a PhD position in evolutionary biology available at the Department of Biology at the University of Hamburg.

I would like to bring to your attention to a PhD position in 
evolutionary biology available at the Department of Biology at the 
University of Hamburg.

*****

Universität Hamburg invites applications for a

Research Associate commencing on August 1st 2014 (earliest starting date).

The position is part time (19.5 hours per week) and is remunerated at 
the 13 TV-L salary level.

The short-term, three-year contract terminates on July 31st 2017 or at a 
later date, depending on the starting date.* The short-term nature of 
this contract is based upon § 2 of the Academic Short-term Contract Act 
(WissZeitVG).

The University aims to increase the number of women in research and 
teaching and explicitly encourages women to apply. Equally qualified 
female applicants will receive preference in accordance with Hamburg's 
Higher Education Act (HmbHG).

Tasks:

Duties primarily include research and a moderate amount of teaching. The 
successful candidate will also have the opportunity to pursue further 
academic qualifications, in particular a doctoral dissertation, in 
accordance with § 28 (1) sentence 3 of Hamburg's Higher Education Act 
(HmbHG).

Area(s) of responsibility:

The group focus on global biodiversity and evolutionary genomics of 
freshwater zooplankton (Daphnia), using next-generation sequencing data. 
Bioinformatics tools are used to detect local adaptation patterns in 
natural populations and experimental cultures will allow assessing the 
phenotype/genotype correlation. The candidate will be analysing RNAseq 
data and plan/conduct follow-up studies on candidate genes, in 
collaboration with another graduate student (focusing on the 
experimental part). The Next Gen data analysis includes (but is not 
limited to) differential expression analysis, SNP calling and eQTL 
analysis. Furthermore, a comparative approach will be used, since the 
genomes and transcriptomes of other Daphnia species are available.

The candidate is encouraged to develop specific projects of her or his 
own choice as long as they include mining this data and are conducted in 
collaboration with other members of the group.

Requirements:

A university degree in a relevant field: Biology, Bioinformatics

The candidate should:

- be familiar with bioinformatics methods, through experience gained
  while doing the master project, for example.

- have a strong background in evolutionary biology / molecular ecology.
  In addition, knowledge of population genetics will be advantageous.

- be familiar with at least one of these scripting languages: python,
  perl, C++, R

- be creative, critical and have conceptual thinking skills.

- have good communication and writing abilities in English.

- be able to work both independently and as part of a
  multidisciplinary team.

The working language of the group is English, willingness to learn 
German is necessary to allow a better integration/communication in the 
institute and in daily life.

Severely disabled applicants will receive preference over equally 
qualified non-disabled applicants.

Applications should include a letter of application, a detailed 
curriculum vitae, an abstract of your master thesis, and copies of 
degree certificate(s), as well as the names of two scientific referees. 
These documents should be submitted as a single pdf-file in the given 
order. The deadline for applications is June 30th 2014. Please send 
applications to: Mathilde Cordellier via the 'Apply' button.
For further information, please contact Mathilde Cordellier on 040-428 
38 3933 or mathilde.cordellier@uni-hamburg.de. Alternatively, please 
consult our website

http://www.uni-hamburg.de/biologie/BioZ/zis/meb/mit/cordellier.html.

* In accordance with §§ 27, 28 of Hamburg's Higher Education Act (HmbHG).

cordellier@biologie.uni-muenchen.de