POSTDOCTORAL JOB OPPORTUNITY

POSTING NUMBER: PD-19011
POSTING DATE: April 4, 2019
CLOSING DATE: April 20, 2019

Postdoctoral Fellow in Ecology - BioinformaticsFaculty of Computer Science

POSITION SUMMARY:

The Beiko lab at Dalhousie University (Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada) is seeking a postdoctoral fellow to work on the recently funded "Antimicrobial Resistance: Emergence, Transmission, and Ecology (ARETE)" project (project page: http://arete-amr.ca). The overarching goal of the project is to perform analysis of thousands of microbial genomes to identify risk factors for lateral gene transfer (LGT) of antimicrobial-resistance determinants, and map transmission between habitats using phylogenetic and related methods. The Comprehensive Antibiotic Resistance Database (CARD; https://card.mcmaster.ca/) will serve as the reference database for the projects. ARETE is a partnership between several academic institutions, as well as the Public Health Agency of Canada and Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, and is part of the larger IRIDA initiative (https://www.irida.ca/).

The postdoctoral fellow will develop methods to map inferred LGT events into an ecological context. This will include the association of events with specific habitat parameters (e.g., geographic location, habitat type, specific patterns of antibiotic usage), as well as "gene-ecology" methods that examine the distributional dynamics of microbial genes and map these into traditional ecological frameworks (see for example https://academic.oup.com/femsre/article/38/1/90/510792).

The postdoctoral fellow work under the supervision of Dr. Robert Beiko and will collaborate with other members of the project team, and be expected to give conference presentations and prepare journal articles based on their work. There will be opportunities to gain project-management experience through the ARETE project.

Requirements:

• Microbial ecology
• Community ecology / metacommunity theory
• Analysis in R/Python

Qualifications: This position requires someone with a PhD and a background in bioinformatics and/or ecology.

Salary Range: $45,000 - $48,500
Start Date: Immediate
Duration of appointment: 1 year, with possibility of renewal

Deadline for application: Review of applications will begin on April 20, 2019. To receive full consideration, please submit your application by this deadline. Applications received after April 20 may also be considered.

Applicants should indicate the position ID in the email subject header. Interested parties should forward a cover letter, current CV and contact information of 2-3 references to:

Elvira Mitraka, PhD
[email protected]

Only applications submitted to the e-mail address above will be considered. We thank all applicants, however, only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

Dalhousie University is committed to fostering a collegial culture grounded in diversity and inclusiveness. The university encourages applications from Aboriginal people, persons with a disability, racially visible persons, women, persons of minority sexual orientations and gender identities, and all candidates who would contribute to the diversity of our community. For more information, please visit www.dal.ca/hiringfordiversity