time of 5 years. The reported divergence rate Kristina M. Sefc [email protected], Depart- is 4.8% per million years. To get the mutation rate, I ment of Zoology, Karl-Franzens-University Graz, Uni- divide 0.048/1,000,000, multiply by 5 for my generation versit¨atsplatz 2, 8010 Graz, Austria * Tetsumi time and divide by 2 to account for the fact that I have Takahashi [email protected], Graduate two lineages going different directions. This gives me School of Science, Kyoto University, Kitashirakawa- a lineage-specific mutation rate of 1.2 x 10(-7) per-site, Oiwake Sakyo, Kyoto 606-8502, Japan per-generation. Stephan Koblm¨uller Department of Zoology; Karl- That seems like an awfully slow rate for the control re- Franzens-University Graz Universit¨atsplatz 2; gion. Where am I going wrong? I feel like my math is 8010 Graz Austria phone: +43 (0)316 3803978 off somehow but I can’t figure out where. fax: +43 (0)316 3809875 homepage: http://- Joel Anderson
Dr. Robert Colautti Biology Department Duke Univer- sity [email protected] Dr. Oliver Bossdorf Biology Department University of Bern [email protected] Dmelanogaster samples Dr. Steven Franks Biology Department Fordham Uni- versity [email protected] [email protected] I am looking for old Drosophila melanogaster popula- tion samples. Specifically, I am looking for Drosophila melanogaster that are collected from one geographic lo- cations before 1970s and maintained since then in lab- oratory. London SpeakersCorner June14 Any possible source/information will be greatly appre- ciated. Grace Yuh Chwen Lee
Origin of the Flora in the Mediterranean Basin: A London Window on Plant Evolution in Mediterranean Climate SystematicsAssociationLecture Zones 7thJuly Call for Papers To date, many published biogeographic studies focused on the spatial and temporal origin of particular floristic The Systematics Association Sir Julian Huxley lecture regions, including the Holarctic, the Neotropics, South- Africa, Macaronesia, or Hawaii, but only a few were Species for Macroevolution devoted to the Mediterranean Basin (MB). Indeed, the Prof. Andy Purvis, Imperial College, London. relative contribution of geological processes and long- distance dispersal (LDD) to the contemporary compo- The Linnean Society, Burlington House, Piccadilly, sition of this plant diversity hotspot remains largely un- London Wednesday 7th July 2010, 6 pm known. Main hypotheses on the geographic sources of The meeting is open to visitors. Wine will be served af- the MB flora were mainly derived from qualitative as- ter the lecture to members and guests. Please advertise sessments of similarities with adjacent floristic regions this lecture as widely as you can. such as North Africa or the Middle-East, but not with Abstract: Species are fundamental units for evolution- other Mediterranean floras. Indeed, despite the great ary biology. Alone among the levels of classifications general resemblance between the five existing Mediter- into which we place individuals, the species level has the ranean areas worldwide, only a few works have system- potential to have an objective reality: when we count atically investigated the Mediterranean disjunctions us- them, we think we are counting something meaningful. ing integrative approaches. Overall, questions dealing with the origin, evolution, and affinities of the respec- If we compare number of species in different taxa, re- gions, or times, we are led to try to understand why the tive Mediterranean floras remain largely unanswered for numbers are different or similar. Incomplete knowledge example, (i) is the MB a cradle for other Mediterranean may lead us to use higher taxa, such as genera or fami- regions? (ii) do these regions appear almost simultane- lies, instead, but we do so in the hope and expectation ously under some general abiotic constraints or do they have their own history? that they will reflect what good species-level data would show. I will argue: 1. That this hope is misplaced - In this issue, papers testing the congruence between es- analysing higher taxa conflates processes that should be timated ages and geographic sources of some Mediter- kept separate; 2. That analysing temporal patterns in ranean groups with independently derived paleogeolog- numbers of higher taxa might be particularly problem- ical/climatic models are highly welcome. We particu- atic when using large, multi-author databases; 3. That larly take interest in manuscripts that report relevance even species cannot be used uncritically in macroevo- of (i) disjunct patterns within the MB or between the lutionary analyses - even with good data (a complete MB and other Mediterranean regions, (ii) floristic ex- phylogeny of present-day species, or a complete record changes between the Mediterranean areas via disper- of fossil species) - but that 4. The best fossil records can sal routes or long distance dispersal (LDD), and (iii) let us come close to the ideal species for macroevolution, abiotic/biotic events as drivers of speciation in these letting us tackle questions that cannot be addressed any diversity hotspots. July 1, 2010 EvolDir 41
Main topics include, but are not limited to: - Impor- allele scoring, very simple to complex ones all are wel- tance of vicariance, geodispersal, or LDD in the origin come; and also microsatellite electropherograms from of Mediterranean floras - Role of key innovations/key polyploid plants with alleles/ stutters designated. opportunities in explaining the current high plant diver- AVIK RAY [email protected] National Centre of sity in the MB - Testing correlates of diversification in Biological Sciences Bangalore-65, India the MB flora - Testing the existence of a Mediterranean niche conservatism - Testing biogeographic methods al- [email protected] lowing an a priori implementation of probabilistic mod- els Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal’s Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.hindawi.com/journals/jb/- MrBayes aarevmatpr parameters guidelines.html. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.hindawi.com/ according to the following timetable: Manuscript Due October 1, 2010 First Round of Re- Dear EvolDir members, my name is Federico and I views January 1, 2011 Publication Date April 1, 2011 am a PhD student currently working on mitochondrial Lead Guest Editor - Guilhem Mansion, Botanischer genome phylogenetics. Among other analyses, I wanted Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin- Dahlem, Freie to enforce MtArt and MtPan matrices for my protein Universit¨at Berlin, K¨onigin-Luise-Straße 6-8, 14195 alignments: therefore, I used the MrBayes 3.1.2 com- Berlin, Germany Guest Editors - Isabel Sanmartin, mand Department of Biodiversity and Conservation, Real prset aamodelpr=fixed(gtr) aarevmatpr=fixed(<190 Jardin Botanica, CSIC, Plaza de Murillo 2, 28014 comma-separated values>); Madrid, Spain - John Thompson, DA˜ c partement Cen- tre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive CEFE CNRS However, when the MCMC run is over and I proceed UMR 5175, 1919 Route de Mende, 34293 Montpellier with sump command, I see amino acid substitution Cedex 5, France rates as free parameters in the STAT file. This was ob- viously not expected, because they should be fixed pa- Link to pdf version: http://www.hindawi.com/- rameters and not allowed to vary, thanks to aarevmatpr journals/jb/osi.html For further information, please set to fixed. In the similar case of nucleotide analyses, contact directly: [email protected] (restricted indeed, substitution rates are not listed into the STAT email access between 10.06.2010-01.07.2010) file if I use the prset revmatpr=fixed command. Dr Guilhem Mansion Through the showmodel command, I could see that Mr- Botanischer Garten und Botanisches Museum Berlin- Bayes acknowledges that I set up a fixing prior on sub- Dahlem Freie Universit¨atBerlin K¨onigin-Luise-Straße stitution rates, but then lists them among free param- 6 - 8 14195 Berlin eters and considers amino acids frequencies (!) as not http://www.bgbm.fu-berlin.de/bgbm/STAFF/wiss/- allowed to vary. Mansion/default.htm Email: [email protected] Did anyone come across the same problem? Can some- Tel.: +49 30 838 50 121 Fax: +49 30 838 50 218 Fax: one explain this behaviour of MrBayes 3.1.2? I am very +49 30 838 50 218 grateful in advance to each of you for the help to come! Best regards, Federico Plazzi Dipartimento di Biolo- gia Evoluzionistica Sperimentale Via Selmi, 3 40126 Bologna (BO) - Italy [email protected] ˜ Micro examples LA RICERCA CˆaA E SI VEDE: 5 per mille all’UniversitA˜ di Bologna - C.F.: 80007010376 http://- www.unibo.it/Vademecum5permille.htm Questa infor- mativa A˜ inserita in automatico dal sistema al fine es- I am looking for microsatellite electropherograms with clusivo della realizzazione dei fini istituzionali dellˆaente. their alleles as well as stutters identified to get an idea of [email protected] 42 EvolDir July 1, 2010
names followed by the accession numbers. When the run had converged I used the sum t command to ob- tain the consensus tree, however for several species the name is cut short and most of the accession number is MrBayes problem no longer included but rather replaced by suspension points (ie ...). Thus I can no longer identify specific se- quences because the accession numbers have been cut short. Strangely, the names are complete in the two Dear MrBayes users and experts, tree files, and they appear to be cut short only when I am getting stuck in ONE parameter of MrBayes. the sum t command is executed. Many thanks in advance for your help. Is there a command that would allow me to tell Mr- Bayes not to cut taxon names? The names I have are I suspect a bug with prset pinvarpr parameter : there not longer than those that appear in the example files is always an error message whatever are the options i of MrBayes, nor do I have other symbols other than fixed. alphanumeric and the underscore to replace a space. Here are the command lines : the two last ones fail. Any suggestions are welcome! MrBayes > execute TestBSprotAli.nex .... Success- Thank you, fully read matrix Exiting data block Reached end of file MrBayes > lset rates=invgamma Setting Rates to Alejandro Invgamma Successfully set likelihood model parame- Alejandro Gonzalez Voyer Post-doc ters MrBayes > lset ngammacat=4 Setting Ngammacat NEW ADDRESS & NEW E-MAIL to 4 Successfully set likelihood model parameters Mr- Bayes > prset aamodelpr=fixed(gtr) Setting Aamod- Estaci´onBiol´ogicade Do˜nana (CSIC) Avenida Am´erico elpr to Fixed(Gtr) Successfully set prior model param- Vespucio s/n 41092 Sevilla Spain eters *MrBayes > prset Pinvarpr = Fixed (0.3) Expect- E-mail: [email protected] ing
Something is wrong with a system that does not rec- (even if it’s simply to answer “what on Earth is this?”). ognize quality science, that is discouraging to new and For some details on how this mapping was created experienced researchers alike, and that offers no appeals please see my blog post: http://tinyurl.com/35cljpv. process and little transparency. Thanks to Scott Federhen and Kathy Kwan at NCBI In order to address these issues, several of us have cre- for all their assistance in getting this into NCBI Link- ated a new discussion forum dedicated to debating the out. There are inevitably going to be errors and om- current state of NSF and proposing solutions for its missions in this mapping. These can be updated at challenges. We invite you to contribute to this critical http://iphylo.org/linkout . Regards discussion. Rod *This forum is located at http://- Roderic Page Professor of Taxonomy DEEB, FBLS nsfisbroken.proboards.com/index.cgi* What problems Graham Kerr Building University of Glasgow Glasgow have you had with NSF? What creative solutions have G12 8QQ, UK you come up with to these problems? The forum is designed to address such issues. Let’s bring out our Email: [email protected] Tel: +44 141 330 4778 best ideas, and hope that NSF pays attention. Fax: +44 141 330 2792 AIM: [email protected] Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/- Anonymous posting is supported, registration is possi- profile.php?id12517192 Twitter: http://twitter.com/- ble but not required. Ad hominem attacks and vulgar rdmpage Blog: http://iphylo.blogspot.com Home page: or base language are not tolerated. http://taxonomy.zoology.gla.ac.uk/rod/rod.html The forum creators began with the premise that the [email protected] mission of NSF is critically important and that its em- ployees are bright, hard working, and well meaning. But we argue that the current funding system has be- come opaque and out of touch with reality, and in many cases serves to hinder rather than advance science. Pacific Symposium This forum is NOT affiliated with NSF or any other institution. Please forward this email to all interested colleagues. We invite high quality manuscripts for publication and Sincerely, presentation at a special session on Microbiome Studies at the Pacific Symposium on Biocomputing, 3-7 Jan- Aureliano Buendia Private State University uary in Hawaii. Papers will be refereed by top names [email protected] in the field, and accepted papers will be published in the PSB proceedings, which are indexed in Medline. For details: http://psb.stanford.edu/cfp- microbiome.html james a. foster university of Idaho NCBI to Wikipedia taxon mapping “James A. Foster”
Some 52,956 taxa that have sequences in GenBank are linked to Wikipedia. These links appear in the NCBI taxonomy pages under the heading “External Informa- PhilTheoryBiol tion Resources (NCBI LinkOut)”. For example, the NCBI page for “Mammuthus primigenius” http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/Taxonomy/Browser/- Philosophy & Theory in Biology, an online open ac- wwwtax.cgi?mode=Info&id7349 shows a link to cess journal devoted to bringing together the philosophy Wikipedia page for “Woolly Mammoth” of science and theoretical biology communities, seeks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/index.html?curid369680 submissions for two special ongoing features: Trends My motivation in creating this link was to provide an and Crosstalk. “Trends” are in depth review (as op- easy way for someone visiting a NCBI taxonomy page posed to original scholarship) papers on topics of cur- to get a quick sense of what we know about that taxon rent interest within the areas covered by the journal, 44 EvolDir July 1, 2010 while “Crosstalk” entries provide technical yet accessi- cians, and physicists together to challenge conventional ble articles written by biologists on topics of interest to biological paradigms. philosophers, or by philosophers on topics of interest to Due to the interdisciplinary nature of the program biologists. Prophecy and its goal of predicting pathogen evolution, Submissions for ideas for Trends or collaborations will be necessary and we envision that it Crosstalk papers can be sent to edi- may take time to formulate productive teams. To this [email protected], and more end DARPA will be holding teaming meetings to intro- information about the journal (including how to duce potential responders to the Prophecy BAA and submit regular papers and book essays) can be found encourage their collaboration in the pursuit of multi- at philosophyandtheoryinbiology.org disciplinary approaches to the program. There will be 2 meetings which are described in the attached Special Massimo Pigliucci Editor, Philosophy & Theory in Bi- Notice (DARPA-SN-10-48). ology [email protected] Prof. Massimo Pigliucci The Graduate Center We hope that you will forward this Special Notice to the & Lehman College City University of New York Society membership and that the expertise of your com- www.platofootnote.org www.rationallyspeaking.org “I munity will help DARPA in achieving these challenging objectives. Please note that there are two meetings over love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by...” -Douglas Adams the next six weeks that will precede the publication of the BAA. Regards, Michael Callahan MD Program Manager, Prophecy Christopher Houchens
Sent on behalf of Michael Callahan, M.D., DTM&H, RepublicCapeVerde Program Manager for Prophecy: Predicting Pathogen VoluntaryFieldAssist Evolution. Dear Members, I am contacting you in regard to a novel funding op- portunity which may be of interest to subscribers of the Field assistant wanted ? Republic of Cape Verde ? Sept to Dec 2010 EVOLDIR emailing list. DARPA’s viral pathogen surveillance program known Can you: 1. Work long hours unsupervised 7 days per as “Prophecy” is based on a multi-year investment in week? 2. Find nest, and capture and ring shorebirds? the preemptive prediction of emerging viruses using in- 3. Contribute to your own expenses? silica models validated by high-throughput biological The project We are investigating breeding ecology and validation systems, all of which are corrected by the behaviour of Kentish plover Charadrius alexandrinus real-time reporting of mutations in animal reservoirs in Cape Verde by monitoring colour-ringed individu- or humans. A Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) als. This is an all-year resident population and many will soon be released for Prophecy which will seek in- individuals are already ringed from previous years. tegrated multi-disciplinary solutions to predicting viral The place The study sites are in Maio Island, Cape pathogens before emergence in natural ecologies. Verde, at the Salina Porto Ingles and nearby lagoons Talented scientists and engineers will be critical to the (see the Bradt Guide to Cape Verde Islands). Accom- success of this program. It is our belief that the mem- modation on the islands is in an apartment, with oc- bers of the EVOLDIR emailing list may offer novel ap- casional water and electricity. The island has spectac- proaches, methodologies and trans-discipline solutions ular wildlife, including endemic birds, corals and ma- which would greatly assist DARPA in this challenging rine mammals; it is a beautiful and inspiring place to program. As you are likely aware, this belief is sup- work. However, the island is a small and isolated place ported by the successes of DARPA’s Fundamentals of with basic commodities, the weather can be harsh and Biology program which brought biologists, mathemati- a great deal of walking is required. July 1, 2010 EvolDir 45
