A fully-funded PhD position is available at the Department of Ecology and Evolution (U Lausanne)

A fully-funded PhD position is available at the Department of Ecology 
and Evolution (U Lausanne) and the Museum of Zoology in Lausanne to 
work on the evolutionary ecology of reproductive modes in mayflies, 
co-supervised by Michel Sartori and Tanja Schwander.

Start in January 2015 or soon thereafter.

The evolution and maintenance of sexual reproduction has been one of 
the major questions in evolutionary biology for the last decades: 
although biparental sex entails many costs,  asexuality is rare among 
metazoans. The PhD candidate will assess the contribution of various 
factors to the maintenance of sex and parthenogenesis in natural 
populations of mayflies (Ephemeroptera). Facultative parthenogenesis 
is known to occur in many species, with a high level of variation: 
some species are characterized by very efficient parthenogenesis with 
high egg hatching success whereas virgin females in other species 
produce hardly any offspring. Such variation allows testing various 
costs and benefits of sexual reproduction and parthenogenesis, 
depending on different ecological contexts in a comparative framework.

We are looking for outstanding candidates with a background in 
ecology, evolutionary biology or equivalent (note that a master degree 
is required by the doctoral school to enter the PhD program). In 
addition to academic qualifications, a certain practical flair is 
necessary for surveying natural populations (field work) and possibly 
optimize/ develop rearing conditions.

Interested candidates should send a motivation letter, cv (including 
contacts for references) and diplomas as a single pdf file to 
tanja.schwander@unil.ch no later than October 10. For additional 
information about the topic, contact michel.sartori@vd.ch or 
tanja.schwander@unil.ch.

Tanja Schwander
Department of Ecology and Evolution
University of Lausanne
Le Biophore
CH-1015 Lausanne
Switzerland
Office: +41 (0)21 692 4151
Secretary: +41 (0)21 692 4160
Fax: +41 (0)21 692 4165

lab website: 
http://www.unil.ch/dee/en/home/menuinst/research/group-schwander.html
theme issue on reproductive system evolution: 
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jeb.2014.27.issue-7/issuetoc

tanja.schwander@unil.ch