Postdoc: U Minnesota Microbial Ecology & Evolution

The May research group at the University of Minnesota seeks to hire two to three post-doctoral associates in the ecology and evolution of plant-associated microbes. Successful applicants will work on an experimental project with global reach as part of a team of ecologists and evolutionary biologists spanning the University of Minnesota’s departments of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior and Plant Pathology. The appointment is for one year (with potential for renewal), to begin as soon as possible. The scientific goal of these positions is to examine the abiotic and biotic predictors and functional significance of fungal, bacterial, and viral symbionts of plant hosts, and determine plant microbiome effects on disease transmission. Experiments will encompass scales ranging from individual hosts and local host communities to regional and global bioclimatic and soil gradients. Projects will include quantification of bacterial, fungal, and viral communities within hosts using high-throughput sequencing and manipulative experiments in both the field and lab to examine the effects of the plant-associated microbial community on host fecundity and pathogen resistance, and on microbial fitness and transmission. Successful applicants will have the opportunity to work with mathematical modelers to use empirically-derived parameter values and test predictive models. We are particularly interested in applicants with metagenomics or organismal expertise in microbial...
Source: Fungal Genomes and Comparative Genomics - Category: Geneticists and Genetics Commentators Authors: Tags: postdoc microbial ecology microbial evolution microbiology modeling Source Type: blogs