>TWO VOLUNTEER FIELD ASSISTANTS: SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR
>OF TROPICAL WASPS, SUSSEX/ECUADOR
>
>January 9th - April 7th 2017
>
>Applications are invited for highly motivated
>field assistants to work with a PhD researcher
>from Prof. Jeremy Field's research lab in the
>department of Life Sciences at the University of
>Sussex
>(http://www.sussex.ac.uk/lifesci/fieldlab/).
>
>Two field assistants are required to help with a
>field-based project to investigate the effects
>of environmental conditions on social behaviour
>in Microstigmus wasps. The fieldwork will be
>conducted in the Choco region of NW Ecuador, and
>will run from early January until early April
>2017 (three months in total). This is a great
>opportunity to visit some very unique places in
>a beautiful part of the world as well as gaining
>valuable tropical fieldwork experience.
>Successful applicants will obtain excellent
>experience of cutting-edge insect behavioural
>ecology.
>
>The work will involve hiking an altitudinal
>transect in a tropical climate. Applicants
>should therefore be physically fit, enthusiastic
>about fieldwork, hard-working and able to
>maintain a positive attitude when tired. The
>work entails assisting a PhD student with
>data-collection, marking live wasps (they are
>very small and can't sting!), setting up video
>cameras on specific observation nests as well as
>some simple manipulation experiments. There will
>be some early mornings and travelling to and
>from research sites using local transport.
>Applicants are expected to have a degree in
>biological sciences and some background or keen
>interest in behavioural ecology and/or social
>evolution. Previous work-experience with social
>insects and/or in the tropics would be an
>advantage. A clean driving licence and some
>basic knowledge of Spanish also desirable
>although not essential. The applicants must be
>committed to working the entire 3-month field
>season. Because the work involves recording
>colour marks on individual animals, the job
>would not be suitable for someone who is
>colour-blind
>
>All work-related costs in Ecuador will be paid,
>including accommodation. Whilst in the field
>there will be basic but comfortable
>accommodation in a house/ lodge with hot showers
>and basic kitchen facilities (although meals are
>provided by the reserves). We also hope to have
>separate housing in a nearby village to use as a
>base during our days off. In addition, each
>assistant will receive £500 towards travel costs
>(air ticket) and a further £750 contribution
>towards their expenses/food whilst not in the
>field.
>
>Any queries can be sent to Rosa Bonifacii
>(R.Bonifacii@sussex.ac.uk) and/or Prof. Jeremy
>Field (J.Field@sussex.ac.uk). Applicants should
>send a covering letter explaining why they would
>like to work on the project and a CV, including
>contact details (e-mail addresses/telephone
>numbers) for the applicant and 2-3 referees.
>Applications should be e-mailed as a single word
>document to Rosa Bonifacii by November 21st
>2016. Shortlisted applicants will be notified by
>e-mail, and will be invited for interview either
>in person or over skype/phone soon afterwards.
>
>----------
>PhD: THE EVOLUTION OF SOCIAL CATERPILLARS, CAMBRIDGE, U.K.
>
>Gregarious behaviour has evolved many times in a
>wide range of animals. The prevalence of
>gregarious behaviour poses many interesting
>evolutionary questions; How is the conflict
>between competition and cooperation balanced?
>What are the advantages and what are the costs?
>But it also poses many mechanistic questions;
>how do animals sense each other? How do they
>track each other's behaviour? This project aims
>to tackle these questions using Heliconiini, a
>diverse tribe of Neotropical butterflies, as a
>study system. Gregarious larval behaviour has
>evolved convergent in multiple independent
>lineages, and in some cases closely related
>species differ dramatically in egg laying and
>larval behaviour. The primary goal of the
>project is to understand the genetic and
>behavioural mechanisms that underpin gregarious
>behaviour, and to investigate the selection
>pressures shaping behavioural variation across
>species. The approach taken can be tailored to
>the particular interests of the student.
>Opportunities exist to investigate:
>
>1) The behavioural mechanisms behind gregarious
>behaviour, what sensory cues do they use?