The job The fieldwork will run from 1 September to mid December 2010. It will be unsupervised, and will involve ? among other tasks ? searching for plover nests and marked plovers and their families, taking be- havioural observations and monitoring nest survival. It Scaleboot use will also involve capturing, ringing and bleeding adults and young. The candidate This is a volunteer post ? applicants Dear All: must be willing to pay for their own transport to Maio, and to contribute to their expenses once there. How- I try to learn how to use Scaleboot according to the ever, we are applying for funding elsewhere and if suc- manual as follows: cessful, these funds would cover the majority of ex- “ penses. > library(scaleboot) You will be a keen birder with sharp eyes and plenty > mam15.mt <- read.mt(”mam15.mt“) of experience of trapping, handling and ringing birds. Clean driving licence is essential. You must be person- > mam15.ass <- read.ass(”mam15.ass“) able and happy to engage with locals to explain the > mam15.relltest <- relltest(mam15.mt, ass = project; some Spanish or Portuguese is helpful. You mam15.ass) must be physically fit, hard-working and meticulous, and have a proven ability to work independently. As > summary(mam15.relltest)” you will appreciate from its description, the project will > library(scaleboot) involve many different challenges. A proven ability to it is ok collect high-quality data is essential (i.e. a good de- gree in a biological subject or equivalent experience), > mam15.mt <- read.mt(“mam15.mt”) and you should be prepared to type up your data in Error in file(file, “r”) : cannot open the connection the evenings! You must have a positive attitude and an ability to look after yourself ? this means cooking In addition: Warning message: your own meals, dealing with logistics (such as ordering In file(file, “r”) : cannot open file ’man15.mt’: No such food), and most importantly being capable of organis- file or directory ing your own work for a substantial period of time. If you like chatting on the phone, or feel the need to text Did you experience this error before? and email people all the time, this position is not for If so, could please you give me some advice? you. The cost of living is high, and food is expensive. Thank you very much, Costs It is possible to fly through Lisbon from the UK I appreciate your time. that costs about £700. Internal flights from Praia to Maio should be under £100, and accommodation is £5 Best regards, per night. I expect that a budget of £2000 would cover Runhua your flights and expenses for the whole field season. Runhua Lei, Ph.D. Conservation Geneticist Omaha’s Interested? Please send a current CV with an email Henry Doorly Zoo 3701 South 10th Street Omaha, NE stating why you feel you are a strong candidate to me 68107 (Professor Tam´asSz´ekely) at [email protected]. Appli- cation deadline: 16 July 2010. 1-402-557-6924 (O) 1-402-738-2095 (Lab) 1-402-733- 0490 (Fax) I will also need the contact details (email and tele- phone) of two referees. If you have any questions, please [email protected] direct them to me at the same email address, or call me on UK 01225 383 676. [email protected] ShortCourses YouWouldLike 3
Call for Full Proposals for NESCent Courses 46 EvolDir July 1, 2010
NESCent (The National Evolutionary Synthesis Cen- [email protected] ter) recently had an open call for suggestions for new 1-2 week summer courses to be offered at our center in Durham, NC. This open call was followed by open, anonymous voting to collect feedback from the evolution community on perceived need/value of the proposed courses. See the top vote-getters here: Software www.nescent.org/courses/proposals . We appreciate all NewVersionFLOCKProgram of the enthusiastic responses we received, and are now soliciting full proposals. While the five topics listed at the link, above, are of particular interest to us (based on community voting) anyone is welcome to submit a full proposal to deliver a course on any evolutionary topic. FLOCK is designed to unravel genetic structure within Full proposals are due by July 10th, 2010. a collection of genotypes, whether pure or admixed. It For information on how to prepare and submit a is assumed that pure, “source”, samples are not avail- full proposal, see www.nescent.org/courses/proposals/ able. The program may be used to solve the “number . NESCent also co-sponsors existing short courses. (K) of populations” problem, separate pure and ad- If you currently teach a short course and would like mixed specimens into K groups (K is known), picture to apply for NESCent support to cover instructor ex- structural relationships between samples. FLOCK is penses or fellowships for underrepresented minority stu- a non- Bayesian method and therefore differs substan- dents, please see www.nescent.org/courses/proposals/- tially from previous clustering algorithms. Its working cosponsorship .Applications for co-sponsorship are also principle is repeated re-allocation of all collected speci- due by July 10th, 2010. mens (total sample) to the k subsamples. The number of re-allocations until convergence typically stands be- For questions or more information, please contact Jory tween five and ten. The method was published as: Weintraub ([email protected]). Duchesne P, Turgeon J (2009) FLOCK: a method for Jory Weintraub
website: http://www.cs.uni-duesseldorf.de/AG/BI/- Software/treesnatcher Abstract (from the website): TreeSnatcher Plus is a GUI-driven Java application for the semi-automatic recognition of multifurcating phy- Software PhyRe logenetic trees in pixel images. The program accepts an image file as input and analyzes the topology and PhyloRepresentativeness the metrics of a tree depicted with user assistance. The analysis is carried out in a multiple-stage process us- ing basic algorithms from the field of image analysis. Dear EvolDir members, we are glad to inform you that It yields a Newick expression that represents the tree a new program evaluating phylogenetic coverage has structure optionally including branch lengths. been released and is freely available on our lab website at Due to some differences between the JAVA versions for the three major OSes there is currently only a Mac http://www.mozoolab.net . We called our package OS X version. However, the versions for Windows and PhyRe, standing for PHYlogenetic REpresentativeness. Linux will be available pretty soon. It is composed by three Python scripts; therefore, it is platform-independent. Our idea is to deal with taxon We believe that the new application is much more flex- sampling issue with a completely a priori approach: in ible and usable now. as we have re-conceptualized and this way, we can answer to the question “Did I sam- extended our program from 2007. You can now prepro- ple taxa in my ingroup enough to conduct a phyloge- cess an image directly in TreeSnatcher Plus with a large netic study?” before starting the lab work. Phyloge- selection of tools. The program now recognizes rect- netic Representativeness develops Taxonomic Distinct- angular topologies and can therefore deal with branch ness for phylogenetic purposes: only a reference tax- lengths correctly. onomy is needed, then the ingroup is compared to the Colleagues who like to try TreeSnatcher Plus for Mac complete master list of organisms it stands for. Sev- OS X are kindly encouraged to study the tutorials from eral tests of randomization and shuffling have been in- the website in detail. The tutorials serve as a substitute troduced to assess statistical confidence. We hope this for a manual. concept can be useful to phylogeneticists planning their We would be very grateful for comments, ideas, bug re- work and conducting their research project. A paper ports, advice, or criticism and are happy to answer any has been published on this topic: questions. Plazzi, F., Ferrucci, R. R., and Passamonti, M. (2010). The source code will be made available on request. Phylogenetic Representativeness: A New Method for Evaluating Taxon Sampling in Evolutionary Studies. Best regards, Thomas Laubach BMC Bioinformatics 11:209. Thomas Laubach
MsC or PhD project. space constraints in the dorms). The volunteer project is ongoing, i.e. positions will also be available in 2011. Project: We study the evolutionary and ecological rea- Volunteers are expected to stay at least 2 months, but sons as well as physiological mechanisms of group living, paternal care, communal nesting and social flexibility longer periods of up to 6months are preferred. in the striped mouse. As this species is diurnal and the How to apply? Send a short motivation letter stating habitat is open, direct behavioral observations in the why and for which period you are interested and your field are possible. CV via email to [email protected]. What kind of people are needed? Biol- Please send your application BEFORE the 10th of July ogy/zoology/veterinary students are preferred as or after the 10th of August (no emails will be replied candidates. Applicants must have an interest in to that are send between 10th July and 10th August). working in the field and with animals. Hard working More information under www.stripedmouse.com Con- conditions will await applicants, as the study species tact via e-mail: [email protected] gets up with sunrise (between 5 and 6 o‘ clock), and stops its activity with dusk (19 o‘ clock). Work during Dr. Carsten Schradin Research Assistant, Department nights might also be necessary. Work in the field will of Animal Behavior, University of Zurich, Winterthur- be done for 5 days a week. Applicants must be able erstrasse 190, 8057 Zurich, Switzerland. Tel: +41 - to manage extreme temperatures (below 0 at night (0)44 635 5486 in winter, sometimes over 40C during summer days). Honorary Researcher at the School of Animal, Plant Applicants must both be prepared to live for long and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwa- periods in the loneliness of the field and to be part of tersrand, South Africa. a small social group. Working as a field assistant in Goegap Nature Reserve Work of field assistants: Trapping, marking and radio- tracking of striped mice; direct behavioral observations A report by Romy H¨oppli, student at the University of in the field. Volunteers are also expected to help with Zurich, who staid in Goegap June to August 2008 maintenance of the research station (water pump, solar Blue skies without a single cloud for six weeks - rocky power, etc.) mountains with little vegetation - yellow, orange and Confirmation letter: Students get a letter of confirma- pink fields of flowers in whatever direction you look tion about their work and can prepare a report of their - small mammals, lizards and birds in our front yard own small project to get credit points from their uni- and Mountain Zebras, Springbok and Ostrich right next versity for their bachelor or masters studies. door... Costs: Students have to arrange their transport to the This was my time at the Succulent Karoo Research Sta- field site themselves. Per month, an amount of Rand tion in Goegap Nature Reserve in South Africa! During 1000 (around 105 Euro) must be paid for accommo- six weeks from the beginning of July until the middle of dation at the research station. For students with their August I’ve been living here, studying mice, experienc- own undergraduate project, a fee of Rand 1250 (approx. ing nature like never before and being part of a small 130 Euro) per month applies. Students must buy their community where there was always something to laugh own food etc in Springbok (costs of about R 2000 or and joke about! 210 Euro/month). Including extras, you should expect After arriving in Goegap, right the next morning my costs of about 300 - 400 Euros per month. Students scientific adventure in South Africa began: Setting and get an invitation letter which they can use to apply for checking traps, nest observations and radio-tracking funding in their home country (eg. DAAD in Germany, were our daily routine. While I got bitten by the mice SANW in Switzerland). quite often in the beginning and my right middle finger Place: The field site is in the Goegap Nature Reserve was scarred all over, I near Springbok in the North-West of South Africa. The / vegetation consists of Succulent Karoo, which has been recognized as one of 25 hotspots of biodiversity. It is a desert to semi-desert with rain mainly in winter (June to September). This message has been arbitrarily truncated at 5000 characters. When and how long: At the moment we are looking for To read the entire message look it up at http://life.biology.- one male volunteer starting as soon as possible and one mcmaster.ca/˜brian/evoldir.html female volunteer starting in September (this is due to July 1, 2010 EvolDir 49
Dear colleagues, The European Research Networking Programme “Fron- SwedishUAgric FieldVolunteer tiers of Speciation Research”, supported by National LifeHistoryEvolution Funding Organizations in16 member countries of the European Science Foundation,isinviting applications for travel grants intended to foster collaborations be- tween European researchers working on topics related Field Volunteer for project investigating nest predation to the Programme. in Brown Thornbills Support is available for short visits (up to 2 weeks) and For the upcoming breeding season (Oct.-Dec. 2010) exchange grants (up to 3 months), with preference given we are looking for a highly motivated volunteer to join to junior researchers at a graduate or postdoctoral level. our field project investigating nest predation in Brown Applications are reviewed quarterly after a submis- Thornbills Acanthiza pusilla. The study population is sion deadline of 24:00 CET on 15 March, 15 June, 15 located at Trevallyn Reserve next to Launceston, Tas- September, and 15 December. About 4-6 weeks after mania (Australia). Our project researches the influence each deadline, the ESF will inform applicantsabout the of nest predation and habitat quality on life-history outcome of evaluations. strategies. The project of Dr. Michael Griesser is based at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Further information and instructions on how to ap- is a collaboration withDr. Erik Wapstra the University plyare available at www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/EEP/- of Tasmania. FroSpects/Travel Grants.html . The work of the volunteer will be to help in carrying out For general information about the FroSpects Research field experiments, locating nests, assisting the ringer in Networking Programme, please see www.iiasa.ac.at/- catching and banding of birds, and data management. Research/EEP/FroSpects . We will work 5-6 days per week in the field. Observe With best wishes, that temperatures at the beginning of the breeding sea- son can be below zero degree. Ake˚ Br¨annstr¨om& Ulf Dieckmann, on behalf of the FroSpects Steering Committee Qualifications: (1) BSc in Biology, Ecology or similar qualification (2) Previous field experience (3) Ability to Ulf Dieckmann
Best wishes, Kirsten – GMX DSL: Internet-, Telefon- und Handy-Flat ab 19,99 EUR/mtl. Bis zu 150 EUR Startguthaben inklu- Dr Kirsten Wolff Reader in Evolutionary Genet- sive! ics Newcastle University, School of Biology Newcas- http://portal.gmx.net/de/go/dsl “Nadine A. tle NE1 7RU, UK Phone: 0191 222 5626 email: Gund”
Yasuni diversity
Viral qRT-PCR This CNN report shows the on-going struggle between advocates for preservation of the most diverse place on the planet, the impending drive for oil development, Dear evoldir members and qRT-PCR experts, and the difficult economic choices developing countries I have started a new project and one of the techniques need to make for themselves within a climate of inter- I want to use is the qRT-PCR. national pressure from both companies and developed First of all let me explain the research topic: governments. The deal Ecuador has proposed could serve as an economic model of development for so The barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV, ssRNA-virus) many other places - please watch this at the very least and the wheat dwarf virus (WDV, (DNA-Virus) are to be aware. Plus, these presentations would be a great widely distributed viral diseases of cereals. The virus educational tool. Dr. Kelly Swing was my professor 10 BYDV is transmitted by aphids and WDV is transmit- years ago for an undergrad Tropical Ecology semester, ted by the leaf-hopper Psammotettix alienus. With the for which we spent a month in Yasuni. That program qRT-PCR I want to know which aphid or leaf-hopper was the most influential part of my entire (on-going) carry the virus and maybe how many virus-particles. education, Yasuni is my favorite place in the world, Now my question: and Kelly dedication continues to amaze me. http:/- /www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/international/- What do you think is the best strategy: absolute or 2010/05/27/ef.amazon.research.bk.b.cnn.html If you relative quantification? What should I use as a calibra- liked that, check this out, but don’t be put off by tor? Do you think I should synthesize the standards the lack of sound - it gets better as it progresses: (synthetic genes)? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdJhvbvjOnk Thank you in advance for any advise or help! Pamela Woods Ph.C. Kind regards Nadine University of Iceland University of Washington [email protected] Pamela Woods
PostDocs
Belgium EvolutionaryComputation ...... 51 Brussels BeetlePopulationGenetics ...... 54 Bergen Norway FishPopulationGenetics ...... 52 Cambridge KAUST-mosquito genomics ...... 54 BrighamYoungU FlowerEvoDevo ...... 53 ColoradoStateU SalamanderTransposableElements 55 BrownU ComputationalGenomics ...... 53 ETH Zurich Entomology ...... 55 July 1, 2010 EvolDir 51
