Taxacom: open doctoral and postdoctoral positions

Thu Oct 31 06:10:41 CDT 2024

Dear taxonomic community,

I have 2 post-doctoral and 2 doctoral positions open in my lab. Each position has a strong taxonomic focus. The deadline for each position is 17 November 2024.

I would be grateful if you could encourage potential candidates to apply for.

Doctoral positions:

Position 1: DNA-based taxonomy of Braconidae
We will hire one (1) research-oriented, talented and industrious person to carry out doctoral studies in the project of "Developing a Genomic Blueprint for a Bio-literate Future". The researcher will focus on massively diverse and taxonomically 'dark' group of braconid wasps in order to develop novel DNA-based solutions to accelerate their species descriptions based on their DNA characteristics. The researcher will develop an efficient protocol to recover nuclear genetic data from species using high-throughput sequencing approaches such as ONT and/or PacBio, and will demonstrate the efficiency of this protocol in practise. Additionally, the researcher will focus on estimating species richness of Cecidomyiidae (gall midges) globally.

Position 2: Species interconnections genomics
We will hire one (1) research-oriented, talented and industrious person to carry out doctoral studies in the project of "Developing a Genomic Blueprint for a Bio-literate Future". The researcher will focus on developing new genomics approaches to elucidate species interconnections, i.e. host-parasitoid and host-herbivore relationships. The work will be conducted using reared and wild-collected specimens of parasitoid wasps and flies as well as sawfly larvae. The primary sequencing platforms will be ONT and Illumina. The goal is to develop and demonstrate approaches to recover host species directly from the specimen based on remains of DNA of their gut contents.

For more details on the position and "how to apply" follow the link below:

https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Foulunyliopisto.varbi.com%2Fwhat%3Ajob%2FjobID%3A765013%2F&data%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cd9479319f54a41a593ba08dcf99cab62%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638659698540952432%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=z8SSY420wkjr%2FUvNwo9NvJKzjk8lkj28uPmSlsenRI8%3D&reserved=0

Postdoctoral positions:

Position 1: Postdoctoral Researcher in sawfly genomics and taxonomy
The post-doctoral researcher will focus on developing genomic tools for more accurate species delimitation of taxonomically problematic groups of sawflies. The studies will include use of e.g. shotgun sequencing of fresh tissues to recover USCO markers from specimens as well as sequencing old museum (type) specimens. Several sequencing platforms (ONT, PacBio, Illumina) will be utilized. Furthermore, the studies will focus on elucidation of the evolutionary causes of the presence of intra-individual variability of seemingly functional mitochondrial COI barcode marker in sawflies. The work will mostly focus on North European fauna. The research team has massive tissue collection of sawflies which will be largely used, but the work will also include field trips.

For more details on the position and "how to apply" follow the link below:

https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Foulunyliopisto.varbi.com%2Fwhat%3Ajob%2FjobID%3A764975%2F&data%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cd9479319f54a41a593ba08dcf99cab62%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638659698540952432%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=VHHKE1sEsfzs63TmUbNUzURjhYt8767XeJXj0Yci9pY%3D&reserved=0<https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Foulunyliopisto.varbi.com%2Fwhat%3Ajob%2FjobID%3A764975%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR0z_jqcEyg6SXGNqz49JnVhOksfy05-GI-A5jddXeaC69vhZR4FsUCJnA8_aem_-NO5bm-l91GMKtcgnQkU2g&data%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cd9479319f54a41a593ba08dcf99cab62%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638659698540952432%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=1t4TvIHiSWhCv7DquldrtUL7F9JKeE2Y6zheXyEkzKk%3D&reserved=0>

Position 2: Postdoctoral Researcher in accelerated DNA-based taxonomy:
Our international research team will find solutions to the taxonomic impediment by developing approaches to dramatically accelerate species descriptions by taking advantage of high-throughput DNA sequencing tools. The research will focus on DNA-barcoded samples of Costa Rican gall midges (Cecidomyiidae), which represent a massively diverse and taxonomically 'dark' group of insects. The goal is to showcase how thousands of new species of gall midges can be described in a scientifically rigorous manner, and hence point the way towards a genomics-based future of taxonomy in similar "dark" taxa.

For more details on the position and "how to apply" follow the link below:

https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Foulunyliopisto.varbi.com%2Fwhat%3Ajob%2FjobID%3A764822%2F&data%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cd9479319f54a41a593ba08dcf99cab62%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638659698540952432%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=cUmWI%2BzxBpYs5RUksxN%2FPmSa4eod%2BblVNDFekfDSjdc%3D&reserved=0

Marko Mutanen
Professor (Molecular Systematics and Bioliteracy)
University of Oulu
Finland

Insect Bioliteracy group: https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Finsgensyst.wordpress.com%2F&data%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cd9479319f54a41a593ba08dcf99cab62%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638659698541108662%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=AH47UMM8yqndiUMuary9HRnqTmXqvna1cCLBcFPq8bw%3D&reserved=0
Finnish Barcode of Life (FinBOL): https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.finbol.org%2F&data%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cd9479319f54a41a593ba08dcf99cab62%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638659698541108662%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=kmXABt%2Fcp%2F87yqga%2FSNovbGbl60iZr%2FyUl434riTv8g%3D&reserved=0
Biodiverse Anthropocenes: https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.oulu.fi%2Fen%2Fresearch%2Fbiodiverse-arctic-and-global-resilience%2Fbiodiverse-anthropocenes&data%7C02%7Ctaxacom%40lists.ku.edu%7Cd9479319f54a41a593ba08dcf99cab62%7C3c176536afe643f5b96636feabbe3c1a%7C0%7C0%7C638659698541108662%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C0%7C%7C%7C&sdata=ZUZyvIMKGPRJKJmhhA9EtW94VcP171DV2Xgulcma3d8%3D&reserved=0