>2) Ecological correlates of gregarious
>behaviour; why do they do it? What effects does
>it have on other aspects of their behaviour?
>3) Comparative genomics of convergent gregarious
>behaviour; how do changes in gene function and
>regulation produce behavioural variation?
>
>FUNDING
>These projects are listed in competition for
>funding from doctoral training grants and
>scholarships. Further details can be found from:
>1) the departmental prospectus: http://www.zoo.cam.ac.uk/grads/prospec
>2) the University's student funding portal:
>http://www.student-funding.cam.ac.uk
>
>Key deadlines for funding applications are:
>1) BBSRC DTP PhD studentships - application deadline 1 December 2016
>2) NERC DTP PhD studentships - application deadline 4 January 2017
>3) Gates Cambridge scholarships - application
>deadline for overseas/EU (non-UK, US)
>applicants: 7 December 2016
>4) The Cambridge Trust - application deadline
>for International applicants: 7 December 2016,
>and for Home/ EU applicants: 4 January 2017
>
>Interested applicants should contact Dr. Stephen
>Montgomery (shm37@cam.ac.uk) with a CV and brief
>summary of research interests.
>
>NB. A second PhD on sensory adaptations in
>mimetic butterflies is also available.
>
>----------
>PhD: SOCIAL EVOLUTION, ST ANDREWS
>
>Theory of Social Evolution: Adaptation of Genes, Individuals & Societies
>
>Natural selection explains the appearance of
>design in the living world. But at what level is
>this design expected to manifest - gene,
>individual, society - and what is its function?
>Social evolution provides a window on this
>problem, by pitting the interests of genes,
>individuals and societies against each other.
>
>I invite applications for a PhD studentship in
>my research group at the School of Biology,
>University of St Andrews, UK. I'm looking for a
>biology graduate who has a strong interest in
>social evolution theory, or an economics /
>mathematics / philosophy / physics graduate with
>a strong interest in social behaviour.
>
>Current research in my lab involves development
>of general theory - using kin selection,
>multilevel selection, game theory and
>theoretical population genetics approaches - and
>application of mathematical and simulation
>models that are tailored to the biology of real
>organisms, from microbes to insects to humans
>(see http://synergy.st-andrews.ac.uk/gardner/
>for more details). To this end, I strongly
>encourage interactions within the wider grouping
>of theoretical and empirical biologists in St
>Andrews, as well as with collaborators further
>afield.
>
>If social evolution really fascinates you, and
>you are a careful thinker, then you will
>flourish in the type of project that I enjoy
>supervising. Theoretical projects suit people of
>either sex, from any background, regardless of
>physical abilities.
>
>Please direct informal inquiries to Dr Andy
>Gardner (andy.gardner@st-andrews.ac.uk). More
>information can be found at
>https://www.findaphd.com/search/projectdetails.aspx?PJIDw993
>
>Funding Notes: Funding for 3 years will be
>provided by a School of Biology Postgraduate
>Scholarship
>
>References
>
>1) Davies NG, Ross L& Gardner (2016) The ecology
>of sex explains patterns of helping in arthropod
>societies. Ecology Letters 19, 862-872.
>2) Gardner A (2015) The genetical theory of
>multilevel selection. Journal of Evolutionary
>Biology 28, 305-319.
>3) Úbeda F, Ohtsuki H & Gardner A (2014) Ecology
>drives intragenomic conflict over menopause.
>Ecology Letters 17, 165-174.
>
>Andy Gardner <andy.gardner@st-andrews.ac.uk>
>
>Deadline for applications appears to be 5 December 2016
>
>----------
>2 PhDs: POLLINATOR HEALTH AND DISEASES, EXETER
>
>1) Bees, bugs and antibiotics - the interactions
>of agricultural and veterinary antibiotics with
>bee health
>
>The pollination services provided by bumblebees
>and honeybees are crucial for agricultural
>sustainability. In recent years, it has become
>clear that the gut microbiome plays a crucial
>role in bee health. In fact, the resistance
>against Critihidia bombi, a key parasite of
>bumblebees, and the strong genotype-genotype
>interactions with its host are predominantly
>explained by the gut biome rather than by the
>host itself (Koch et al. Ecology Letters 2012,
>Wilfert et al. Molecular Ecology 2007).
