Graduate Research Position in Disease Ecology Dept. of Zoology, Oregon State University
The Borer-Seabloom lab at Oregon State University is seeking a highly qualified PhD student to work on a component of an NSF/NIH grant funded through the Ecology of Infectious Disease (EID) program. The overarching goal of this project is to examine the interactions between anthropogenic environmental change and pathogen dynamics. This larger project involves collaborators working on general theory of a multiple-resource, multiple-host pathogen; graduate work on this project will include testing theoretical predictions manipulating a model pathogen system in grasslands, the barley and cereal yellow dwarf viruses (B/CYDV) and the aphid vectors of this pathogen. This group of generalist grass pathogens is experimentally tractable, economically important, and recent work has implicated B/CYDV pathogens as important mediators of exotic grass invasions in Californias grasslands. We are seeking a motivated doctoral student to undertake a series of field and lab studies examining the interactions between abiotic-resource supply, grass-host diversity and tissue chemistry, aphid-vector performance, and pathogen dynamics. The collaborative nature of this work will provide the successful applicant the opportunity to work closely with researchers addressing similar questions using a wide range of approaches, from large-scale observational studies, and field and lab experimentation, to development of theory. Prospective students are encouraged to express interest to Dr. Elizabeth Borer ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) prior to applying to the OSU Zoology graduate program.