Finland 2 MolecularSystematics 2 ...... 56 putationalGenomics ...... 72 FloridaStateU DrosophilaWing EvoDevo ...... 57 TuftsU Speciation ...... 72 GhentU SystemsBiology ...... 57 TuftsU SpeciationGenomics ...... 73 ImperialCollegeLondon PopulationGenomics ...... 58 UAberdeen MolecularEvolution ...... 73 IndianaU ReproductiveDiversity ...... 58 UCaliforniaSanFrancisco HumanEvolution ...... 74 IowaStateU EvolBiology ...... 59 UGreifswald Germany ConservationGenetics ...... 74 LavalUniv Quebec SylvicultureAndCommunities . . .59 UGroningen SpatialModelling ...... 75 MaxPlanckInst Jena InsectBacteriaSymbioses . . . . . 60 ULaval Molecular basis of behaviour variation . . . . . 76 MichiganStateU EvolutionaryGenetics ...... 61 ULeeds mtDNAvariation ...... 76 MichiganStateU KBS MicrobialEvoEcol ...... 62 UMinnesota PlantEvolutionaryGenomics ...... 78 MichiganStateU PlantAdaptationGenetics ...... 62 UMunich PlantRepetitiveDNAEvolution ...... 78 MIchiganStateU SexualSelectionSpeciation ...... 63 UNSW Sydney SexualConflict ...... 79 Neustadt Germany ChickenGenomics ...... 64 UOxford EvolutionaryBiology ...... 79 Norway FishGeneticInteractions ...... 64 UPF Barcelona Metagenomics ...... 79 OhioStateU ComputationalBiology ...... 65 USheffield AphidSpeciation ...... 80 Oslo Bioinformatics ...... 65 USouthernCalifornia SpeciationGenetics ...... 80 PrincetonU OxytrichaEvolution ...... 66 UStirling ResAssist BeeSpecies ...... 81 QueenMaryU London open ...... 67 UToronto EvolutionOfSex TestingTheory ...... 81 ReedCollege 2 CichlidEvolution ...... 67 UToronto PlantAdaptation ...... 81 RutgersU PopulationGenetics ...... 68 UVirginia PlantPopulationDifferentiation ...... 82 SanDiegoZoo Conservation ...... 68 UVirginia PopulationGeneticsGenomics ...... 82 SaudiaArabia SymbiodiniumEvolutionaryGenomics 69 UZurich ExperimentalEvolution ...... 83 SmithCollege MA EukaryoticPhylogeny ...... 70 Vienna DrosophilaAging ...... 83 StanfordU TheoreticalEvolution ...... 70 Vilnius HostParasiteEvolution ...... 84 StellenboschU AbaloneGenomics ...... 70 WoodsHole MicrobialBiogeography ...... 85 Stuttgart Germany PlantEvolution ...... 71 TexasAMU ComputationalGenomicsTexasAMU Com-
with built-in ventilation systems, or divide the work such that the chances of survival are optimal. Some socio-biological mechanisms for collective behav- Belgium EvolutionaryComputation ior have already been studied in the context of com- puting (e.g. stigmergy and digital pheromones, or in discrete optimization techniques, such as ant colony optimization, artificial immune systems, genetic algo- Three open positions for 2 PhD students and 1 post- rithms). It becomes apparent, however, that (1) large- doc in the area of evolutionary computation / bio- scale and dynamic systems still hold major challenges, inspired computing Interdisciplinary research project and (2) many socio-biological concepts and techniques “Bio-inspired computing for coordination and control have been unexplored. in large-scale and dynamic systems (BioCo3)” The project therefore aims to study advanced concepts In this interdisciplinary project (involving computer and mechanisms, known from social biological systems, science, biology, operations research and logistics ex- and their applicability in decentralized control systems. pertise) we will study decentralized approaches for con- To guide the research, the project will use concrete ap- trolling large-scale, dynamic systems - e.g. for control- plication scenarios, based on decentralized control in ling a large number of vehicles that need to accomplish pickup-and-delivery problems (PDPs), and evolution- transport tasks for clients (package delivery service). ary algorithms to evolve more efficient control strate- Achieving efficient and effective collective behavior is gies. known to be quite a challenge, esp. if the systems are large in scale and submitted to changing operating con- Keywords: Multi-agent systems, Discrete optimiza- ditions. Complex collective behaviour occurs in many tion, Sociobiology, Social Insects, Biologically-inspired socio-biological systems. Social insects, e.g., are able computing, Pickup-and-delivery problems, Ant Colony to find the shortest path to food sources without any Optimisation, Evolutionary Algorithms, Genetic Algo- central control, or can build enormously complex nests rithms 52 EvolDir July 1, 2010
The partners in this project are Dept. of computer sci- triNet labs Dept. of Computer Science KULeuven ence, DistriNet labs Prof. Tom Holvoet http://people.cs.kuleuven.be/Tom.Holvoet Celesti- http://distrinet.cs.kuleuven.be/ Dept. of biology, Lab- jnenlaan, 200A B-3001 Leuven Belgium +32 16 oratory of entomology Prof. Tom Wenseleers http://- 32.76.38 bio.kuleuven.be/ento/ Dept. of mechanics, Center for Dr. T. Wenseleers Dept. of Biology Zoological Institute industrial management Dr. Paul Valckenaers K.U.Leuven Naamsestraat 59 B-3000 Leuven Belgium http://www.mech.kuleuven.be/en/cib/ Saint-Lieven tel. +32 (0)16 32 39 64 mobile +32 (0)472 40 45 96 College, IT department Dr. Greet Vanden Berghe e-mail [email protected] web http://ingenieur.kahosl.be/personeel/- / greet.vandenberghe/ Requirements For this ambitious project, two PhD positions and one position for a post- This message has been arbitrarily truncated at 5000 characters. doctoral researcher are open. We invite applications To read the entire message look it up at http://life.biology.- from: mcmaster.ca/˜brian/evoldir.html either people who have a strong computer science back- ground (master degree for PhD positions, PhD degree for the postdoc position) with a strong affinity and in- terest in biology, or people who have a strong a biological background Bergen Norway (master degree for PhD positions, PhD degree for the FishPopulationGenetics postdoc position) and strong affinity and interest in computer science. The positions are available from Oc- tober 1, 2010 (negotiable). Further requirements for The Institute of Marine Research has a two-year post candidates include doctoral research position available to work with mod- having a scientific, critical attitude being ambitious eling genetic interactions between wild and farmed fish. having good communication and social skills, team The position will be connected to the Population Ge- player having an independent working style being pro- netics and Ecology research group in Bergen, Norway. ficient in English experience as a researcher is welcome Closing date for applications: 10.07.10. but not mandatory for the PhD positions. The position will be linked to the modeling work- For more information and for applying... For more in- package in the Strategic Institute Project “INTER- formation about the project and the positions, and for ACT”, financed by the Norwegian research council. applying for a position, please contact the project co- Building upon published data, current models and ordinator: state-of the art, the work-package aims to advance mod- Prof. Tom Holvoet els to quantify the interactions between wild and farmed DistriNet Labs - Dept. of Computer Science, KULeu- fishes, for both Atlantic cod and Atlantic salmon. The ven, Belgium ultimate aim is to identify “break points” for tolerance of genetic introgression in wild populations. http://people.cs.kuleuven.be/Tom.Holvoet For more information about the KULeuven: Together with members of the research team, the ap- pointee will have responsibility for establishing, testing http://www.kuleuven.be/ The deadline for application and publishing new models that shed light onto the is consequences of farmed escapees and tolerable levels of July 15, 2010. introgression in wild populations. This will be achieved through developing models describing dynamics of wild When applying, make sure to include (pdf versions of): salmon and cod populations that are interacting and a detailed resume (with publications, if you have any) potentially interbreeding with conspecific fish of aqua- a motivational letter specifically referring to the open culture origin. Important parameters to be tested in- positions copies of marks and degrees/certificates a list clude numbers of escapees, fitness of hybrids, and be- of 3 references that we can contact your MSc thesis in havioural interactions between wild and cultured fish. English (or a 5-page summary in English). We wish to appoint a highly motivated person with a Please forward this message to interested PhD in modeling, statistical genetics, population ecol- staff/students... – Prof. Dr. Tom Holvoet Dis- ogy or related discipline. The appointee will need to July 1, 2010 EvolDir 53 be able to document experience of programming and the function and evolution of dimerization properties use of models to study dynamical systems in biology. among floral homeotic B class proteins in the grass fam- Previous experience with modelling of fish population ily. The project will include functional characterization dynamics is not necessary but is considered advanta- of a maize B class mutant, isolation of B class genes geous. from diverse grasses and close relatives, and assays of The Institute emphasises personal qualities such as DNA binding and protein interaction. The candidate must have a PhD in Plant Biology, Mol/Cell biology or good communication and cooperative skills, the abil- related field. A strong background in molecular biol- ity to work independently and as part of an active re- search team. A record of publishing in this field will be ogy, including PCR, cloning and sequence analysis, ex- considered an advantage. cellent oral and written communication skills, and will- ingness to mentor undergraduate students are required. We offer: Familiarity with EMSA, site-directed mutagenesis, and * a positive, challenging and creative work environment knowledge of plant development and morphology are * the opportunity to work in a national institute with helpful but not required. Funding is available for three a high level of international contact * flexible hours, a years beginning September 1, 2010. good pension scheme and a wide range of welfare ser- Interested candidates should send a cover letter describ- vices. ing their research interests and background, reasons for The Institute offers governmental regulated salaries as interest in this project, a CV and contact information post doctor (code 1352 post doctor). for at least two references to [email protected]. For more information, please contact project leader Clinton Whipple Department of Biology 679 WIDB Kevin Glover or research group leader Terje Svaasand. Brigham Young University Provo, UT 84602 The Institute of Marine Research is an “inclusive work- Office: 801 422-9293 Fax: 801 422-0090 email: whip- life” employer that encourages diversity, and we encour- [email protected] website: whipplelab.byu.edu age all qualified candidates to apply for this position. [email protected] Women are particularly encouraged to apply. Please note that information about applicants may be made public even if an applicant has requested to be left off the list of applicants. Applicants will be noti- fied about this in advance BrownU ComputationalGenomics Please apply in writing, enclosing a cover letter, full CV, copies of relevant recommendations and academic transcripts together with a set of publications, to: In- stitute of Marine Research, Personnel Division, P.O. Box 1870 Nordnes, NO-5817 Bergen, Norway. Appli- cation number: “31-10”. Closing date for applications: Postdoctoral Position in computational/functional ge- 10.07.10. nomics at Brown University [email protected] A postdoctoral position is available in the Fairbrother lab, at Brown University. The research will involve detecting genetic variations within the human popu- lation that alter pre-mRNA splicing. The approaches used will include RNA CLIP and high throughput bind- BrighamYoungU FlowerEvoDevo ing assays to accrue binding measurements and several downstream computational analysis. Candidates with research experience in population ge- Postdoctoral position in evolution of plant development netics or RNA biology or splicing will be considered: A postdoctoral position is available in the laboratory The position can begin as early as Summer, 2010. of Clinton Whipple (whipplelab.byu.edu) at Brigham Applications should email a CV and any other relevant Young University to work on an NSF funded project in- information to vestigating the evolution of interactions among proteins regulating flower development. The successful candi- Will Fairbrother [email protected] date will employ a variety of approaches to understand Will Fairbrother
spite the presence of toxic monoterpenes in the resin. The larvae are gregarious. The sex ratio is unbalanced, ranging from 1:10 to 1:40 in favor of females. After metamorphosis, the young males mate with their sis- Brussels BeetlePopulationGenetics ters, so that 98% of the emerging females are fertilized by their brothers. Each female is then immediately able to colonize a new host. The adults are not gre- garious and attack their host tree solitarily. For a long We are seeking a postdoc with skills in population ge- time, it was thought that the males never leave their na- netic analyses and molecular markers, to infer the cur- tal gallery, because they mate within them. However, rent and past dispersal of bark beetles in Europe and males have recently been trapped in the forest (passive Siberia. I believe this should be of interest to evolu- interception traps) in ratios similar to those observed tionary biologists and population biologists and would in the galleries. This raises questions over the fate of appreciate if you could post this announcement. these males and over the function of their flights. Do Best wishes, the flying males enter other chambers containing pre- emergent broods, or do they join their sisters in their Patrick new galleries? Only one adult female is usually found in Postdoctoral position in molecular ecology and forest the newly formed egg galleries. A preliminary study of entomology We are looking for a postdoctoral candi- genetic variation suggests low levels of variation within date for a 2 years position to work on the inference populations, but has identified a couple of microsatel- of contemporary and past dispersal of the bark beetle lite loci for which different alleles are fixed in differ- Dendroctonus micans using molecular markers. The ent populations sampled in France and Belgium. The candidate should have a strong experience in popula- proposed postdoc will focus on the indentification of tion genetic analyses and in working with molecular additional molecular markers and their use for charac- markers. Experience in forest entomology will also terizing the genetic structure of D. micans populations. be valued, but is not essential. The candidate will These molecular data will be combined with behavioral contribute to a project (see description below) funded data and a field study directly assessing the movement by the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (FNRS), of the beetles, in order to increase our understanding and work in the laboratory of Biological Control of the dispersal strategy of this insect pest. and Spatial Ecology (http://www.ulb.ac.be/sciences/- Patrick Mardulyn Evolutionary Biology and ecology, lubies/indexuk.html) and in the laboratory of Evo- CP 160/12 Free University of Brussels (ULB) av. FD lutionary Biology and Ecology (http://ebe.ulb.ac.be/- Roosevelt 50 1050 Brussels Belgium ebe/ebe-Welcome.html). To apply, please send a CV, a statement of research interests/ experiences, and names Phone: (32)(2)6502649 Fax: (32)(2)6502445 e-mail: and contact information of two references that are fa- [email protected] miliar with your work, to Jean-Claude Gr´egoire(jcgre- homepage: homepages.ulb.ac.be/~pmarduly/ lab web- [email protected]), before June 21, 2010. We will even- site: www.ulb.ac.be/sciences/ecoevol/index EN.html tually propose one candidate for a postdoctoral grant Patrick
The project is a collaboration between Dr Arnab Pain ver (David Pollock, the Consortium for Comparative (KAUST, Saudi Arabia) and Dr Frank Jiggins (Dept Genomics) and UT Arlington (C´edric Feschotte) to 1) of Genetics, University of Cambridge, UK), which is identify and characterize novel repeat elements from funded for two years from 1 October 2010. There will several species of plethodontids, which diverged ~40-90 be one position in each laboratory, with close collab- mya, and 2) analyze the tempo and mode of repeat el- oration and exchanges between the labs. Applicants ement evolution, and the relationship with genomic ex- must have a PhD or equivalent in genetics or bioinfor- pansion, in a phylogenetic context. These results will matics and relevant research experience. The position be combined with ongoing comparative methods-based at KAUST is for a bioinformatician and requires fa- analyses of plethodontid genome size evolution. miliarity with handling large genomic datasets. The A Ph.D. in evolutionary or comparative genomics, or in postdoc in Cambridge will involve analysis of the as- a closely-related field, is required by the position start- sembled genomes together with rearing of mosquitoes date. The position is available as soon as a suitable and molecular biology. candidate is identified. Start-date is negotiable. The positions come with a competitive salary and ben- The Department of Biology at Colorado State Univer- efits package. Closing Date: 16 July 2010. Limit of sity is an interdisciplinary group with a strong crew tenure: 30 September 2012. of evolutionary biologists. Fort Collins is a beautiful Applications for the position at KAUST should be city of 120,000 people located at the base of the Rocky made to Arnab Pain ([email protected]). Mountains. We enjoy easy access to world-class out- For the position at Cambridge, please direct informal door recreation and 300+ days of sunshine each year. enquiries to Frank Jiggins ([email protected]). Com- To apply for the position, please e-mail the following pleted applications, which should consist of a completed application materials (as a single pdf file, if possible) to CHRIS/6 application form (Parts I and III) - see http:/- [email protected]: (1) CV, (2) one-page /www.admin.cam.ac.uk/offices/hr/forms/chris6/ - and statement of research interests, (3) up to three recent a full CV, should be sent to Ms Catherine Tinley, Dept publications (or, alternatively, include url’s for paper of Genetics, Downing St, Cambridge CB2 3EH. e-mail: downloads within your CV), and (4) contact informa- [email protected] tion for three references. For full consideration, mate- [email protected] rials must be received no later than Wednesday, July 21, 2010. However, applications will be accepted until the position is filled. For questions or informal inquiries about the position, please contact Rachel Mueller: [email protected] (970) 491-6717 http:/- ColoradoStateU /rydberg.biology.colostate.edu/muellerlab/Home.html SalamanderTransposableElements CSU is an EO/AA employer. CSU conducts back- ground checks on all final candidates.