>Antibiotics can disrupt this interaction and
>cause fitness loss (Koch et al. PNAS 2011).
>Environmental exposure to antibiotics is a
>potentially serious problem in bees: antibiotic
>sprays are used while crops are in flower and
>prophylactic antibiotic treatment of honeybees
>is widespread in North America, which has led to
>the evolution of AMR. Studying the interactions
>of pollinators, pathogens and antibiotics is
>thus crucial for a sustainable future.
>
>In this PhD, you will be able to study
>fundamental evolutionary ecology, for example
>testing the effect of stress on community
>stability, while directly addressing questions
>around pollinator health. You will receive
>training in experimental ecology and
>microbiology, bioinformatics and mathematical
>modelling. The project will be supervised by Dr.
>Lena Wilfert, Prof. Will Gaze, Dr. TJ McKinley
>and Prof. Angus Buckling at the University of
>Exeter and Prof. Ed Feil at the University of
>Bath. You will join an interdisciplinary group
>working on topics the evolutionary ecology of
>biotic interactions, with world-leading experts
>in microbial ecology and evolution, pollination
>ecology and epidemiology at the Penryn Campus of
>the University of Exeter. To find out more about
>our research, visit
>http://wilfertlabgroup.wixsite.com/wilfertlab,
>http://www.ecehh.org/people/dr-william-gaze/ and
>http://biosciences.exeter.ac.uk/cec/research/.
>For informal enquiries, please contact
>lena.wilfert@ex.ac.uk.
>
>Funding: This project is one of a number that
>are in competition for funding from the South
>West Biosciences Doctoral Training Partnership
>(SWBio DTP). Up to 4 fully-funded studentships
>are being offered to start in September 2017 at
>the University of Exeter.
>
>The application deadline is the 5th of December
>2016. For full details and to apply, please
>visit
>http://www.exeter.ac.uk/studying/funding/award/?id=2318
>
>2) Pollinator plagues: the evolutionary ecology
>of shared infectious diseases in pollinator
>communities
>
>Honeybees and bumblebees are key pollinators of
>wild and agricultural flowering plants.
>Recently, it has become clear that these insects
>not only overlap in their ecology, but also
>share many infectious diseases (Fuerst et al.
>2014, Manley et al. 2015), which can spread
>globally (Wilfert et al. 2016). This makes
>pollinators an excellent ecological model system
>for emerging diseases, but also potentially
>impacts how pollinators have to be managed and
>conserved. In this project, you will be able to
>study the ecological and evolutionary risk
>factors driving disease emergence and spread, as
>well as their impacts on pollinator communities
>at an ecological and evolutionary level. You
>will be part of a large collaborative
>inter-disciplinary research project studying the
>impacts of agri-environment schemes, designed to
>improve agricultural landscapes for pollinators,
>on emerging diseases in pollinators.
>
>In this PhD, you will be trained in experimental
>ecology in the field and the lab and gain skills
>in molecular ecology, population genetics and
>phylogenetics. With your PhD, you will be able
>to address both fundamental questions on the
>evolutionary ecology of multi-host pathogen
>interactions, as well on the applied impacts of
>these interactions and how they can be
>mitigated. You will be primarily based at the
>University of Exeter's Penryn campus, but also
>spend time at NERC's Centre for Ecology and
>Hydrology (CEH) in Oxfordshire.
>
>To find out more about our research, visit
>http://wilfertlabgroup.wixsite.com/wilfertlab
>and
>http://biosciences.exeter.ac.uk/cec/research/.
>For informal enquiries, please contact
>lena.wilfert@ex.ac.uk.
