A fond farewell to Emily Humble, who has just started her new job as a research fellow in conservation genomics at Edinburgh University.  We wish her all the best for a happy and successful research career!

A big congratulations to Emily Humble for passing her PhD viva with flying colours!  Love the hat 😉

A big welcome to Rebecca Nagel, who joins the lab to work as a postdoc on the Antarctic fur seal project!

An outstanding opportunity is available either for a postdoc (≤3.5 years) or for a Ph.D. studentship (3 years) to work on the ecological and evolutionary genomics of fur seals in the Hoffman lab. The position is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the recently approved collaborative research centre (SFB/TRR 212) entitled: A Novel Synthesis of Individualisation across Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution: Niche Choice, Niche Conformance, Niche Construction (NC3).

The aim of this project (sub-project A01 of the collaborative research centre) is to determine how fitness variation is shaped by interactions between individual genetic quality (inbreeding) and the social environment within breeding colonies. To tackle this question, we will collect highly detailed observational and biometric time-series data from mother-offspring pairs in two neighbouring colonies of high and low social density. We will then dissect apart the mechanistic underpinnings of fitness variation using a combination of endocrinological and immunological profiling, gene expression profiling, high-density SNP genotyping and methylation profiling.  The result will be an unprecedentedly detailed understanding of the behavioural, physiological and genetic mechanisms underpinning fitness variation in a wild vertebrate, which will have important implications for understanding ecological and evolutionary dynamics as well as adaptation to climate change.

Postdoc applicants: We seek a bright and highly motivated postdoc with a strong PhD in a relevant topic (e.g. population genetics, behavioural genetics, evolutionary or conservation genomics). We are looking for two main attributes in particular: (i) The candidate must have a deep understanding as well as practical experience of working with genomic data (experience of gene expression profiling and / or whole-genome resequencing would be particularly desirable) and be proficient in writing custom scripts and working in Unix and R; (ii) As the project involves two field seasons at South Georgia in the South Atlantic, the candidate would ideally also have experience of fieldwork with vertebrates. Experience of working with long-term individual-based datasets from wild animal populations would be advantageous but is not a requirement.

Ph.D. applicants: Bright and highly motivated Ph.D. candidates should hold a B.Sc. or equivalent in a relevant topic (e.g. population genetics, behavioural genetics, evolutionary or conservation genomics). An M.Sc. would also be advantageous but is not necessary. Strong quantitative skills (including proficiency in R) as well as practical experience of working with next generation sequence data (e.g. gene expression profiling or related approaches) would be desirable, but training can be provided.

The deadline for applications is April 14th 2018. All materials should be e-mailed as a single PDF to: claudia.petersen@uni-bielefeld.de with ‘Postdoc / PhD studentship application’ (delete as applicable) in the subject line.

Please see the attached PDF for more details about the position and do not hesitate to contact me with any questions at joseph.hoffman[at]uni-bielefeld.de.

A four year postdoc position is available to work on the ecological and evolutionary genomics of fur seals in the Hoffman lab.  The position is funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) within the recently approved collaborative research centre (SFB/TRR 212) entitled: A Novel Synthesis of Individualisation across Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution: Niche Choice, Niche Conformance, Niche Construction (NC³).

The aim of this project (sub-project A01 of the collaborative research centre) is to determine how fitness variation is shaped by interactions between individual genetic quality (inbreeding) and the social environment within breeding colonies. This will be investigated by combining highly detailed observational and biometric time-series data from mother-offspring pairs with endocrinological and immunological profiling, high-density SNP genotyping, transcriptomics and genome-wide methylation profiling.  There will be the opportunity for fieldwork in the Antarctic.

We seek a bright and highly motivated postdoc with a strong PhD in a relevant topic (e.g. population genetics, behavioural, evolutionary or conservation genomics, bioinformatics, animal behaviour, behavioural ecology).  A deep understanding as well as extensive practical experience of working with high-throughput sequencing data (including RADseq, transcriptomic and whole-genome resequencing data) is highly desirable, as is proficiency in writing custom scripts and working in Unix and R.

The deadline for applications is January 7th 2018. Please see the attached PDF for more details about the project and the application process and please feel free to get in touch with me at joseph.hoffman[at]uni-bielefeld.de

Many thanks to Lloyd Peck for visiting Bielefeld to give the Immelmann Lecture (http://www.uni-bielefeld.de/biologie/animalbehaviour/immelmann.html) on ‘Living Life in Extremes: Adaptations of Antarctic Marine Species’.  Not only did he give a truly inspirational seminar, but he also gave an outstanding workshop on science communication for the students of the Department of Animal Behaviour.  We look forward to seeing him again!

Congratulations to Anneke Paijmans for winning a Career Bridge Masters-Doctorate award from the Bielefeld Young Resarchers Fund. Anneke now has a year’s funding to develop her own PhD proposal.