WILDLIFE ECOLOGY AND CONSERVATION: The mission of the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation is to foster education, expand knowledge, and reward scholarship, using multi-disciplinary approaches, for the purpose of understanding, managing, and conserving biological resources. The primary goal of our teaching, research, and extension programs is to develop and communicate the knowledge necessary for enhancing the conservation and management of wildlife and their habitats for the greatest aesthetic, ecological, economic, and recreational values.
Ph.D. Assistantship – Black-footed ferret conservation genomics, Gainesville FL.: The Molecular Ecology lab of Drs. Samantha Wisely and James Austin is seeking highly motivated and qualified candidates for a Ph.D. assistantship at the Department of Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at the University of Florida. The goal is to build a research project examining the genomic consequences of contrasting management strategies for black-footed ferrets.
This Ph.D. project will center around the genomic assessment of 20+ years of reintroductions and augmentations of wild black-footed ferret populations. The candidate will be expected to develop a dissertation using a robust longitudinal dataset (genetic and partial pedigree information) and existing genomic reference data. There will also be opportunities for fieldwork at the population sites.
Candidate’s qualifications:
• Ideally, an M.S. in a related field (e.g., bioinformatics, molecular ecology, ecology, conservation biology)
• Minimally, an undergraduate degree in biology or genetics with demonstrated potential for success at the Ph.D. level.
• Interest in applying genomic tools to the study of ecological and conservation-related questions.
• Ability to work in wet- and dry-lab and, if interested, strenuous field conditions (e.g., long nights searching for ferrets)
• Demonstrated experience with general bioinformatics programming and statistical data analysis in R.
• experience in NGS DNA-sequencing / sequence analyses in R or Python
• Demonstrated research productivity in terms of outputs (e.g., peer-reviewed publications, presentations, digital content)
This is a fully-funded Ph.D. position, and the selected candidate will be offered a competitive annual stipend, comprehensive health insurance, and a full tuition waiver.
How to apply:
Instructions to Applicants:
If you are interested in joining our team, please send your application, including (1) a letter of motivation with a brief outline of career goals and research experience, (2) a detailed CV/resume, and (3) the contact information of a minimum of two references. Please send these documents as a single pdf file (UFferret_surname_firstname.pdf) by Nov. 22, 2022, to Dr. James Austin (austinj@ufl.edu). The start date is expected to be late August 2023. Do not hesitate to contact Prof. Dr. Austin and/or Dr. Samantha Wisely (wisely@ufl.edu) for any questions.
About UF:
The University of Florida is the state’s preeminent institution and one of the U.S.’s most highly regarded public research universities, with a distinctly international and interdisciplinary character. Interested candidates can read more about the graduate opportunities at UF here: http://graduateschool.ufl.edu/prospective-students/explore-uf/