>
>Funding: This project is one of a number that
>are in competition for funding from the NERC
>Great Western Four+ Doctoral Training
>Partnership (GW4+ DTP). At least 4 fully-funded
>studentships that encompass the breadth of earth
>and environmental sciences are being offered to
>start in September 2017 at Exeter. The
>studentships will provide funding for a stipend
>which is currently £14,296 per annum for
>2016-2017, research costs and UK/EU tuition fees
>at Research Council UK rates for 42 months (3.5
>years) for full-time students, pro rata for
>part-time students.
>
>The application deadline is the 6th of January
>2017. For full details and to apply, please
>visit
>http://www.exeter.ac.uk/studying/funding/award/?id=2250
>
>References
>1) R. Manley, M. Boots, L. Wilfert, Emerging
>viral disease risk to pollinating insects:
>ecological, evolutionary and anthropogenic
>factors. Journal of Applied Ecology 52, 331-340
>(2015).
>2) M. A. Fürst, D. P. McMahon, J. L. Osborne, R.
>J. Paxton, M. J. F. Brown, Disease associations
>between honeybees and bumblebees as a threat to
>wild pollinators. Nature 506, 364-366 (2014).
>3) L. Wilfert et al., Deformed wing virus is a
>recent global epidemic in honeybees driven by
>Varroa mites. Science 351, 594-597 (2016).
>
>----------
>PhD: AMBROSIA BEETLES AND THEIR FUNGI, FLORIDA
>
>The Smith Fungal Biology Lab
>(http://plantpath.ifas.ufl.edu/faculty/matthew-e-smith/)
>and the Hulcr Forest Entomology Lab
>(www.ambrosiasymbiosis.org) at the University of
>Florida are recruiting a motivated Ph.D. student
>to start in Summer or Fall of 2017. We are
>seeking a student who is broadly interested in
>fungal systematics, evolutionary biology, and
>insect-fungi interactions to study ambrosia
>beetles and their symbiotic fungi as part of an
>NSF-funded project.
>
>We want someone with:
>* BS or (preferably) an MS degree in biological sciences
>* A background that includes evolution,
>systematics, computational approaches and/or
>fungal biology
>* Laboratory and molecular biology experience
>* Appropriate GPA and GRE scores
>* Solid English language abilities, strong
>scientific writing, and demonstrated ability to
>complete projects.
>
>The following skills and experiences are desired but not required:
>* Phylogenetic analysis
>* Isolation and maintenance of fungal cultures
>* Background in bioinformatics, computer science, and/or genomics
>* Peer reviewed publications
>
>Interested students should submit a brief cover
>letter indicating why they are appropriate for
>the position along with a CV to Dr. Matthew E.
>Smith (trufflesmith@ufl.edu). Acceptance for the
>position is contingent upon acceptance to the to
>the Ph.D. program in the UF Department of Plant
>Pathology (see http://plantpath.ifas.ufl.edu/).
>
>Applications must be received by 9 December 2016.
>
>----------
>POSTDOC: COMPARATIVE GENOMICS OF SOCIALLY POLYMORPHIC ANTS, LAUSANNE
>
>Universtity of Lausanne, Department of Ecology and Evolution
>
>We are looking for a highly motivated candidate
>to work on the comparative genomics of socially
>polymorphic ants. Previous work showed that
>social organization in the fire ant Solenopsis
>invicta is under the control of a social
>chromosome. The aim of this project is to
>reconstruct the evolutionary history of the
>social chromosome. The same genomic region has
>been shown to regulate social organization in 6
>closely related fire ant species. Comparative
>analyses will be conducted to characterize the
>gene content, putative regulatory regions, and
>extent of synteny in the supergene among species
>and determine the routes and mechanisms of gene
>gain/loss and identify the nature of selection
>acting on the genes in the nonrecombining
>region. The proposed studies will thus permit to
>reconstruct the evolutionary history of a
>supergene involved in mediating a major social
>innovation. This work is of general significance
>because there are increasing number of examples
>of supergenes being involved in the regulation
>of important and diverse evolutionary phenomena
>such as the origin of sex chromosomes, mimicry,
>reproductive morphs and self-incompatibility.
