PhD student in environmental genomics

The newly established Microbial Evogenomics Lab (Limnological Station, University of Zurich, Switzerland) is searching for a PhD student in environmental genomics. 

The newly established Microbial Evogenomics Lab (MiEL) is searching for a PhD student. The research that you are expected to undertake will focus on leveraging approaches derived from the fields (sensu lato) of bioinformatics, genomics, and evolutionary biology in order to explore and characterize the so-called microbial dark matter (i.e. the bulk of microbial diversity that we are yet unable to cultivate) in aquatic ecosystems. While the topic of your thesis will be rooted in the broader field of microbial ecology, your work will gravitate towards explaining evolutionary trajectories through ecological processes. 

Prerequisites: B.Sc. and M.Sc. in disciplines related to: Biology, Environmental Sciences, Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Bioinformatics. English proficiency. Ability to perform independent work. Candidates with prior experience in sequence analyses, bioinformatics, and/or unix/perl/python programming will be favoured.

Please send your complete CV (comprising a list of the disciplines studied during the bachelor’s and master’s degrees) together with a motivation letter stating your research interests (approx. 1 page). Please merge all required information in a single pdf file named as follows: ‘FirstName_LastName-PhD_position.pdf’.

Workload (approx.): 20% wet lab (processing of water samples, DNA/RNA purifications; sequencing libraries preparation); 80% dry lab (genome-resolved metagenomics, phylogenomics, genome-informed metabolic reconstructions). The position comes with a degree of flexibility regarding the specific thesis topic, methodology, and starting date.

Contact:

Dr. Adrian-Stefan Andrei

E-mail: stefan.andrei@limnol.uzh.ch

Limnological Station, University of Zurich, Seestrasse 187, CH-8802, Kilchberg, Switzerland

Twitter: @adr_stefan

Information about the University of Zurich can be found here: https://www.uzh.ch/en.html

Information about the Limnological Station can be found here: https://www.botinst.uzh.ch/en/research/limnology/pernthaler/station.html

Application deadline:
Location: Limnological Station, University of Zurich, Switzerland