Post-Doctoral Position Mueller Lab Department of Bi- [email protected] ology Colorado State University An NSF-funded post-doctoral position in evolutionary genomics is available in the Biology Department at Col- orado State University. The position is focused on genome evolution in plethodontid salamanders, which ETH Zurich Entomology have among the largest vertebrate genomes: 15 to ~75 Gb. Although such genomes are known to consist largely of repetitive DNA, the repeat elements, their mutational dynamics, and the ways in which these dy- Postdoctoral Research Assistant in Entomology namics translate into large and variable genome sizes ETH Zurich, Applied Entomology remain almost completely uncharacterized. The post- The project deals with effects of climate change, fo- doc will use next-gen sequencing data to study the mu- cusing on temperature-dependent flight characteristics tational processes underlying this extreme genomic ex- and associated life history traits in an invasive fruit pansion. moth species. To predict further spread of this pest The postdoc will interact with collaborators at UC Den- into hitherto uncolonized areas, we want to understand 56 EvolDir July 1, 2010 the magnitude of its potential to adapt to changing en- land) and Tommi Nyman (University of Eastern Fin- vironments. Little is known about how insect flight land). A strong background in molecular systematics is characteristics change with ambient temperature con- required for both positions. The positions are available ditions experienced during flight (acclimation), dur- for one year starting in September 2010, with a possibil- ing development (developmental plasticity), and expe- ity to extend for a second and third year. Salary will be rienced over two generations (cross-generational effect). 2100euro per month (non-negotiable) paid as a tax free A computer-linked apparatus will be used for compar- stipend up to 18,800euro per year, with 6400euro per ative assessment of insect flight performance. year subject to taxes (in practice, about 1900euro per Education: PhD with experience in insect behaviour month net income). One postdoc will work in Turku, Finland, the other in Joensuu, Finland, with active in- Entrance upon July 15, 2010, or upon agreement teraction planned between research groups. Duration of appointment: 1 year, with option for ex- The postdoc in Turku will work in the research group of tension based on performance and opportunity Niklas Wahlberg (http://nymphalidae.utu.fi), expand- Review of applications will start immediately and con- ing the work on Nymphalidae butterflies to other lep- tinue until a suitable candidate is found. Send Cur- idopteran groups (Geometridae and Noctuoidea). The riculum Vitae, a list of methods you are familiar with, major focus of this postdoc will be to generate new indication of the earliest possible starting date, as well molecular data for geometrid moths, assist in generat- as addresses with phone numbers of three references to ing molecular data for noctuids, and take responsibil- Prof. Dr. Silvia Dorn. ity in analyzing resulting data using phylogenetic meth- ods. The candidate should particularly be familiar with ETH Applied Entomology investigates insect-plant in- methods used to analyze changes in rates of diversifi- teractions, particularly as a basis for more sustainable cation over evolutionary time (e.g., with algorithms in pest and crop management. Main languages spoken are programs such as SymmeTree and Medusa). Interested English and German. persons should send their CV, a statement of why they For further information you may contact Dr. Do- are interested, and contact information of two refer- minique Mazzi ([email protected]) ences to Niklas Wahlberg (niklas.wahlberg@utu.fi) by the 30 JUNE 2010. Contact address: The postdoc in Joensuu will work in the research group Prof. Dr. Silvia Dorn ETH Zurich / Applied of Tommi Nyman (www.joensuu.fi/biologia/nyman), Entomology (Subject: Postdoc Insect Behaviour) and focus on the diversification history of sawflies (the Schmelzbergstrasse 9 / LFO CH-8092 Zurich mostly herbivorous basal grade of Hymenoptera). The Email: [email protected] Subject: Postdoc first task of this postdoc will be to increase the number Insect Behaviour of easily amplifiable nuclear genes to be used for phylo- http://www.em.ipw.agrl.ethz.ch genetic and timing of diversification analyses. The can- didate should be familiar with whole-genome databases, [email protected] publicly available EST libraries, primer design, and lab practices when developing new markers. The candi- date will be expected to generate new molecular data for sawflies, and to take responsibility for analyzing the resulting data using phylogenetic methods. Interested Finland 2 MolecularSystematics 2 persons should send their CV, a statement of why they are interested, and contact information of two refer- ences to Tommi Nyman (tommi.nyman@uef.fi) by the 30 JUNE 2010. Apologies, the deadline for applying for the recently ad- The project will facilitate numerous comparative anal- vertised positions is 30 JUNE 2010, not July as in the yses that will shed light on common patterns in the original e-mail. My mistake. Here is the advertisement evolutionary radiations of two species-rich and ecolog- again (with the correct dates): ically important insect herbivore taxa. Both research Two postdoctoral positions are available in the newly groups are young, dynamic, and innovative; a perfect funded project “Diversification of plant-feeding insects opportunity to take advantage of a robust background over millions of years: what is the role of dramatic cli- knowledge to find something new and exciting for sci- mate changes?” (funding from the Kone Foundation) ence in a collegial atmosphere! headed by Niklas Wahlberg (University of Turku, Fin- July 1, 2010 EvolDir 57
– Niklas Wahlberg Academy Research Fellow Labora- view. Candidates who are attending the European tory of Genetics Department of Biology University of Evo Devo meeting are encouraged to contact Salazar- Turku 20014 Turku FINLAND Ciudad ([email protected]) to arrange an inter- Phone: +358 2 333 5569 Fax: +358 2 333 6680 Skype: view. niklas w2 David Houle Nymphalidae Systematics Group: http://- Phone: 850-645-0388 FAX: 850-645-8447 http://- nymphalidae.utu.fi niklas.wahlberg@utu.fi bio.fsu.edu/˜dhoule/ Department of Biological Science Florida State University 319 Stadium Drive Tallahas- see, FL 32306-4295 [email protected]
FloridaStateU DrosophilaWing EvoDevo
GhentU SystemsBiology A postdoctoral position is available to model the devel- opment of the Drosophila wing. This is part of a larger project to understand the relationship between genetic and phenotypic variation and evolutionary change us- Postdoc position in Systems Biology ing the Drosophila wing as a model organ. The posi- The Division of Bioinformatics and Systems Biology at tion is part of a collaborative project involving David the VIB Department of Plant Systems Biology, Ghent Houle (Florida State University), Isaac Salazar-Ciudad University invites applications for an Expert Scientist (Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona) and Ian Dworkin position in the field of Computational Systems Biology. (Michigan State University). Primary responsibility of We seek highly-motivated individuals with an interest this position is construction of a cell-based model of in developing novel algorithms and software tools for morphogenesis, differentiation and growth that will in- the integration of high-throughput genomic data and terface with sub-cellular models of gene interactions. the inference and modeling of regulatory networks. The The winning candidate will also collaborate with a ideal candidate should hold a doctoral degree in a rel- larger team to compare model to empirical results, to evant field (physics, computer science, applied mathe- test and refine the model, and use the model to make matics, engineering or life sciences), with several years evolutionary predictions. Preference will be given to of postdoctoral experience, and have a proven record of candidates with experience in computational and an- its application for the life sciences. alytical modeling , and a desire to fuse developmen- Major duties include: tal, genetic and evolutionary approaches to fundamen- tal questions about the relationship between genotype - Responsible for the functioning of a small group of re- and phenotype. searchers (PhD students and postdocs). - Develop new and innovative (breakthrough) projects in line with the The position is for an initial period of two years, and strategic plan of the Department and VIB. - Provide may be extended for an additional two years. It will be supervised by Houle and Salazar-Ciudad. Appli- scientists in the Department and VIB with transfer of cations should be submitted as a single pdf file and in-depth knowledge. - Transfer science into publica- include a curriculum vitae, a summary of research ac- tions in high impact journals. - Detect potential tech- nology transfer possibilities. complishments and future research objectives, and the names and contact information for at least one pro- The position will initially be available for 2 years fessional reference (and preferably three). Review of (starting September 1st 2010), with the possibility applications will begin July 15, 2010 and continue un- of a 3 year extension depending on positive evalua- til a suitable candidate is identified. Application ma- tion. For further information please consult our home- terials should be sent electronically to David Houle page (http://bioinformatics.psb.ugent.be/) or contact ([email protected]). Florida State University is an the Scientific Director Prof. Dr. Yves Van de Peer Affirmative Action / Equal Opportunity Employer. ([email protected]). Candidates who are attending the Society for the Applications including a motivation letter, CV, list of Study of Evolution meeting are encouraged to con- publications, names and contact information of three tact Houle ([email protected]) to arrange an inter- references and a research proposal (2-3 pages) should 58 EvolDir July 1, 2010 be sent to Prof. Dr. Yves Van de Peer before July 1st RP&p svid=17675&p spid=898025&oapc=48&oas=- 2010. OSKPj4kLC0g p2Eies1U2g > – Yves Van de Peer, PhD. Dr Fran¸cois Balloux MRC Centre for Outbreak Professor in Bioinformatics and Genome Biology Asso- Analysis and Modelling, Department of Infectious ciate Department Director, VIB Department of Plant Disease Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Impe- rial College, St Mary’s Campus, Norfolk Place, Systems Biology Group Leader Bioinformatics and Sys- tems Biology Ghent University Technologiepark 927 B- London W2 1PG, United Kingdom Tel: 0044 9052 Ghent Belgium (0)20 7594 3260 E-mail: [email protected] Web: http://www1.imperial.ac.uk/medicine/people/- Phone: +32 (0)9 331 3807 Cell Phone: +32 f.balloux/ [email protected] (0)476 560 091 Fax: +32 (0)9 331 3809 email: [email protected] http://bioinformatics.psb.ugent.be/ Yves Van de Peer
Evolution is one of the 3 themes of this training grant ImperialCollegeLondon (along with development and neuroscience). PopulationGenomics The wording has been approved by our employment of- fice so I am not free to modify it. but I can tell you that the training faculty on this train- Research Associate in Population Genomics at Imperial ing grant includes a set of evolutionary biologists, e.g. College London Curt Lively, Mike Wade, Armin Moczek, Emilia Mar- The Research Associate in Population Genomics will tins (and me too), and we hope to recruit post-docs join the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemi- who have trained with evolutionary biologists. ology based at St Mary’s campus as well as be ex- you will find the words evolution of development in the pected to interact with collaborating research groups in ad. Cambridge. The successful candidate will additionally the reason I lead with sexual health and gender stud- spend some time in Professor Mark Stoneking’s labora- ies is that I am also trying to broaden the net since tory in Leipzig. most of the people who have applied in the past have The post holder will be closely involved in a long term been evolution of behavior people and we are striving project aiming at understanding the relative role of past for interdisciplinary demography and natural selection in shaping the hu- This is a link to the faculty on this training grant.... we man genome. More specifically, he/she will be focusing are a varied group, but we are firmly rooted in evolution on high throughput sequencing and will be, in particu- studies. lar, responsible for generating about 2,000 complete hu- man mitochondrial genomes. These sequences will al- http://www.indiana.edu/˜reprodiv/faculty.htm Ellen low quantifying to what extent past climate has shaped Ketterson [email protected] Distinguished Profes- worldwide human mitochondrial sequence variation. sor of Biology For informal enquiries please contact Francois Balloux Indiana University invites applications for up to two [email protected]. post-doctoral traineeships to be supported by NICHD via an NIH T32 training grant entitled, ’Common Applications should be submitted through the following Themes in Reproductive Diversity.’ We offer broadly URL: integrative training in the areas of sexual reproduction < https://www4.ad.ic.ac.uk/- and development with a focus on the behavior of an- OA HTML/OA.jsp?akRegionCode=- imals including humans. Research conducted by par- 3DIRC VIS VAC DISPLAY PAGE&akRegionApplicationId=ticipants addresses key questions in the development 800&OASF=IRC VIS VAC DISPLAY&OAHP=- and expression of sex differences, as well as maternal IRC EXT SITE VISITOR APPL&transactionid=- and paternal effects on morphological, sexual, and so- 1826533789&retainAM=Y&addBreadCrumb=- cial development. Indiana University’s excellent sup- July 1, 2010 EvolDir 59 port for research and its globally recognized strengths in Science Teaching Fellow human sexual health, gender studies, animal behavior, The Howard Hughes Program for Innovation in Under- endocrinology, and the evolution of development ensure graduate Science Education at Iowa State University in- high quality training. For more information see http:/- vites applications for two Post-doctoral Science Teach- /www.indiana.edu/ ˜ reprodiv/index.htm We welcome ing Fellow positions in the fields of Biology and Chem- candidates interested in human as well as nonhuman istry. Specific responsibilities of these grant-funded po- behavior who wish to train across disciplinary lines. sitions will include working in coordination with science Traineeships include a competitive salary based on cur- faculty to identify specific learning goals for core un- rent NIH pay scale commensurate with experience, and dergraduate courses, decide on assessments of student modest funds to support research and travel. The suc- progress toward these goals, and develop and prototype cessful applicant will help foster collaborations among innovative in-class and out-of-class course activities and faculty and serve as a professional model for pre- laboratory materials to promote student learning. Fel- doctoral trainees. A Ph.D. in gender studies, psychol- lows will have the opportunity to join a research group, ogy, biology, neuroscience, chemistry, or a related field providing additional opportunities for scholarship, pub- is required. Candidates are invited to make initial con- lication, and professional development in the sciences. tacts with training faculty http://www.indiana.edu/- ISU is located in a vibrant college town and is commit- ˜reprodiv/faculty.htm To apply, please visit the follow- ted to excellence and world-class diversity. ing website to find instructions and forms to download: Qualified candidates must have a Ph.D. in the biolog- http://www.indiana.edu/ ˜ reprodiv/apply/ Please e- ical sciences, chemistry, or science education; excellent mail your completed application to Linda Summers at organizational and interpersonal communication skills; [email protected] or (less desired) mail it to 402 teaching experience; and have the potential for con- N. Park Street, Bloomington, IN 47405. The email sub- tributing to science education scholarship and research. ject line should read: CTRD Post-doc Application. For To apply, send the following to cesmeestaff@iastate.edu: full consideration, applications should arrive by 15 Au- a cover letter briefly summarizing qualifications, cur- gust 2010, although later applications will be consid- riculum vitae, a statement of scholarly interests and ered. The search will continue until the positions are expertise, and contact information for three references. filled. Please note that one of the lines must begin on For questions regarding this position, please contact or before April 2011, and the second line would not be- Prof. Ogilvie at [email protected]. Review of ap- come available before May 2011. If you have specific plications will begin on June 28, 2010 and will continue questions about the process or fellowships, please con- until the position is filled. tact Ellen Ketterson ([email protected]) who will answer your questions or forward your inquiry to the Applications from women and members of under rep- appropriate person. resented groups are strongly encouraged. Iowa State University is an EO/AA employer. Minority applicants are especially encouraged to apply. Trainees must be citizens, non-citizen nationals, or per- Jonathan F. Wendel, Professor and Chair Depart- manent residents of the US. Indiana University is an ment of Ecology, Evolution, & Organismal Biol- Equal Opportunity / Affirmative Action Employer. ogy, Iowa State University Ames, IA 50011 Voice (515) 294-7172; FAX 515-294-1337; [email protected] Ellen Ketterson [email protected] http://www.eeob.iastate.edu/faculty/WendelJ/ (Per- sonal home page) http://www.eeob.iastate.edu/ (De- partment home page) “Wendel, Jonathan F [EEOBS]”
ISU is soliciting applications for a post-doctoral posi- LavalUniv Quebec tion for a scientist interested both in research and in pedagogy. This is a split position, about half “scientific SylvicultureAndCommunities pedagogy”, and the remainder more traditional scien- tific research in a host laboratory. The latter can be with any faculty member at ISU willing to host the POST-DOCTORAL RESEARCH PROJECT RE- post-doc. The formal ad follows: SEARCH CHAIR IN SYLVICULTURE AND 60 EvolDir July 1, 2010