>
>The position will be funded by a grant from the
>Swiss NSF. The duration will be 1-5 years.
>
>Our group
>(www.unil.ch/dee/home/menuinst/research/keller-group.html)
>is part of the Department of Ecology and
>Evolution of the University of Lausanne, a
>well-funded and vibrant research institution,
>with superb facilities. The work will be
>conducted in collaboration with Kenneth Ross
>from the University of Georgia.
>
>Inquiries and applications can be sent to
>laurent.keller@unil.ch. Applications should
>comprise:
>
>1) A CV and a list of publication
>2) 1 page describing precisely why you are
>interested in joining our group and why you are
>competent for the proposed studies
>3) Contact information for three referees.
>
>Only applications with all these information will be considered.
>
>Deadline for applications is 20 December 2016.
>
>Laurent Keller
>Department of Ecology and Evolution
>Biophore
>University of Lausanne
>1015 Lausanne
>Switzerland
>
>----------
>GRADUATE STUDENTS: ANT AGRICULTURE AND REVISIONARY TAXONOMY, TOWSON UNIVERSITY
>
>Seeking master's-level graduate students to
>participate in on-going studies of ant
>systematics, evolution, and biodiversity. The
>LaPolla Lab at Towson University is recruiting
>graduates students to conduct independent thesis
>projects on one of the two topics the lab is
>currently focused on: studies on Acropyga ants &
>their mealybug symbionts and revisionary
>taxonomy. Students would be expected to conduct
>both lab and field work in a variety of
>settings. Interested students should contact Dr.
>John LaPolla at jlapolla@towson.edu well before
>the deadline for a possible on-campus interview.
>Deadline for submission of application materials
>(Fall 2017 admission) is March 15, 2017, but
>prospective students need to conduct a phone
>interview and, if selected, an on-campus
>interview so interested students should contact
>Dr. LaPolla no later than January 9, 2017 to
>make arrangements.
>
>For further information about the Towson
>University Biology Graduate Program see:
>http://wwwnew.towson.edu/biologicalsciences/graduate_program.html
>
>John S. LaPolla, Ph.D. - Associate Professor
>Biological Sciences - Fisher College of Science & Mathematics
>Towson University - 8000 York Road - Towson, Maryland, 21252
>t. 410-704-3121 - f. 410-704-2405
>
>----------
>1 POSTDOC, 3 PhDs: HONEYBEE INSPIRED ROBOT
>CONTROL, QUEEN MARY UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
>
>One postdoctoral position (up to 5 years) and 3
>fully funded PhD studentships (4 years each) are
>available in Lars Chittka's lab from 2017 to
>work on radar-tracking of bee orientation,
>bio-inspired robotics and computational
>neuroscience. This is part of the
>Brains-On-Board (Neuromorphic Control of Flying
>Robots) project
>(http://gow.epsrc.ac.uk/NGBOViewGrant.aspx?GrantRef=EP%2FP006094%2F1),
>a multi-university collaboration aiming to
>create robotic controllers that will enable
>autonomous robots with the navigational and
>learning abilities of a honeybee. It involves
>five research groups at the University of
>Sheffield, Queen Mary University of London, and
>the University of Sussex performing research
>whose goal is biomimetic robot control and which
>will combine autonomous robotics, computational
>neuroscience, accelerated neural network
>simulations on GPU architectures and insect
>neuroscience and behaviour.
>
>Anyone interested please email Lars Chittka (l.chittka@qmul.ac.uk)
>
>For more details of the Bee Sensory and
>Behavioural Ecology Lab, see the Chittka lab
>home page: http://chittkalab.sbcs.qmul.ac.uk
>
>
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Olle Anderbrant, Prof. telephone +46 (0)46 2224997
Department of Biology mobile +46 (0)70 3724997
Lund University
Sölvegatan 37
SE-223 62 Lund e-mail Olle.Anderbrant@biol.lu.se
Sweden
internet http://www.biology.lu.se/olle-anderbrant
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