PhD Student Position Insect Phylogenomics Microbiomes,
Endosymbionts, in the Simon Lab, UConn
The Simon lab at the University of Connecticut seeks creative and
motivated PhD
students interested in phylogenetics, molecular phylogenomics,
bioinformatics, and/or
symbiont-host interactions (endosymbionts and/or microbiomes) to begin
in the fall of
2018. Experience preferred but not required.
Applicants will participate in an NSF sponsored project entitled:
Exploring Symbiont
Biodiversity and Complexity in the Family Cicadidae to study the
co-diversification and
interaction between cicadas, their primary “obligate” endosymbionts,
their secondary
“facultative” endosymbionts and their gut microbiota.
Cicada obligate endosymbionts have recently been demonstrated to exhibit
spectacular
and unprecedented genome diversity. Since cicada symbionts are largely
unknown our
work will result in considerable biodiversity discovery. We hypothesize
that gain or loss
of host-symbiont consortium members during cicada phylogenetic history
will be
correlated with internal or external environmental changes. We are most
interested in
the timing of symbiont consortium changes. For example, does the gain of
a secondary
(facultative) endosymbiont facilitate the breakdown or loss of primary
(obligate)
endosymbionts? Or does the breakdown or loss of the obligate
endosymbiont allow
invasion by a secondary endosymbiont? Broader impacts will involve
collaborations with
team members in the US, India, NZ, and Fiji.
Senior Personnel and collaborators on the project include: Thomas
Buckley (NZ),
David Marshall, John Cooley, John McCutcheon, Emily and Alan Lemmon,
Chris Owen,
Beth Wade, Al Sanborn, Dan Mozgai, Max Moulds (AU), Ben Price (UK),
Martin Villet
(ZA), Deepa Agashe (IN), Krushnamegh Kunte (IN), Sudhanya Hajong (IN),
Cong Wei
(CN), Hong He (CN), Daniela Takiya (BR), Tatiana Ruschel (BR), Pablo Pessacq
(Argentina), Claudio Veloso (Chile), Peter Lockhart (NZ, FJ), and
numerous cicada
researchers around the world.
Interested and qualified PhD candidates should send an email describing
their
motivation, skills, and research experience/interests along with a CV,
GPA, GRE and
TOEFL (if relevant) scores. Applicants should also arrange to have
letters sent letters
sent by three referees who are familiar with the candidates work. Strong
applicants will
be contacted to schedule an informal Skype interview. Applications to
UCONN (early
admission) are due December 15th with rolling admission thereafter.
Financial support
for Ph.D. students is available via research assistantships from our NSF
award,
teaching assistantships, and university fellowships, but applications to
outside funding
sources are also strongly encouraged. Send all material to
[email protected]
The successful candidates will join the EEB Department at the University
of Connecticut
and also have opportunities to work in the laboratories of
collaborators. The EEB
department is a diverse, highly collegial and interactive group of
scientists. Relevant to
these positions, we are particularly strong in Systematics with eight
faculty members
whose major focus is phylogenetic systematics and half a dozen others
who use
phylogenetics in their work. We offer three graduate courses in
systematics (Principles
and Methods of Systematics, Molecular Systematics, and Phylogenetic
Systematics)
plus numerous relevant grad seminars. There is a strong symbiont group
on campus
that includes members of EEB and Molecular and Cell Biology. EEB also
has strengths
in phenotypic plasticity and functional morphology, global change
ecology, behavior,
and organismal evolution, ecology and conservation.