WILDLIFE pers, progress reports, and posters. 2. Helping to plan and supervise fieldwork. 3. Maintaining the project’s The NSERC-Universit´e Laval Industrial Research database; as well as supervising and verifying contri- Chair in Silviculture and Wildlife has research oppor- tunities for one post-doctoral fellow to participate in butions from employees and students. 4. Developing its research program. This program seeks to develop and maintaining links with practitioners, managers and silviculture systems suited for the sustainable manage- researchers in order to promote an exchange on chair- related work. 5. Advising and assisting researchers and ment of uneven-aged boreal forests. The post-doctoral students in their studies. project should commence no later than August 2010, with a duration of 1-2 years. A fellowship of 35,000$ Qualifications: Hold a PhD in terrestrial ecology, per year will be available. forestry, biostatistics or related field. Have extensive research experience in animal or community ecology. * Research theme 1: Modelling animal communities Have in-depth knowledge of ecological modelling and in managed boreal forest. The project aims to model animal-habitat relationships in the managed forests of contemporary multivariate statistical methods. Be fa- the Cˆote-Nord region of Qu´ebec. The study will in- miliar with the use of Geographic Information Systems. tegrate information on forest structure, composition, Universit´eLaval is a French university and some basic and management with data on animal communities French is an asset. that have been collected as part of the chair’s studies. Documents to provide by email: Applicants for this po- Species groups to be considered include invertebrates, sition should forward me a short cover letter indicating forest birds, and small mammals. A number of indi- their motivation, accompanied by a current CV and the cator species have been identified in uncut forests. We names and contact information of three references. We now need to determine whether these species are also will begin to review the applications on July 2nd 2010: adequate indicators of local species assemblages in post- Daniel Fortin D´epartement de biologie, Pavillon logging forests. The following article presents one way Alexandre-Vachon, 1045, av. de la M´edecine, Uni- to analyse the data: versit´eLaval, Qu´ebec (Qc) G1V 0A6, Canada Email: Azeria et al. 2009. Using null model analysis of species [email protected] co-occurrences to deconstruct biodiversity patterns and [email protected] select indicator species. Diversity and Distributions 15: 958-71. The study should also evaluate the response of the in- dicator species to landscape characteristics in order to subsequently map broad-scale patterns of biodiversity. MaxPlanckInst Jena * Research theme 2: Response of animal communities InsectBacteriaSymbioses to various silvicultural practices. The post-doctoral fel- low could characterize the impact of silvicultural prac- tices on the foraging behaviour of small mammals. The Postdoctoral Positions in the Insect Symbiosis Research results should reveal spatio-temporal variations in the Group perception of foragers to predation risk and competi- tion intensity. The following paper presents a similar The Insect Symbiosis Research Group at the Max study: Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in Jena (http:/- /www.ice.mpg.de/kal/home/home de.htm?mp=369) Lemaˆıtre et al. 2010. Deer mice mediate red-backed studies the evolution and chemical ecology of insect- vole behaviour and abundance along a gradient of habi- bacteria symbioses. Two postdoctoral positions are tat alteration. Evolutionary Ecology Research 12: 203- available immediately. 16. Postdoctoral fellowship Molecular ecology of a defen- The post-doctoral fellow could also become involved in sive insect-bacteria symbiosis Solitary digger wasps of other on-going studies. We are therefore looking for the genus Philanthus cultivate Streptomyces bacteria candidates with broad interests and skills. Please visit in specialized antennal glands that protect the wasp “www.sylvifaune.ulaval.ca” to find out more about the offspring in the cocoon against pathogen infestation chair’s studies. by producing a cocktail of antibiotics. One postdoc- The post-doctoral fellow will have administrative re- toral position is available to study the benefits of the sponsibilities, which include: 1. Writing scientific pa- symbiosis for the bacterial partner as well as to eluci- date the diversity and synergistic activity of antibiotic July 1, 2010 EvolDir 61 substances produced by the symbionts to protect the [email protected] insect host. We are seeking a highly motivated can- didate with strong communication and excellent or- ganizational skills who can operate in an interdisci- plinary research environment. The successful candi- date should have a strong background in chemical- analytical techniques (e.g. GC-MS, HPLC-MS, pro- MichiganStateU teomics, lipidomics, MALDI-imaging) as well as a pro- EvolutionaryGenetics found interest to work in evolutionary ecology. Ap- plicants should have a PhD in biochemistry, chemical ecology, evolutionary biology or a closely related field. Postdoc in Behavioral Ecology and Evolutionary Ge- Postdoctoral fellowship Comparative Genomics of sym- netics Michigan State University biotic Streptomyces strains in beewolves All digger I am looking to fill a postdoc position in sexual selec- wasp species of the genera Philanthus and Trachypus tion and genetics of speciation, focused on measuring that have thus far been investigated cultivate bacteria selection in the wild at the genetic level. The project of a specific group of Streptomyces in their antennal uses a manipulative field experiment to directly test glands. The symbionts produce a diverse set of antibi- how sexual selection acts on genomic regions confer- otics to protect the wasp larvae against fungal and bac- ring sexual isolation. We work with the charismatic terial pathogens. One postdoctoral position is available threespine stickleback, and are interested in selection to study the evolutionary history of the symbiotic inter- through female choice and male competition, and both action between digger wasps and Streptomyces and the behavioral and morphological traits. We combine se- genetic basis of antibiotic production by using a com- lection and genetic studies in nature to address several parative genomics approach. We are seeking a highly fundamental questions: 1) What is the genetic basis of motivated candidate with strong communication and sexual isolation in natural populations? 2) How does excellent organizational skills who can operate in an sexual selection act in nature on the genetic elements interdisciplinary research environment. The success- that underlie sexual isolation? 3) How is genetic varia- ful candidate should have experience in whole-genome tion maintained in sexually selected traits? sequencing using next-generation sequencing technolo- Responsibilities include conducting a large scale field gies, a strong bioinformatics background to handle and behavior experiment, generating the mapping popula- analyze genome-scale datasets (including programming tion, genotyping and genetic mapping, analyzing data, skills, e.g. Perl) as well as a profound interest in evo- and preparing manuscripts. The ideal candidate has ex- lutionary ecology. Applicants should have a PhD in cellent field skills, including with field behavior exper- molecular ecology, evolutionary biology or a closely re- iments and/or facility with evolutionary genetics and lated field. genetic mapping. This is a rare combination, so ex- The Max Planck Institute is an equal-opportunity em- pertise with one area and keen interest in the other ployer and especially encourages women to apply. Ap- is fine. I am looking for a scientist who is creative, plications from handicapped persons will be favored collaborative, and committed, and who wants to train when all other qualifications are equal. in an integrative lab that is passionate about behav- Please send your applications (including cover letter ioral evolution, its selective causes, and its genetic un- with statement of purpose and previous research ex- derpinnings. Good writing skills and strong publica- perience, CV, and contact information for 2 referees) tion record a definite plus. There will be opportunities until July 31, 2010 to: to learn new techniques, to supervise students, and to do independent work. A PhD in Evolution, Behavior, Dr. Martin Kaltenpoth Max Planck Institute for Ecology or a related field is required. Chemical Ecology Research Group Insect Symbio- sis Hans-Kn¨oll-Str. 8 07745 Jena Germany Email: Appointment initially for 1 year with possibility [email protected] Fax: ++49-3641-571810 of renewal up to 3 years. Funding is through an NSF CAREER grant and BEACON (an NSF Sci- – Dr. Martin Kaltenpoth Max Planck Research Group ence and Technology Center focused on evolution Leader Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology in action). As such, the postdoc will be part of Research Group Insect Symbiosis Hans-Knoell-Str. 8 a dynamic group of evolutionary biologists encom- 07745 Jena Phone +49-3641-571800 Fax +49-3641- passing evolutionary ecology, evolutionary genetics, 571810 Email: [email protected] behavioral ecology, and evolutionary computing at Michigan State University. The group is stellar, 62 EvolDir July 1, 2010 and provides an exceptional scientific environment. ical Research (LTER) site (www.lter.kbs.msu.edu). http://www.zoology.msu.edu/all-faculty/janette- Highly qualified applicants will have experience in boughman.html http://www.zoology.wisc.edu/- ecological and evolutionary theory; PCR-based mi- faculty/Bou/index.htm http://www.beacon.msu.edu/ crobial analyses, including phylogenetic and metage- http://eebb.msu.edu/index.php Apply via email nomic analyses; quantitative methods, including statis- by sending a single pdf file with letter of interest tics, simulation modeling, and bioinformatics; micro- including a summary of research accomplishments and bial physiology, including culture-based approaches; future goals, CV, and 3 reference contacts to Jenny and fieldwork in aquatic and/or terrestrial ecosystems. Boughman ( [email protected] ). Please use the following in the subject line: Postdoc MSU Sexual Applicants must have a Ph.D. in Ecology, Evolution, selection and speciation genetics Microbiology or a related field. Two years of fund- ing is available. The position is available immediately, Start date is negotiable but available Aug 15. Appli- although the start date is somewhat flexible. Inter- cations will be considered until the position is filled. I ested parties should email a cover letter explaining will also be at the Evolution meeting in Portland Ore- why they are interested in the position, a CV, and gon June 25-29 and can arrange to meet there. Michi- a brief statement of research interests to Jay Lennon gan State University is an Affirmative Action / Equal ([email protected]). Applications will be evaluated as Opportunity Employer. they are received and will continue until the position Jenny Boughman Associate Professor Zoology, Ecology has been filled. Evolution & Behavioral Biology, BEACON Michigan [email protected] State University [email protected] Jenny Boughman
MichiganStateU PlantAdaptationGenetics MichiganStateU KBS MicrobialEvoEcol
Postdoctoral Position in Plant Ecological Genetics Michigan State University A postdoctoral research position is available in the Lennon Lab at Michigan State University’s W.K. Kel- A postdoctoral position is available to conduct research logg Biological Station (KBS). Applicants may propose on the ecological genetics of adaptation in the model their own research or collaborate on one of the ongo- plant Arabidopsis thaliana. This is one of several posi- ing projects in the lab that focuses on microbial dor- tions associated with a multi-investigator, collaborative mancy, functional traits and microbial biodiversity, re- project to identify the traits, genes and gene networks source subsidies in aquatic food webs, the ecology and involved in adaptation to natural environments. Team evolution of virus-bacteria interactions, and the evolu- members include Doug Schemske (Michigan State Uni- tionary ecology of plant-soil feedbacks. For more details versity; evolutionary ecology, adaptation, speciation), on the research conducted in the Lennon Lab see http:/- Mike Thomashow (Michigan State University; gene /microbes.kbs.msu.edu . The primary responsibility of regulatory networks, transcriptome, molecular genetic the postdoc will be to develop a new project or take the analysis of cold acclimation), John McKay (Colorado lead on one of the above-mentioned existing projects. State University; physiological adaptation, drought tol- This will include implementation of experiments, data erance), Barbara Demmig-Adams and William Adams analysis, and manuscript preparation. The postdoc will (University of Colorado; photosynthesis and photopro- be in residence at KBS (http://www.kbs.msu.edu/), tection) and Jon Agren (Uppsala University; adapta- which has an excellent infrastructure for conducting mi- tion, plant evolutionary ecology). Our research ad- crobial, evolutionary, community, and ecosystem ecol- dresses the following questions: 1) What are the Quan- ogy. The postdoc will also have the opportunity to titative Trait Loci (QTL) that contribute to adaptation collaborate with people in the Department of Microbi- in nature and to key traits involved in adaptation. 2) ology & Molecular Genetics (www.mmg.msu.edu); the How does the substitution of adaptive QTL influence Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior Program the phenotype, gene expression/regulation and plant (www.eebb.msu.edu); and the KBS Long-Term Ecolog- fitness? 3) Are there adaptive tradeoffs between traits July 1, 2010 EvolDir 63 and/or pleiotropy between adaptive QTL? 4) What are tion and genetics of speciation, focused on measuring the individual genes underlying adaptive QTL? selection in the wild at the genetic level. The project uses a manipulative field experiment to directly test The research associated with this particular position will be conducted in close collaboration with Doug how sexual selection acts on genomic regions confer- Schemske (MSU) and Jon Agren (Uppsala University). ring sexual isolation. We work with the charismatic Responsibilities include fieldwork in Europe (Italy, Swe- threespine stickleback, and are interested in selection through female choice and male competition, and both den) to establish and monitor large-scale field experi- behavioral and morphological traits. We combine se- ments, laboratory research in Michigan to conduct QTL mapping of Recombinant Inbred Lines and to produce lection and genetic studies in nature to address several Near Isogenic Lines, data analysis and the preparation fundamental questions: 1) What is the genetic basis of of manuscripts for publication, and assistance in the or- sexual isolation in natural populations? 2) How does ganization of workshops on career development. Pref- sexual selection act in nature on the genetic elements that underlie sexual isolation? 3) How is genetic varia- erence will be given to candidates with a background in tion maintained in sexually selected traits? ecology, population and/or evolutionary biology, expe- rience with field experiments, familiarity with molecu- Responsibilities include conducting a large scale field lar techniques, and a basic understanding of techniques behavior experiment, generating the mapping popula- for genetic mapping and gene discovery. Nevertheless, tion, genotyping and genetic mapping, analyzing data, the primary criteria for consideration are creativity, and preparing manuscripts. The ideal candidate has ex- enthusiasm and the desire to fuse ecological and ge- cellent field skills, including with field behavior exper- netic approaches for addressing fundamental questions iments and/or facility with evolutionary genetics and in evolutionary biology. A background in plants is de- genetic mapping. This is a rare combination, so exper- sirable but not required. tise with one area and keen interest in the other is fine. I am looking for a scientist who is creative, collabora- Applications should be submitted as a single pdf file tive, and committed, and who wants to train in an in- and include curriculum vitae, a summary of research ac- complishments and future research objectives, and the tegrative lab that is passionate about behavioral evolu- names and contact information for three professional tion, its selective causes, and its genetic underpinnings. references. The review of applications will begin July Good writing skills and a strong publication record a definite plus. There will be opportunities to learn new 15, 20101 and continue until a suitable candidate is techniques, to supervise students, and to do indepen- identified. This is a 12-month appointment with exten- dent work. A PhD in Evolution, Behavior, Ecology or sion for one or more years contingent on performance. A Ph. D. is required. The start date is negotiable. a related field is required. Application materials should be sent electronically to Appointment initially for 1 year with possibility Douglas Schemske ([email protected]). Michigan State of renewal up to 3 years. Funding is through an University is an Affirmative Action / Equal Opportu- NSF CAREER grant and BEACON (an NSF Sci- nity Employer. ence and Technology Center focused on evolution 1. Candidates who are attending the June Evolution in action). As such, the postdoc will be part of meetings are encouraged to contact Schemske to ar- a dynamic group of evolutionary biologists encom- passing evolutionary ecology, evolutionary genetics, range an interview (available dates are June 25 and behavioral ecology, and evolutionary computing at 26). Michigan State University. The group is stellar, Douglas Schemske
I will also be at the Evolution meeting in Portland Ore- cluding Bayesian methods, multivariate analyses, LD gon June 25-29 and can arrange to meet there. based methods) as well as experience in usage of statis- tical software packages, and skills in data analysis for Michigan State University is an Affirmative Action / Equal Opportunity Employer. genetic studies. The applicant should be enthusiastic and self- motivated. Jenny Boughman Associate Professor Zoology, Ecology A 1-page cover letter of interest, a CV and contact in- Evolution & Behavioral Biololgy, BEACON Michigan State University [email protected] formation with two references should be sent to Dr. Steffen Weigend (steffen.weigend@fli.bund.de). The ap- Jenny Boughman
Professor Laura Landweber seeks a postdoctoral re- propriate fellowships that can be hosted at QMUL. For search associate to study the mechanism of scrambled example, if you are interested in applying for a Marie gene and genome rearrangements in ciliates, particu- Curie fellowship, it would increase your chances of suc- larly the role of non-coding RNAs or epigenetic factors, cess if you could contact the appropriate PI by 5^th using experimental or bioinformatic research tools or July 2010, so we can provide you with advice on your both. application. Requirements: PhD in molecular biology or relevant Current available projects in the School of Bi- field. Strong experimental or computational training, ological and Chemical Sciences are at http://- experience, and publications from the PhD, ability to www.sbcs.qmul.ac.uk/research/16201.html - please fol- work independently and creatively, and strong research low the project title link to find out details and con- and written/oral communication skills are necessary. tacts. For more information about the lab, see http:/- If you would like to apply for one or more projects, con- /www.princeton.edu/ ˜ lfl and recent publica- tact the PI with attaching a CV and two paragraphs de- tions, such as Nature 2008, v451, p153 (http://- scribing your relevant background. More details might www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18046331) or Science be obtained from the PI if required. 2009, v324, p935 (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/- – Dr Anna Dulic-Sills School of Biological and Chem- pubmed/19372392). ical Sciences Queen Mary, University of London Mile This is initially a one-year appointment with possibility End Road, London E1 4NS of renewal based on satisfactory performance. Funding Tel: 0207 882 3053 is currently available for three years. Apply online at http://jobs.princeton.edu/. Search for Requisition # [email protected] 1000366 and include a letter, CV, statement of research interest, and email addresses of three references. Ap- plication review will begin immediately; start date is flexible. Princeton University is an equal opportunity employer ReedCollege 2 CichlidEvolution and complies with applicable EEO and affirmative ac- tion regulations. – Reed College.GenomeEvolution.GeneDuplication Laura F. Landweber, Professor Ecology & Evolutionary A fulltime 2-year NSF funded research postdoc position Biology, Guyot Hall Princeton University, Princeton, is available in the Renn lab beginning September 1st at NJ 08544 http://www.princeton.edu/˜lfl tel 609-258- Reed College to study the pattern of Gene Duplication 1947 * fax 609-258-7892 * lfl@princeton.edu among African Cichlid Fishes. Laura Landweber
SmithCollege MA StanfordU TheoreticalEvolution EukaryoticPhylogeny
Stanford University, Biology Department, Theoretical Postdoctoral Position in Eukaryotic Phylogeny and Evolutionary Ecology. Postdoc position to work on Genome Evolution the evolution of life histories with Shripad Tuljapurkar. The postdoc will interact with a group (at Stanford, Smith College invites applications for a full-time post- Berkeley, Davis, Imperial College and Miami) working doctoral research position focusing on the eukaryotic on aging and senescence, age-stage structured models, tree of life and genome evolution in microbial eu- quantitative trait dynamics and evolution, coevolution karyotes. The position will be in Laura Katz’s lab- of social behavior and life histories. We use and ana- oratory (http://www.science.smith.edu/departments/- lyze data on birds, mammals, plants and humans. Ap- Biology/lkatz/Research.htm). The initial appointment plicants should have a background in theoretical ecol- is for one year, with the possibility of extending for ogy/evolution (or other quantitative field with knowl- additional years. edge of biology), strong analytical and numerical skills, Applicants should have skills in molecular systemat- familiarity with statistical methods and interest in ics, bioinformatics, microbiology and/or molecular evo- working with data. See http://popstudies.stanford.edu lution. Potential projects include: 1) bioinformatic for more info on past and ongoing research projects. and/or experimental analyses of eukaryotic phylogeny Appointment is initially for one year, with the possibil- and molecular evolution and 2) characterization of ity of renewal. Flexible start date. Applications will be genome properties from microbial eukaryotes. Empha- accepted through August 15, 2010. Send CV, copies of sis in the lab is on ciliates and amoeboid lineages. Re- publications, and contact info for 3 references to Larry search in the Katz lab aims to elucidate principles of Bond,
