Graduate student positions (M.Sc. or Ph.D.) available: Montreal QC,Canada.

Graduate student positions (M.Sc. or Ph.D.) available: Montreal QC,Canada.

*Understanding the importance of insect and plant microbiomes during 
spruce budworm outbreaks*

Fully-funded graduate student positions (M.Sc. or Ph.D.) are available 
for motivated students interested in studying the ecology of microbial 
communities (microbiomes) associated with spruce budworm and their host 
trees during the current outbreak that is having major impacts on Quebec 
forests.

The objectives of the project are to use field surveys and experimental 
manipulations of spruce budworm and host tree microbiomes, in order to 
understand the processes responsible for variation in microbial 
community structure in the budworm gut at multiple scales, and to 
quantify the effect of gut microbes on budworm growth, survival, and 
ecological interactions.

Students will be co-supervised by Dr. Steven Kembel (UQAM) and Dr. 
Patrick James (UdeM), and/or Dr. Daniel Kneeshaw (UQAM). The students 
will also work closely with a multidisciplinary team carrying out 
research on spruce budworm outbreak dynamics and forest ecology, 
including Dr. Louis DeGrandpr�, and Dr. Deepa Pureswaran (Canadian 
Forest Service, NRCan). Students will have the opportunity to develop 
projects and receive training in diverse areas including field ecology, 
laboratory and greenhouse experiments, high-throughput environmental 
sequencing, biostatistics, and bioinformatics for the quantification of 
microbiome structure.

The ideal candidate will have a strong academic record and an interest 
in ecology (insect, plant, or microbial) and quantitative methods in 
community ecology or bioinformatics.

Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the 
positions have been filled. To apply, please submit a cover letter 
stating your research interests, CV, unofficial transcripts, and contact 
information for three references to:

Dr. Steven Kembel (kembel.steven_w@uqam.ca)
Dr. Patrick James (patrick.ma.james@umontreal.ca)
Dr. Daniel Kneeshaw (kneeshaw.daniel@uqam.ca)

patrick.ma.james@gmail.com