项目介绍

2024年9月27日

Our department is located in the university botanical gardens and houses modern molecular and ecological labs, including greenhouses and climate chambers for plant cultivation. The University of Zurich has a broad research coverage of organismal and molecular biology, and several research groups work on evolutionary topics (lifescience-zurich). The city of Zurich also offers excellent quality of life as well as an attractive surrounding for outdoor sports.

Your responsibilities

A PhD position in plant speciation is available by 1st of November in my group at the Department of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, University of Zurich, for a period of four years. The position is to study real-time speciation in plants as a consequence of soil adaptation. In this project, experimental evolution will be performed using fast cycling Brassica plants as a model. The experiment will continue a previous experimental evolution study which has proven highly successful and led to the formation of plant ecotypes (Dorey et al. 2024, Dorey and Schiestl 2024). The planned project will continue this evolution experiment line to further study divergent selection, local adaptation and the rise of reproductive isolation. The work will be primarily based in the greenhouse and lab and will involve the use of biotic interactions with bumblebee pollinators and aphid herbivory.

Your profile

We are looking for a highly motivated PhD candidate to join the team of Prof. Dr. Florian Schiestl, working on evolutionary question in the context of plant-insect interactions. We offer a vibrant, collaborative work environment and high-quality supervision. Several of his past PhD students have published as first authors in the highest-ranking journals such as Science, Nature Communications, New Phytologist, Functional Ecology, etc.; many have consecutively attained PostDoc positions at renowned academic institutions. You should have a Master (or comparable) degree in any field of biology and a thorough interest in evolutionary biology; proficiency in English, both orally and written, is also required. Prior experience in working with plants and/or insects, bioinformatics, genomics analyses, GWAS, and scientific publishing is an advantage.

Information on your application

If you are interested in the job, please send Prof. Dr. Florian Schiestl a letter describing your motivation, CV, copy of degrees, publications (manuscripts), and e-mail addresses of two academic referees, by 15 st of October 2024 (the job will remain open until filled). Please send all documents in a single file. If you have any further questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.

References
Dorey, T., L. Frachon, L. H. Rieseberg, J. M. Kreiner, and F. P. Schiestl. 2024. Biotic interactions promote local adaptation to soil in plants. Nature Communications 15.
Dorey, T., and F. P. Schiestl. 2024. Bee-pollination promotes rapid divergent evolution in plants growing in different soils. Nature Communications 15.