Haliotis midae displays a very slow growth rate, tak- These positions are available for 2 years with the pos- ing two to five years to reach market size. This is an sibility of extension. Commencement of duties as soon obstacle for profitable farming and global competitive- as possible but no later than November 2010. ness. In order to increase the productivity and the prof- Interested researchers are requested to send their CV itability of the commercial abalone industry, a research including details of at least 2 references to Dr. Rouvay program has been designed which makes use of mod- Roodt-Wilding at [email protected] or Dr Aletta Bester- ern technology currently applied to other aquaculture van der Merwe at [email protected] species. Two key outputs of this program for which two postdoctoral positions are available include: 1) The Closing date: 2 July 2010. production of a transcriptome sequence of Haliotis mi- [email protected] dae utilizing next generation sequencing technologies including the Illumina Genome Analysis platform and the GS FLX platform and utilizing this for amongst others marker development. 2) The generation of com- prehensive linkage maps and identification of QTLs uti- lizing microsatellite and SNP markers. Stuttgart Germany PlantEvolution The successful candidate will be primarily responsible for: 1) Bioinformatic data analysis within this frame- Dear EvolDir readers, work. This will include developing an in-depth under- standing of tailored genomic analytical software pack- we have an open position for a ages for EST, transcriptome and gene expression anal- POSTDOC IN ECOLOGICAL GENETICS AND EPI- ysis in order to conduct research and provide post- GENETICS OF PLANTS graduate students with bioinformatics support; keeping abreast of new developments in the areas of bioinfor- to work on the role of genetic and epigenetic adaptation matics, transcriptome analysis and abalone research; of the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. The project the maintenance of a comprehensive sample tracking involves common garden experiments in environmen- system; assisting laboratory staff and students with tally diverse field sites to measure the fitness of natural their research data output requirements. 2) Link- A. thaliana accessions and changes in epigenetic status age and QTL mapping analysis within this framework. over environments and time. This will include utilizing currently available marker We are looking for an enthusiastic scientist with a Ph.D. and data resources as well as initializing further link- in population or quantitative genetics, ecology or evo- age and QTL mapping design; providing postgraduate lutionary biology, who has a genuine interest in plant students with data analysis support; keeping abreast of ecology and evolution. The project is part of a collab- new developments in the areas of linkage mapping, QTL orative European project funded by the European Sci- mapping and abalone research in general; the mainte- ence Foundation. The work includes the planning and nance of a comprehensive sample tracking system. analysis of field and growth chamber experiments, as Minimum requirements: 1) PhD with specialization in well as the quantitative genetic analysis of genetic and Biotechnology, Bioinformatics, Genetics, Genomics or epigenetic determinants of plant fitness, some molec- a closely related discipline. Candidates should have a ular work and the analysis of sequence data together strong computational background (DNA sequence anal- with project partners. Field trials will be carried out ysis, evolutionary genetics/biology and gene expression on experimental stations on the Suebian Alps and in data analysis) and proficiency in relevant software pack- the Rhine valley, therefore the ability to drive a car is ages. 2) PhD with specialization in Biotechnology, Ge- required. netics, Genomics or a closely related discipline. Candi- The successful applicant will be appointed for three dates should have a strong computational background years. Salary will be according to the German govern- (DNA sequence analysis, linkage mapping, QTL map- ment salary scale (TV-L E13) and depends on previous ping) and proficiency in relevant software packages. experience, age and marital status. Recommended requirements: Proven experience with The University of Hohenheim is located on a beautiful SNP analyses (bioinformatic or mapping analysis). campus in the South German city of Stuttgart. There Project management experience; excellent organiza- is a very good network of research groups on campus tional and communication skills; proven ability to set working on plant genetics, breeding and field trials. deadlines and meet milestones. Further information about our group can be obtained from www.evoplant.uni-hohenheim.de or from the con- 72 EvolDir July 1, 2010 tact information below. The University of Hohenheim is an equal opportunity employer. Women and mem- bers of minority groups are strongly encouraged to ap- ply. Please send your application (Cover letter, CV, publi- TuftsU Speciation cation list, statement of research interests, addresses of at least two references) until 22 June 2010 by e- mail as a single PDF document to B¨arbel Hessenauer ([email protected]). The starting POSTDOC: Genetics of temporal and behavioral isola- date is flexible but 1st of September would be ideal. tion Dr. Karl Schmid Professor Institute of Plant Breeding, A Postdoctoral Researcher position is available in the Seed Science and Population Genetics Fruwirthstrasse laboratory of Erik Dopman in the Department of Biol- 21 D-70599 Stuttgart Germany Phone: +49 711 459 ogy at Tufts University (http://ase.tufts.edu/biology/- 23487 Email: [email protected] faculty/dopman/index.asp ). Research in the lab fo- cuses on the evolution of reproductive isolating barri- [email protected] ers during the speciation process. Current aims are to identify the molecular genetic basis for traits contribut- ing to reproductive isolation, to infer the evolutionary mechanisms shaping these loci, and to evaluate the con- sequences of barrier loci on genome- wide patterns of TexasAMU genetic variation. ComputationalGenomicsTexasAMU We are applying a combination of comparative and ComputationalGenomics experimental approaches to our studies of speciation, using Z and E pheromone strains of European corn borer as a model system. The ECB consists of multiple population types that vary in a suite of fitness-related characters that affect reproductive isolation, most no- POSTDOCTORAL POSITION IN COMPUTA- tably, in the number of generations per year (voltin- TIONAL/EVOLUTIONARY GENOMICS ism), host-plant use, and reproductive behavior. PDFs A postdoctoral position is available in the labora- of recent MSS can be found at http://ase.tufts.edu/- tory of Dr. James Cai in the Department of Veteri- biology/labs/dopman/publications/ . Highly relevant nary Integrative Biosciences at the Texas A&M Uni- publications are Dopman et al. 2010, 2005, and 2004. versity (College Station, TX). The Cai lab (http:/- We seek a creative postdoctoral researcher who will /www.genomezoo.net/) focuses on computational re- join our group to study the genetics of temporal and search in population genomics and molecular evolution. behavioral isolation. Responsibilities of the successful Candidates should have obtained a PhD degree in Bi- applicant include assisting in or providing leadership ology, Bioinformatics, Computer Science, or a related with the following tasks: creation of BAC-tile paths, discipline. Programming skills (ideally in Matlab and collection of next-generation sequence data, field work, C) and experience in the application of computational and phenotyping of offspring from controlled crosses. A methods to high-throughput genomic data are highly PhD in evolutionary biology, genetics/genomics, or in desirable. The successful candidate will work on a vari- a related field, is required by the position start date. ety of projects to develop statistical tests and computa- The successful candidate should have prior experience tional tools to investigate evolutionary processes shap- in molecular genetics, and proven skills acquiring and ing genome variability patterns. You will also have the manipulating next-generation sequence data. Famil- opportunity to pursue independent research related to iarity with whole genome analysis is preferred. The major research themes of the lab. candidate will be expected to work independently, par- ticipate in group efforts with collaborators, and con- Interested applicants should submit a CV, a brief (2-3 tribute to the supervision of PhD and undergraduate paragraphs) statement of her/his research interests and students. Opportunities for grant-writing will be avail- experience, and contact information of three references able, and the potential to develop independent projects by email to [email protected]. Informal inquiries are is high. See http://www.tufts.edu/central/research/- welcome. postdoc/ for more information on postdoctoral scholars [email protected] at Tufts. July 1, 2010 EvolDir 73
This is a one-year appointment with possibility of re- Python). In addition, a strong background in molec- newal. Application review will begin immediately, but ular evolution and/or molecular biology is preferred. the start date is flexible. Interested individuals should The candidate will be expected to work independently, contact Erik Dopman ([email protected] ) and participate in group efforts with collaborators (at Tufts provide a CV (including date of availability), a 1-2 page and Cornell University), and contribute to the supervi- statement of research interests, PDFs of relevant publi- sion of PhD and undergraduate theses. Opportunities cations, and the names and contact information of three for grant-writing will be available, and the potential references. Informal inquiries are welcome. to develop independent projects is high. See http://- Erik Dopman, Assistant Professor Department of Bi- www.tufts.edu/central/research/postdoc/ for more in- ology Tufts University 165 Packard Avenue Med- formation on postdoctoral scholars at Tufts. ford, MA 02155 t (617) 627-4890; f (617) 627- This is a one-year appointment with possibility of re- 3805 http://ase.tufts.edu/biology/faculty/dopman/ newal. Application review will begin immediately, but [email protected] the start date is flexible. Interested individuals should contact Erik Dopman ([email protected] ) and provide a CV (including date of availability), a 1-2 page statement of research interests, PDFs of relevant publi- cations, and the names and contact information of three references. Informal inquiries are welcome. TuftsU SpeciationGenomics Erik Dopman, Assistant Professor Department of Bi- ology Tufts University 165 Packard Avenue Med- Postdoctoral Researcher Position Speciation Genomics ford, MA 02155 t (617) 627-4890; f (617) 627- in the European Corn Borer (Ostrinia nubilalis) 3805 http://ase.tufts.edu/biology/faculty/dopman/ [email protected] A Postdoctoral Researcher position in evolutionary ge- nomics is available in the laboratory of Erik Dopman in the Department of Biology at Tufts University (http://- ase.tufts.edu/biology/faculty/dopman/index.asp). Re- search in the lab focuses on the evolution of repro- ductive isolating barriers during the speciation process. UAberdeen MolecularEvolution Current aims are to identify the molecular genetic basis for traits contributing to reproductive isolation, to infer the evolutionary mechanisms shaping these loci, and to evaluate the consequences of barrier loci on genome- UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN wide patterns of genetic variation. SCHOOL OF BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES We are applying a combination of comparative and POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH ASSISTANT - experimental approaches to our studies of speciation, MOLECULAR ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION using Z and E pheromone strains of European corn (YZY201RX) borer as a model system. The ECB consists of multiple A postdoctoral researcher position is available within population types that vary in a suite of fitness-related characters that affect reproductive isolation, most no- Dr Stuart Piertney’s laboratory in the School of Bio- tably, in the number of generations per year (voltin- logical Sciences at the University of Aberdeen. ism), host-plant use, and reproductive behavior. PDFs The position is part of a NERC-funded project directed of recent MSS can be found at http://ase.tufts.edu/- toward using QTL and eQTL mapping to identify genes biology/labs/dopman/publications/. Highly relevant affecting parasite resistance in red grouse, and examin- publications are Dopman et al. 2010, 2005, and 2004. ing patterns of population genetic structure of adaptive We seek a creative postdoctoral researcher who will lead markers in natural populations. a genomic analysis of the ECB genome, using Illumina The work will involve both fieldwork and laboratory and 454 sequencing technologies. A PhD in evolution- components. Applicants must have a Ph.D. in biolog- ary genetics or genomics, or in a related field, is required ical sciences with expertise in molecular and/or evo- by the position start date. The successful candidate lutionary genetics, with experience of QTL mapping should have prior experience manipulating and analyz- and/or SNP genotyping. Experience of fieldwork and ing high- throughput genomic data, and proven skills the sampling and monitoring of natural populations is in at least one programing/ scripting language (Perl, essential. 74 EvolDir July 1, 2010
Informal enquiries may be made to Stuart Piertney at dividuals [email protected] – methods for GWAS in admixed populations The post is available for three years, with salary at – standard human population genetics the appropriate point on the Grade 6 scale (£29,853- £30,747 per annum), with placement according to qual- The successful candidate would be expected to work on ifications and experience. one or more of these, but would have time to work on other projects if desired. We are looking for a candi- Should you require a visa to undertake paid employ- date with experience in computer programming, bioin- ment in the UK you will be required to fulfil the mini- formatics, evolutionary genetics and/or next generation mum points criteria to be granted a Certificate of Spon- sequencing. Starting dates are flexible, and funding is sorship and Tier 2 visa. As appropriate, at the time available for at least 2 years. an offer of appointment is made you will be asked to demonstrate that you fulfil the criteria in respect Applicants should send a CV and the names and of financial maintenance and competency in English. email addresses of at least two references to Jeff Wall Please do not hesitate to contact Diane Norris, HR Ad-
Further information: Prof. Dr. Franjo Weissing threespine stickleback Gasterosteus aculeatus, a small ([email protected]; Tel: +31 50 363 2131) and Prof. fish studied in behavioural biology, which can be kept Dr. Kuke Bijlsma ([email protected]; Tel: +31 50 363 easily in the lab and whose genome is sequenced. 2117). Laval University is one of the ten main Canadian uni- Application: To apply for this position, send your ap- versities. Quebec City is dynamic with all the advan- plication (including letter of motivation, detailed CV, tages of a large city while still allowing for very easy PDFs of three most relevant publications, and the access to wilderness and very reasonable cost of living. names and email addresses of three potential referees) The chosen candidates that are successful at obtaining in electronic form before 1 July to the office manager of a fellowship will be part of the Institute of Integrative the Theoretical Biology Group, Hinke Tjoelker (theo- and Systems Biology. They will have access to core [email protected]). Please include the text ’ERGO PostDoc’ genomics and molecular biology facilities, lab meetings in the subject line of your email. and Institute-wide group meetings, journal clubs and [email protected] weekly seminars at the Institute and in the Biology Department. Several ecological genomics laboratories are part of the Institute and the Biology department, allowing for enriched interactions with members of the other laboratories working in this field. DEADLINES: Our laboratory must receive applications before July ULaval Molecular basis of behaviour 23, 2010. We will then proceed to select candidates variation that will be able to apply to the University pre-selection committee with a deadline of August 9th 2010. Can- didates selected by the university will then be allowed Our laboratory is eager to receive application from to apply to the general competition in Fall 2010, with highly motivated scientists with an excellent record to results given in April 2011. Start date can be between apply to a Quebec government fellowship available for May and December 2011. non-Canadian candidates to do research in a Quebec- Contact me directly by email for more information based laboratory. Post-doctoral fellowships are avail- about the program and opportunities in our laboratory. able (1 year, 35,000 CAN$). Internships are also avail- able for a visit to our laboratory (3,000 CAN$/month, [email protected] up to 4 months). Pre-selection by the host university Nadia Aubin-Horth and our laboratory is mandatory. Assistant professor Candidates from all over the world are invited to ap- ply. Additionally, specific fellowships are available for Department of Biology candidates from Mexico, Brazil, China and Wallonie. Institute of Integrative and Systems Biology We are in the Department of Biology at Laval Univer- Pavillon Charles-Eugene-Marchand sity, located in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. Our lab- 1030, Avenue de la Medecine oratory is part of the Institute of Integrative and Sys- tems Biology (IBIS). We study the underlying molec- Laval University ular and hormonal causes of variation in behaviour in Quebec city (Quebec) G1V 0A6 vertebrates. We are interested in personality with an emphasis on the stress response and correlation among Canada behaviours, as well as in reproductive tactics. We are http://wikiaubinhorth.ibis.ulaval.ca/Main Page also interested by the effects of the environment on de- Aubin-Horth Nadia
in Portland if you would like to learn more about the project / position. Peter Tiffin Dept. of Plant Biology University of Min- nesota ptiffi[email protected] UMinnesota ptiffi[email protected] PlantEvolutionaryGenomics
POST-DOCTORAL POSITION in Evolutionary Ge- nomics and Association Mapping UMunich As part of a multi-investigator project we are in the PlantRepetitiveDNAEvolution process of collecting whole-genome sequence data from several hundred genotypes of the model legume Med- icago truncatula, as well as individuals of several related Medicago species. I am now looking for a post-doc to help in analyzing these data to investigate evolutionary forces shaping genome diversity as well as the genetic basis of phenotypic traits. We are particularly inter- ested in identifying and characterizing the evolutionary Postdoctoral research position on the evolution of history of genes mediating the mutualism between Med- repetitive DNA in a group of non-photosynthetic flow- icago and symbiotic nitrogen fixing rhizobia bacteria. ering plants The position will involve some work with greenhouse experiments and the collection of phenotypic data. You I am looking for a postdoc (2 yrs, possibly 3 yrs) inter- would be working with several post-docs and gradu- ested in the evolution of repetitive DNA. We are apply- ate students with diverse computational and laboratory ing 454 pyrosequencing to characterize repetitive DNA skills. There will be considerable opportunity to pursue in a group of non-photosynthetic flowering plants that ones own interests within the general framework of the show contrasting genome dynamics. We will test the project. hypothesis that this is mainly due to their repetitive DNA fractions by comparing seven species of known Interest and experience in statistical and population ge- relationship and genome characteristics. The primary netics, handling large data sets, and some programming novelty of this project is the broad comparative context, skills are highly desired. which will allow assessing evolutionary trends. Three A late-summer start date is preferred but this is flexible. full plates of 454 data are in hand, and data analysis We offer competitive salary with full health benefits. can begin now. Travel funds are also available for attending scientific Other ongoing research topics in our group can be found meetings. at http://www.sysbot.biologie.uni-muenchen.de/en/- The U of M has a large urban campus on the banks of people/renner/. The postdoc will we employed the Mississippi River with many activities and enter- according to German BAT IIa and will be part of tainment in the Twin Cities, great restaurants, biking, Munich Universitys large and active community of and outdoor activities nearby. Campus is a short bike evolutionary biologists. or bus ride from both downtown Minneapolis and St. Experience with the analysis of repetitive DNA, good Paul. work ethics, and the ability to think creatively and crit- If interested please apply by August 1st. Applicants ically are desired. should send a CV, a statement of research interests, The closing date for applications is June 30, 2010, or and names and contact information of three references. when the position is filled. Please send your applica- If you have questions please contact me (ptif- tion, together with a full CV, copies of recent-most ed- fi[email protected]). More information can be found at ucational certificates, and the names of two referees to my website (http://www.cbs.umn.edu/tiffin/) and the Susanne Renner ([email protected]). project website (www.medicagohapmap.org). Susanne Renner Research: http://www.umsl.edu/- Post-docs working on the project will be at SMBE and ˜ renners/ Susanne Renner
