We are seeking a PhD student highly motivated to work on determinants of the
invasiveness of clonal plants. The work will be part of a Sino-Swiss
collaborative research project, which will involve field work in Europe and
China, and experimentation on multiple clonal plant species in greenhouse
and garden. Ideally, the candidate for this position should have a
background in experimental ecology and basic knowledge of statistical
methods (including generalized linear models).
The positions will be with Dr Mark van Kleunen and Prof. Dr Markus Fischer
in the Plant Ecology group at the Institute of Plant Sciences of the
University of Bern (http://www.botany.unibe.ch/planteco/index.php),
Switzerland. Our collaborators in China are Dr Fei-Hai Yu, Prof. Dr. Ming
Dong and a Chinese PhD student (position not filled yet) in the State Key
Lab of Vegetation and Environmental Change, Institute of Botany, Chinese
Academy of Sciences, Beijing.
We offer a stimulating research environment in a beautiful city close to the
Alps. In addition to projects on invasive plants, our group is involved in
projects on evolutionary and molecular plant ecology, plant population
biology and community ecology. The position is funded by the Swiss Science
Foundation for a period of three years starting on February 1, 2009.
Salaries (before taxes) rise from CHF 37 200 in the first year to CHF 43 200
in the third year.
Requirements for the positions include a Masters degree (or equivalent) in
biology, a drivers license, fluency in German and English and good
collaboration skills.
Applicants should e-mail a letter of application, a curriculum vitae and
contact details of two references to Mark van Kleunen at
[email protected]. In the letter of application, the applicant should
motivate why she or he wants to do a PhD and why she or he wants to work on
plant invasions. The applicant should also present details on her or his
experimental and statistical skills. The application deadline is January 15,
2009.
For more information on this position, the project and research in our lab
contact Mark van Kleunen at [email protected].
Mark van Kleunen
Institute of Plant Sciences
University of Bern
Altenbergrain 21
3013 Bern
Switzerland
Phone Tel. +41 31 631 49 23
Fax +41 31 631 49 42
e-mail [email protected]
http://www.staff.unibe.ch/vkleunen/