University of Oxford The Queen’s College BROWNE RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP IN BIOLOGICAL SCI- ENCE or BIOCHEMISTRY The Governing Body proposes to elect to a post- UNSW Sydney SexualConflict doctoral Browne Research Fellowship in Biological Sci- ences or Biochemistry (excluding medical sciences). The successful candidate will, if possible, enter upon the Fellowship on 1 October 2010 The Research Group of Professor Rob Brooks in The basic stipend of the Fellowship, which is pension- the Evolution & Ecology Research Centre (E&ERC), able under the Universities Superannuation Scheme, is within the School of Biological Earth and Environmen- £24,273 subject to adjustment in the light of any other tal Sciences (BEES), is seeking a postdoctoral Research emoluments enjoyed by the Fellow or in the light of Associate to work on an Australian Research Council any general alteration to University stipends. The Fel- Grant entitled “Understanding how reproduction and low will further receive an annual grant of up to £4,000 sexual conflict drive sex-dependent longevity and age- towards research expenses. The Fellowship will be ten- ing”. able for three years only. The Fellow may be entitled to The research group studies the evolutionary conse- free rooms in College, if available (or to an allowance quences of sex-dependent selection and sexual conflict. in lieu, currently £3,444), and to free meals in Col- The project funding is to work on house mice, exploring lege. The Fellow may, with the leave of the Governing the consequences sexual conflict on life-history traits, Body, engage in teaching up to a maximum of six hours ageing and mating behaviour. Most of the work is ex- weekly and, if teaching, would normally be expected to pected to be done in the laboratory and in artificial give priority to the College’s own teaching needs. enclosure populations. We seek somebody with skills Candidates must not have accumulated more than ten and experience in small mammal evolutionary ecology years in full-time postgraduate study or research by 1st or physiology. Expertise measuring oxidative stress or October 2010; these ten years need not be continuous. oxidative damage or working with house mouse be- Candidates must obtain written confirmation from the havioural ecology would be an asset. relevant Head of Department (Biochemistry, Plant Sci- The successful applicant is expected to do empirical ences, or Zoology) that laboratory space will be made work, analyse data and write papers. The applicant available to the candidate if successful. should be prepared to apply for fellowships in coming Further particulars are available from the fellowship rounds, especially the ARC Discovery round College Office, The Queen’s College, Oxford in early 2011. Emphasis will be given to the quality of OX1 4AW, (telephone: 01865 279166); e- published research in our decision to appoint. mail: [email protected]; or http:/- This is a full time position, fixed term for three years. /www.queens.ox.ac.uk/vacancies/ Applications Salary Level A A$69,853 - A$74,715 per year, plus 17% should be submitted, preferably by e-mail to employer superannuation plus leave loading. [email protected] , the Academic Ad- Applicants should systematically address the selection ministrator, not later than 30th June 2010. Interviews criteria in their application. The full information pack will be held week beginning July 19th 2010. and selection criteria will be available from Friday John Pannell
A two-year postdoc position is available at the Institute of Evolutionary Biology (IBE), UPF-CSIC, Barcelona (http://www.ibe.upf-csic.es/ ; www.prbb.org), under UOxford EvolutionaryBiology the supervision of Francesc Calafell. The successful candidate will join a project in skin metagenomics: we 80 EvolDir July 1, 2010 are analyzing by ultrasequencing the microbial commu- To apply, go to www.shef.ac.uk/jobs, post reference nities in human skin by themselves and in relation to UOS001290 the onset of psoriasis. We are looking for a Ph.D. in Closing date 5 July 2010 bioinformatics, genetics, or evolutionary biology, with a strong background in sequence analysis: assembly, Roger K Butlin Professor of Evolutionary Biology alignment, tree construction, evolutionary analysis of Animal and Plant Sciences University of Sheffield West- sequences. Programming in PERL and other languages ern Bank Sheffield S10 2TN UK is a requirement. We seek a positive, analytical, proac- tive persone who feels comfortable working in a team. Tel. +44 (0)114 2220097 FAX +44 (0)114 2220002 Please send by July 9th a CV, a letter of intent and two r.k.butlin@sheffield.ac.uk www.shef.ac.uk/aps Manag- references to: ing Editor, Heredity - http://www.nature.com/hdy/- index.html r.k.butlin@sheffield.ac.uk Francesc Calafell, Ph D IBE, Institute of Evolution- ary Biology (UPF-CSIC) CEXS-UPF-PRBB C/ Dr. Aiguader 88 08003 Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain Tel: +34 93 3160842 Fax: +34 93 3160901 Email: [email protected] USouthernCalifornia Francesc Calafell
USheffield AphidSpeciation A postdoctoral position is available in the laboratory of Suzanne Edmands at the University of Southern California (Los Angeles). The postdoc would work on an NSF-funded project using the marine copepod Postdoc - host race formation and speciation in pea *Tigriopus* *californicus*as a model for the genetics aphid of speciation. The project involves 1) QTL mapping University of Sheffield, Dept of Animal and Plant Sci- of traits involved in reproductive isolation using previ- ences ously mapped SNPs and results of a large-scale breeding We are a seeking a dynamic evolutionary genetics post- study and 2) development and mapping of candidate sex-linked loci. doc to work with Professor Roger Butlin and Dr Ju- lia Ferrari (University of York) on evolutionary genetic The ideal candidate would be a recent Ph.D. with a analysis of host race formation in the pea aphid. The strong background in quantitative and molecular genet- project focuses on chemosensory genes as candidates for ics and excellent writing skills. Experience with SNPs, key roles in host acceptance and uses a combination of QTL mapping, bioinformatics and/or next-generation gene capture, high-throughput sequencing and expres- sequencing are highly desirable. The position is avail- sion analysis. You will be responsible for the handling able immediately and applications will be considered and analysis of large data sets and should have exist- until the position is filled. Initial appointment is for ing experience with the analysis of sequence and/or ex- one year, with the possibility of a second year contin- pression data in an evolutionary context, ideally includ- gent on future funding. ing the development of bioinformatics pipelines and the Please apply via email to Suzanne Edmands (sed- use of model-based statistical approaches. A PhD (or [email protected]) and include a cover letter describing equivalent experience) in evolutionary genetics is essen- your research experience and interest in the position, tial. your CV, your preferred start date, and contact infor- This post is fixed-term with a start date between 1st mation for three references October 2010 and 1st February 2011 and is available Suzanne Edmands Associate Professor Department until 30th June 2012. Salary will be in the range UK- of Biological Sciences 3616 Trousdale Parkway, AHF pound 28,139-31,671. 316 University of Southern California Los Angeles, For further information contact Roger Butlin on CA 90089 (213)740-5548 http://college.usc.edu/labs/- [email protected] edmands/home/index.cfm [email protected] July 1, 2010 EvolDir 81
facultatively sexual rotifers to test various theories for the evolution of sex through experimental evolution and related approaches. We have had good success with our initial projects (in review) and it is clear that there is UStirling ResAssist BeeSpecies potential to do much more. I seek a postdoc interested in doing experimental work to test sex theory in any of a variety of dimensions. I will be at this year’s Evolution meetings in Portland I have funding for a 6-8 month post starting September if interested candidates wish to talk to me. 2010, based at the University of Stirling, Scotland. It has recently been discovered that the widespread bum- Interested candidates should contact me by email. blebee Bombus lucorum actually contains a number of Please include a single PDF attachment containing your cryptic species about which we know nearly nothing. c.v., a brief description of past research accomplish- Working in conjunction with partners at the Natural ments and future goals, and the name and e- mail ad- History Museum and Royal Holloway, this project will dress of 2 potential references. Funding is guaranteed use mitochondrial sequencing to distinguish between for 1 year, with a second year renewable depending on species, using a large sample of bees from across the progress. UK. Subsequent analyses will investigate niche parti- Toronto is a vibrant, multicultural city on the shore tioning and geographic distributions of the component of Lake Ontario, with rich cultural options in the arts, species. Sequencing will be outsourced, but experience music and film, ethnic cuisine, and a high quality of of analysing genetic data would be very useful. The life. The EEB department is home to an interactive, post might suit a recent postdoc or experienced post- collegial group of ecologists, geneticists, and evolution- grad. ary biologists, and currently supports a strong group of Enquiries and applications (CV + covering letter) to Post- Doctoral Fellows with diverse research interests. [email protected] Aneil Agrawal Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Professor Dave Goulson, Head of School School University of Toronto tel: 416-946-5563 http://- of Biological & Environmental Sciences, Uni- labs.eeb.utoronto.ca/agrawal/ [email protected] versity of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA Tel: 01786 467759 http://www.sbes.stir.ac.uk/people/goulson/ Director, Bumblebee Conservation Trust, http://- www.bumblebeeconservation.org.uk New Book!! Dave Goulson. 2010. Bumblebees; their behaviour, ecology UToronto PlantAdaptation and conservation. OUP. http://ukcatalogue.oup.com/- product/9780199553075.do Dave Goulson
PNAS). However, the details of this systemic regula- statement of research interests, and (5) contact details tion of lifespan by the reproductive system remain un- for 2-3 references who are willing to write a reference clear. In our project we are interested in dissecting letter on your behalf to the following e-mail address: the hormonal and metabolic mechanisms that modu- thomas.fl[email protected] Informal inquiries are late the reproduction-longevity trade-off. By employing welcome and should be sent to the same e-mail address. mutant and transgene analysis, genetic manipulation of For further information see (http://i122server.vu- the gonad, epistasis experiments, metabolic measure- wien.ac.at/pop/Flatt website/flatt home.html ). ments, and hormonal manipulations we will examine The deadline for submission is 15 August 2010. the endocrine mechanisms whereby signals from the re- productive system modulate adult longevity and phys- Dr. Thomas Flatt Institute of Population Genetics De- iology. partment of Biomedical Sciences University of Veteri- nary Medicine Vienna Veterin¨arplatz 1 A-1210 Wien We are seeking a talented, independent, hard-working Austria/Europe and self- motivated young biologist with good social skills. The successful candidate will have a Ph.D. and VOX +43-1-25077-4334 FAX +43-1-25077-4390 E-mail: a strong background in genetics and molecular biol- thomas.fl[email protected] ogy using the Drosophila system. Some background Lab Website: http://i122server.vu-wien.ac.at/pop/- in the biology of aging, evolutionary biology, and/or Flatt website/flatt home.html Vienna Graduate endocrinology would be ideal, but is not required. The School of Population Genetics: http://www.popgen- working language in the laboratory is English, so the vienna.at fl[email protected] candidate should be proficient in spoken and written English. German skills, although helpful, are not es- sential. The initial appointment will be made for one year, with a possible extension to up to three years. The annual salary is 56,110 Euro (before tax). The po- sition is available as of now, but the starting date is Vilnius HostParasiteEvolution negotiable. In a 2009 world-wide survey by the William M. Mercer Institute, Vienna ranked first world-wide in terms of I am looking for an enthusiastic and well-motivated standards of living. Vienna is a beautiful, historical yet person who would like to join my laboratory to study modern city, located in the heart of Europe, close to the vector-related aspects of transmission of avian haemo- Alps and to major cities like Munich, Zurich, Prague, sporidian parasites (species of Haemosporida) in Eu- and Budapest. Being famous for its concert sites, opera rope for 2 years. We need her/his help in field, ex- houses, theathers, museums, and coffee shops, Vienna perimental and molecular genetics studies aiming to also provides great outdoor activities, such as sailing contribute to the better understanding of evolution- on the Neusiedler See, ice skating, biking and hiking in ary interactions in host parasite systems involving the Viennese woods and the nearby Alps. Moreover, dipteran vectors, haemosporidians parasites and passer- the city has a wide range of great restaurants, bars, iform birds. More specifically, he/she will be focusing wineries, cinemas, clubs, libraries, galleries, and art col- on 1) determining specificity of avian haemosporidian lections. The Vienna area is also an exceptional and parasites (species of Plasmodium and Haemoproteus) highly international research environment. Four major with respect to vectors (species of the Culicidae and life science universities and three world-class research Ceratopogonidae) combining molecular and microscopy institutes (GMI, IMBA, IMP) provide a dynamic and tools, 2) throughput sequencing and developing of new interactive setting. Vienna hosts an active Drosophila molecular markers for avian haemosporidian parasites. community, and the onsite availability of the Drosophila This study will be done in close collaboration with other RNAi center (VDRC) provides a great opportunity for members of my group according to an ongoing long- functional Drosophila work. In population genetics and term grant. Candidates should have 1) Ph.D. degree evolutionary biology, the Vienna research area also pro- within the period of 5 years (maternal and childcare vides excellent prospects, due to a growing number of leave are not taken into account) and 2) a strong back- evolutionary research groups. ground in biology and molecular genetics. Experience To apply, please send a single pdf file including: (1) in parasitology and studies of blood-sucking dipteran a cover letter explaining why you would like to join insects will be a strong merit. our group, (2) your Curriculum Vitae (including a de- For preliminary consideration, interested persons scription of your skills), (3) your publication list, (4) a should contact Gediminas Valkiunas (Institute of Ecol- July 1, 2010 EvolDir 85 ogy, Nature Research Centre, Vilnius, Lithuania ged- and whether deterministic or neutral factors dominate [email protected]). Please send brief curriculum vitae, brief community assembly. However, two central issues have description of research experience and interests, and not been addressed: (1) sampling typically occurs on the names of 2 references. If successful, an appli- length scales many orders of magnitude larger than a cation for postdoc position should be prepared to- typical microbial cell and (2) usually only taxonomic gether with G. Valkiunas; it should be submitted to (16s) diversity is assayed. the Research Council of Lithuania until 10 August 2010 The successful candidate will have the opportunity to (see https://www.postdoc.lt/news/33/66/CALL-FOR- develop leaf surface microbial communities into a model OUTLINE-PROPOSALS). system for assaying (i) how microbial community as- May I please ask you to consider this information for sembly operates at ˆamicrobialˆa(micrometer to centime- announcement in the Evolutionary Directory? That ter) scales and (ii) whether taxonomic, genetic, and would be very helpful. functional measures of microbial diversity (as assayed Thank you very much Sincerely Gediminas Valkiunas, with high-throughput next-gen sequencing) show com- Ph.D., D.Sc. mon patterns over space and time. Member of the Lithuanian Academy of Sciences, Head The suite of tools available for this project include : a MBL-owned greenhouse for controlled growth of model of the Laboratory of Parasitology Institute of Ecology Nature Research Centre Akademijos 2, Vilnius - 21 LT plants, expertise in next-gen (454/Illumina) sequencing - 08412 Lithuania Tel. +370 5 2729269 Fax +370 5 272 and microbial community imaging, a Zeiss PALM Com- 93 52 [email protected] biSystem for laser microdissection of individual leaves, and substantial bioinformatics capacity in the Bay Paul “[email protected]”
WorkshopsCourses
AarhusU omicsTechnology Sep5-8 ...... 86 UCaliforniaLosAngeles MathComput Genomics Bergen Norway ContemporaryEvolution Oct4-9 . . . 87 Fall2011 ...... 90 ColdSpringHarbor ComparativeGenomics Nov3-9 . .87 UCaliforniaLosAngeles StatGenetics Aug16-20 . . . . .90 Germany GenomeEvolution Sep5-11 ...... 88 UHawaii WaterAndEvolution Jan3-17 ...... 91 MasseyU FungalGenomics Nov22-24 ...... 88 UManchester Morphometrics Nov8-Dec17 ...... 91 MDIslandLabs FitnessEnvironment Aug21-28 . . . . . 88 Yunnan China TropicalConservation Nov20-Dec18 .92 Switzerland Speciation Aug29-Sep4 ...... 89
ing scientists in the field that will give lectures on rel- evant topics. The students will receive a compendium with original research articles representing the latest re- AarhusU omicsTechnology Sep5-8 search within the topic. During the course time will be set aside for group discussions on central themes based on the articles, and also there will be time to discuss PhD course 5^th -8^th September 2010 your own projects. Students will be expected to ac- tively participate in the workshop with a presentation *Introduction to omics technology in evolutionary and of either a talk or poster on your design or results in conservation biology* order to obtain 5 ECTS. Oraganizers: Pernille Sarup, Torsten Kristensen, Additional information will be available on the Nord- Vanessa Kellermann, Department of Biological Forsk website: http://www.helsinki.fi/biosci/egru/- Scineces, Aarhus Universtiy, Ny Munkegade 1540, 8000 norden/workshops.html Deadlines: Aarhus C, Denmark. Sign up by sending an email to the workshop contacts Venue: Sandbjerg Estate, Sandbjerg 102, 6400 before 30th of June. Send in your abstract before 15^th Sønderborg of August. http://www.sandbjerg.dk/eng/welcome.aspx Sup- Payment: ported by: Nordforsk Network and Aarhus Stress Network For members of the NordForsk network participation is for free. Also you can apply for travel grants. Par- Exploring the use of omics technology in natural pop- ticipants from outside Scandinavia please contact for ulations course costs. 5^th - 8^th September 2010 List of confirmed speakers Workshop contacts: Pernille Sarup (pernille.sarup bi- Prof Douglas Crawford, The University ofMiami,USA. ology.au.dk), Vanessa Kellermann (vanessa.kellermann biology.au.dk) Assistant Prof Dr Margie Oleksiak, The University ofMiami,USA The use of omics technology (genomics, transcrip- tomics, proteomics, metabolomics) in evolutionary and ProfChristian Schl¨otterer,The Veterin¨armedizinische ecological biology is increasing. This workshop will aim Universit¨atWien,Austria to explore the different levels of omics technology in Anders Malmendal, The InterdisciplinaryNanoscience an ecological and evolutionary context with a focus on Center atAarhus University, DK. methods and analysis of different omics technology as Jesper Bechsgaard, Department of Biological Sci- well as exploring how these different technologies can ences,Aarhus University, DK. be integrated to form a systems view of evolutionary biology. Jesper Sørensen, National Environmental Research In- stitute,Aarhus Universitey, DK. In this Ph.D course and workshop we bring together re- searchers with a primary focus on the use and integra- Torsten Nyg˚ard, Faculty of agricultural sciences, tion of omics techniques in evolutionary and conserva- Aarhus Universitey, DK. tion biology. We have organised attendance from lead- July 1, 2010 EvolDir 87
Peter Sørensen, Faculty of agricultural sciences, Aarhus Intended audience: The course will be of interest Universitey, DK. to those working on organisms spanning both terres- trial and aquatic systems in evolutionary ecology, fish- Prof Ole Nørregaard Jensen, Department of Biochem- istry and Molecular Biology, University of southern- eries, behavioral ecology, life history theory (includ- Denmark, DK. ing exploitation-induced and contemporary evolution), wildlife biology, and conservation biology. [email protected] For more information, contact: Jennifer Devine jen- [email protected] http://www.bio.uib.no/evofish Jennifer Devine
Bergen Norway ContemporaryEvolution Oct4-9 ColdSpringHarbor ComparativeGenomics Nov3-9 Nordic Marine Academy Course held in Bergen, Nor- way Oct. 4-9, 2010 Contemporary Evolution: Humans as Agents of Selection Credits: 3 ECT Course website: Course announcement - Application deadline, July 15, http://www.bio.uib.no/evofish/pages/NMA2010/- 2010 NMA2010.php Deadline for application: Aug. 20th Cold Spring Harbor COMPUTATIONAL & COMPAR- Lecturers: 10 invited lecturers from Norway, the ATIVE GENOMICS November 3 - 9, 2010 Application Netherlands, the US, and Finland Deadline: July 15, 2010 INSTRUCTORS: Course Description: In medicine and agriculture, man- William Pearson, University of Virginia, Char- aging evolution is commonplace. Breeders of domesti- lottesville, VA Lisa Stubbs, University of Illinois, Ur- cated animals and plants have steered evolution for mil- bana, IL This course presents a comprehensive overview lennia, whereas during past decades, attempts to avoid of the theory and practice of computational methods for resistance evolution has become a major issue in both the identification and characterization of functional el- human health and agriculture. In dealing with wild ements from DNA sequence data. The course focuses populations, awakening to contemporary evolution has on approaches for extracting the maximum amount of just started. Yet there is little doubt that humans are information from protein and DNA sequence similarity the greatest evolutionary force of modern times. Wher- through sequence database searches, statistical analy- ever humans are present, pristine habitats are absent sis, and multiple sequence alignment. Additional top- or rare, and even the most remote places are influenced ics include alignment and analysis of short read “Next- by climate change and pollutants. Humans transport Gen” sequencing data, identification of conserved sig- animals and plants to novel environments. Populations nals in aligned and unaligned sequences, regulatory el- that are resources to humans may have humans as their ement and motif recognition and integration of genetic primary predator or herbivore. All these changes have and sequence information in biological databases. evolutionary implications, and understanding them is The course combines lectures with hands-on exercises; an important task in managing and conserving the en- students are encouraged to pose challenging sequence vironment. analysis problems using their own data. The course The course is an opportunity to bring together young makes extensive use of local WWW pages to present and experienced scientists with various backgrounds in problem sets and the computing tools to solve them. evolutionary ecology. The course aims to present the- Students use Windows and Mac workstations attached ory and techniques, statistical and modeling, to mea- to a UNIX server. Some Unix experience may be help- sure human-induced evolution in marine, freshwater, ful, but advanced programming skills are not required. and terrestrial environments, covering topics from the The course is designed for biologists seeking advanced effects of environmental degradation and noise pollu- training in biological sequence and genome analysis, tion through to selective removal of individuals (hunt- computational biology core resource directors and staff, ing). The course will suit both experienced postdocs and for scientists in other disciplines, such as computer and doctoral students curious in expanding their quan- science, who wish to survey current research problems titative skills. in biological sequence analysis. 88 EvolDir July 1, 2010
The lecture/lab schedule for the 2009 course can be and obtain advice on their project design and analysis found at fasta.bioch.virginia.edu/cshl. The 2010 course setup. will provide more emphasis on analysis of genomic DNA A tentative schedule can be found here: http://ieb.uni- sequences from NextGen data. muenster.de/General/Summer-School.html The costs Speakers in 2010 course will include: Aaron Mackey, U. of participation (board and lodging at Frauenchiemsee of Virginia, Next-Gen analysis pipelines Bert Overduin, http://www.frauenwoerth.de/ ) will be covered by the European Bioinformatics Institute, UK, ENSEMBL VW foundation. The summer school is jointly organ- and BioMart William Pearson, U. of Virginia, Simi- ised be the WWU M¨unster and the LMU Munich. larity searching, multiple alignment Saurabh Sinha, U. To apply, send a single file (pdf) containing a short mo- of Illinois, Urbana, Genomics of gene expression Lisa tivation letter, a cv and an abstract of your project to Stubbs, U. of Illinois, Urbana, Genome browsing, com- p.feulner(at)uni-muenster.de parative genomics James Taylor, Emory, Galaxy and genome analysis pipelines Barbara Wold, California In- Deadline for application: July 15th, 2010 stitute of Technology, Next-Gen Biology The primary p.feulner(at)uni-muenster.de focus of the Computational and Comparative Genomics Course is the theory and practice of algorithms used in computational biology, with the goal of using cur- rent methods more effectively and developing new algo- rithms. Cold Spring Harbor also offers a “Programming for Biology” course, which focuses more on software de- MasseyU FungalGenomics Nov22-24 velopment. To apply to the course, fill out and send in the form at: International Fungal Genomics Workshop Massey Uni- http://meetings.cshl.edu/course/- versity, Palmerston North, New Zealand 22-24 Novem- courseapp instr.shtml [email protected] ber 2010 * Current status of fungal genomics * Comparative and evolutionary genetics of fungi * Fungal genome sequenc- ing and assembly * Structural and functional annota- tion of fungal genomes Germany GenomeEvolution Sep5-11 Workshop instructors include: Murray Cox (Massey University Palmerston North, New Zealand) Natalie Fe- dorova (J. Craig Venter Institute, USA) Austen Ganley (Massey University Albany, New Zealand) Li-Jun Ma Summer School on “Genome Evolution” (Broad Institute, USA) 5th until 11th of September 2010, Frauenchiemsee, Ger- For further details, see http://fungal.massey.ac.nz/ many More information will be posted shortly. Faculty: Claudia Acquisti (Arizona State University) -Murray William Cresko (University of Oregon) Ken Wolfe (Trinity College Dublin) Jan Korbel (EMBL Heidel- Dr Murray Cox Massey University E berg) Kai M¨uller (WWU M¨unster) Alexandros Sta- [email protected] T +64-6-356 9099 ext. 2570 matakis (TU Munich) John Parsch (LMU Munich) W http://massey.genomicus.com Murray Cox Erich Bornberg-Bauer (WWU M¨unster) Philine Feul-
A technical course to guide research into how environ- this new field of research. Support for this training mental conditions affect gene responses and the fitness course is provided by The Indiana University Center for of organisms Genomics and Bioinformatics, Beckman Coulter Inc., Date: August 21 to August 28, 2010. Number of par- Roche NimbleGen Inc., and Life Technologies Inc. ticipants: Restricted to 20. Please download the poster announcement at: https:/- /www.slashtmp.iu.edu/public/download.php?FILE=- http://www.mdibl.org/courses/- jcolbour/95321SVkA2O The Center for Genomics Environmental Genomics/199/ Environmental genomics seeks to understand how gene function is and Bioinformatics, Indiana University CGB influenced by environmental conditions while account- - https://projects.cgb.indiana.edu/display/grp/- ing for variation that exists within and among natural Overview Daphnia Genomics Consortium - http://- daphnia.cgb.indiana.edu/ [email protected] populations. Two significant advances create oppor- tunities to finally link gene-environment interactions to the fitness of individuals and to population-level outcomes. (1) Genome and transcriptome sequences are rapidly becoming available for a growing number of species whose ecology and physiology are well un- Switzerland Speciation Aug29-Sep4 derstood. (2) Sophisticated tools for high-throughput biology, statistical analysis and informatics are rapidly becoming more accessible to single investigator labora- tories. This course is built on the paradigm that the We announce an ESF-funded summer school “Methods research field will most effectively grow by properly in Empirical Speciation Research”, taking place August designing large-scale experiments enabled by drasti- 29 to September 4, 2010 in Switzerland. We still have cally increased sample-throughput and lower costs. travel support and accommodation for additional par- Most importantly, the challenges of manipulating and ticipants and consider applications until June 30th. analyzing population-level genomics data must be addressed. The school is part of the European Science Foundation Networking Program Frontiers in Speciation Research This course trains researchers to design studies, and (FROSpects) and is open for PhD students, early stage to collect and analyze state-of-the-art gene expression Postdocs and exceptionally well qualified MSc students. data. Each participant will perform a new experiment Venue is the EAWAG Center of Ecology, Evolution using 12-plex microarrays that are designed to study & Biogeochemistry (CEEB) in Kastanienbaum on the the freshwater microcrustacean Daphnia. The class re- shores of Alpine fjord Lake Lucerne. sults will be combined for a scientific publication – co- authored by class participants – that describes the in- Speciation research is currently one of the most vibrant dividual and shared molecular signatures of stress re- fields in evolutionary research. Its success became pos- sponses. Daphnia is used for training because of its sible because of advances in empirical methods, con- growing use as a model system for environmental ge- cepts and theory building in population genetics and nomics and for improving environmental health protec- evolutionary ecology. We are now in the early stage tion, yet the skills learned during the course will be of yet another wave of advance, associated with the applicable to all study systems with mature genomics genomics era. Studying speciation is a deeply inter- resources. disciplinary endeavor that often requires good under- standing of very many different concepts and methods Participants will also obtain hands-on training on the in ecology, genetics and evolution. This makes speci- latest automation protocols for higher-throughput pro- ation research sometimes more difficult to access for cessing of next-generation sequencing samples, and will young scientists than more disciplinary research ques- learn computational methods to manage and analyze tions in ecology and evolution. In this summer school genomics-scale data sets. we want to introduce graduate students to the ways Ultimately, participants will be better positioned to experienced and successful speciation researchers inte- incorporate these technologies into their own research grate concepts and methods from ecology, genetics, ge- laboratories, while better understanding how functional nomics and behavioural biology in an attempt to elu- genomics and automation can be applied to ecology, cidate causes, mechanisms and consequences of, and evolution and toxicology. constraints to speciation. The faculty at MDIBL is pleased to help advance The course, taught by an international team of estab- lished speciation researchers, will provide state of the 90 EvolDir July 1, 2010 art overviews of major topics, as well as first hand in- letters of recommendation sent on their behalf. Assis- sights into specific issues. In four mornings Roger But- tant Professors and Junior Faculty are advised to have lin (U Sheffield), Scott Hodges (UC Santa Barbara), one letter of recommendation sent on their behalf. Note Catherine Peichel (Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research that letters do not necessarily need to be as formal a Centre) and Glenn-Peter Saetre (CEES Oslo) will teach those provided for a job application. They can be a empirical lecture modules. Latest developments in spe- couple of paragraphs by email, but should comment on ciation theory will be taught in a fifth lecture mod- how the person would contribute to and/or benefit from ule by Sander van Doorn (U Bern). In the afternoons the program. IPAM is generally able to offer a housing we will offer workshops and excursions to speciation and travel allowance to accepted participants coming study sites. These and a series of evening spotlight- from outside of the UCLA area. On the application, on-research lectures will be taught by Elena Conti there is a place to indicate the support requested. (U Z¨urich), Martine Maan (U Bern, Eawag), Walter Please send any additional questions to Salzburger (U Basel), Ole Seehausen (U Bern, Eawag), *[email protected]*. We look forward to Arjun Sivasundar (U Bern), Piet Spaak (Eawag) and hearing from you. Alex Widmer (ETHZ). The class size will not exceed 25 students and students will have ample opportunity to Sincerely, Amber Puha interact with teachers and staff througho ut the week. Amber Puha, Associate Director Institute for Pure We provide students with travel grants, free on-site ac- and Applied Mathematics 406 Portola Plaza, Suite commodation and meals. 1158 Box 957121 MC: 712105 Los Angeles, CA For more information see http://www.eawag.ch/lehre/- 90095-7121 1(310)206-2831 1(310)825-4756 Fax Email: phd/schools/frospects/index EN If you are interested, [email protected] www.ipam.ucla.edu Amber email a letter of application and a CV to Nadja Pepe Puha
There will be a five-day workshop in August 16-20, 2010 on statistical genetics, and featuring the Mendel Statis- UCaliforniaLosAngeles tical Genetics Software package. This short course will MathComput Genomics Fall2011 be taught by faculty from UCLA and UNC-Chapel Hill and is designed for people who will be doing statistical analysis of genetics projects.
Mathematical and Computational Approaches in High More information is in the announcement be- Throughput Genomics, September 12-December 16, low, and at http://genomics.unc.edu/events/statgen/- 2011. index.html Thank you, We would greatly appreciate your help in advertising The Statistical Genetics Short Course Instructors. this program. Feel free to print the attached poster Workshop Announcement: and hang it in your department. STATISTICAL GENETICS SHORT COURSE August At this time, we are especially interested in receiving 16-20, 2010 At the Rizzo Conference Center Chapel applications to participate for the entire fall semester Hill, North Carolina http://genomics.unc.edu/events/- and would in particular welcome an application from statgen/index.html We will hold a five full-day in- you. To get more information and/or apply please visit tensive workshop on state-of-the-art statistical genetics methods for detection of genetic loci for complex traits, *http://www.ipam.ucla.edu/gen2011 All applicants should fill out the online application form and submit a either qualitative or quantitative. curriculum vitae. It is important to include the desired Each day will include hands-on computer exercises us- dates of participation and possible references. Postdoc- ing statistical genetics computer programs, especially toral Scholars and Graduate Students should have two the Mendel software package, with it’s new graphical July 1, 2010 EvolDir 91 front-end. The University of Hawaii branch of the NASA Astrobi- ology Institute will host a winter school on the theme of We will cover the general theory behind the methods as water and the evolution of life in the cosmos, from Mon- well as emphasize the practical aspects needed to give the best chances of success. The Course is designed to day January 3rd to Monday January 17th 2011. This assist people who are actively studying the genetics of school will provide approximately 40 post-graduate par- complex traits. Topics will include: ticipants with a broad but high-level introduction into astrobiology, emphasizing the origin and role of water * Statistical Reviews * Genetic Study Design * Quality in the emergence of life on our planet, and in the search Control and other data issues * Haplotyping * Analy- for life elsewhere. It will be truly multidisciplinary, sis of Qualitative and Quantitative Traits including: - bringing together students and researchers from the di- Parametric and Non-Parametric Linkage (NPL) analy- verse scientific backgrounds that contribute to our un- sis - Methods for Large Pedigrees - Association Testing: derstanding here. Hawaii offers ideal resources for this + Case/Control + Genome-Wide Studies (GWAS) + training opportunity, from world-leading astronomical Family-based * Copy Number Variation (CNV) * Eth- observing facilities through state of the art cosmochem- nic Admixture Analysis * Other Recent Advances istry simulation equipment to unique geologic environ- Participants in the Course need no prior experience ments in which extremophile life exists. Applications with these methods or programs. Participants will be are invited from all graduate and post-doctoral students required to bring a laptop computer to run the analysis whose research interests intersect with astrobiology. exercises. For evoldir readers, the primary draw of this winter The Course features instructors from the Statistical Ge- school may be its emphasis on communicating the non- netics Group of the UCLA Department of Human Ge- biological context for the origin of life (i.e. the chem- netics as well as Statistical Genetics instructors from istry, geology and astronomy of relevance to astrobiol- UNC-Chapel Hill: ogy) 1. Kenneth Lange 2. Rita Cantor 3. Jeanette Papp 4. Successful applicants will be funded for travel, ac- Janet Sinsheimer 5. Eric Sobel commodation and all relevant costs (although we are still figuring out some new legislature which may The cost of the course, which includes lunch and snacks require us to charge a small paperwork processing every day and a group dinner on Thursday, is: fee and tax for participants who are not U.S. citizens US $900 for students and postdocs from non-profit in- - if you are interested in the opportunity, then we stitutions US $1000 for staff and faculty from non-profit encourage you to apply, and we can talk through institutions US $1200 for individuals from for-profit in- these details at the time of making an offer!) Further stitutions details and application form are available at : http:/- /www.ifa.hawaii.edu/UHNAI/2011winterschool/ Transportation and lodging are not included Stephen Freeland
Instructions
Instructions: To be added to the EvolDir mailing list please send an email message to [email protected]. At this time provide a binary six letter code that determines which messages will be mailed to you. These are listed in the same order as presented here — Conferences; Graduate Student Positions; Jobs; Other; Post-doctoral positions; WorkshopsCourses. For example to receive the listings that concern conferences and post-doctoral positions this would be 100010. Messages are categorized on the basis of their subject headings. If this subject heading is not successfully parsed, the message will be sent to me at [email protected]. In addition, if it originates from ‘blackballed’ addresses it will be sent to me at [email protected]. These messages will only be read and dealt with when I have time. The code 000000 has all channels turned off and hence gets only a once monthly notifcation of the availability of a monthly review pdf file. To be removed from the EvolDir mailing list please send an email message to [email protected]. Note that ‘on vacation’, etc, style messages are automatically filtered and should not be transmitted to the list (I hope), but should you wish to avoid the e-mail’s your code can be temporarily changed to 000000. To send messages to the EvolDir direct them to the email [email protected]. Do not include encoded attachments and do not send it as Word files, as HTML files, as LATEX files, Excel files, etc. . . . plain old ASCII will work great and can be read by everyone. Add a subject header that contains the correct category “Conference:, Graduate position:, Job:, Other:, Postdoc:, Workshop:” and then the message stands a better chance of being correctly parsed. Note that the colon is mandatory. The message will be stored until the middle of the night (local time). At a predetermined time, the collected messages will be captured and then processed by programs and filters. If the message is caught by one of the filters (e.g. a subject header is not correctly formated) the message will be send to me at [email protected] and processed later. In either case, please do not expect an instant response.
Afterword
This program is an attempt to automatically process a broad variety of e-mail messages. Most preformating is collapsed to save space. At the current time, many features may be incorrectly handled and some email messages may be positively mauled. Although this is being produced by LATEX do not try to embed LATEX or TEX in your message (or other formats) since my program will strip these from the message.