Society of Systematic Biologists

The Center of Macroecology, Evolution and Climate at the Natural History Museum of Denmark has an open postdoctoral position in entomology. The center has been established with funds from the Danish National Research Foundation ("Danmarks Grundforskningsfond"), the University of Copenhagen and the Technical University of Denmark. It is a long-term funded Center of Excellence that started 1st of January 2010. It will integrate terrestrial and marine research in a cross-disciplinary research program addressing fundamental questions on the origin, maintenance, conservation and future of life and biological diversity on Earth.

The Natural History Museum (NHM) is seeking to recruit a number of ‘Research Leaders’ into its staff to strengthen its capacity in Earth and Life Sciences.

The NHM is one of the world’s great natural history museums, combining excellence in scientific discovery; scientific collections and infrastructure; and science communication. Its scientific mission is to use its expertise and collections to tackle questions of broad significance to science and society.

The successful applicants will be recognised leaders in their fields of research, having strong records of publication in leading international journals and proven records of winning external funding to support their research programme or, in the case of early career applicants, the potential to achieve such a research profile in the near future. They will also have an interest in communicating science to a broad audience and in taking full advantage of the opportunities offered by the NHM.

We are prepared to be flexible with respect to appointment level, starting salary and starting date, depending on track-record, experience and circumstances.

For a full role specification and to apply online, please visit the Natural History Museum website at www.nhm.ac.uk/jobs (REF: NHM/RSL/GS)

Closing date: 15 February, 2013

Informal enquiries may be made to Professors Andy Fleet (Head of Department of Earth Sciences, a.fleet@nhm.ac.uk), Phil Rainbow (Head of Department of Life Sciences, p.rainbow@nhm.ac.uk) or Ian Owens (Director of Science, i.owens@nhm.ac.uk).

Daniel Caetano (University of Idaho) and Anita Aisenberg (Instituto de Investigaciones Biológicas Clemente Estable) are conducting a short survey about the role of museum collections in the biological sciences research programs. The survey http://museums-collections.questionpro.com consists of eight multiple choice questions and it will take less than 5 minutes to complete the questionnaire. The survey answers will contribute with an undergoing scientific project.

An NSF-funded graduate research assistantship is available (on short notice!) to study tenebrionid systematics in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University. The application deadline is December 15, 2012, for entry into the Ph.D. program in Evolutionary Biology in the Fall of 2013. The research project will focus on the systematics of the darkling beetle genus Eleodes (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) – a diverse genus of flightless beetles endemic to western North America and commonly referred to as pinacate beetles or stink beetles.

The selected student will be mentored by Drs. Aaron Smith, Nico Franz, and Quentin Wheeler, and will concentrate on revising the Eleodes subgenera Promus and Tricheleodes using comparative morphological and molecular information. Additional tasks will include contributions to an emerging Coleoptera Anatomy Ontology, field work, and outreach. Academic excellence and a strong background in insect systematics are highly desirable.

Interested candidates should contact Nico Franz immediately at nico.franz@asu.edu with a brief statement of their interests and qualifications.

The 2013 Mathematical and Computational Evolutionary Biology meeting (http://www.lirmm.fr/mceb2013/) will take place May 27-31 at Hameau de l'Etoile, France. This year a special focus will be given to the applications of mathematical and computational evolutionary biology to health, for example with regard to human and cancer genomics, genetic diseases and virus epidemics. General concepts, models, methods and algorithms will also be presented and discussed, just as during the previous conference editions. Conference fees including accommodation (4 nights, 27 to 31), meals, coffee breaks, buses, etc., will range from ~350 € to ~500 € depending on the room type. Deadline for registration 20 Jan 2013. For more details visit http://www.lirmm.fr/mceb2013/.

The Franz Lab at Arizona State University (http://franz.lab.asu.edu/) has an opening for a postdoc in insect systematics and biogeography. For further details see http://sols.asu.edu/employment/pdfs/f12_insectsys_postdoc.pdf. Applications should be submitted by December 01, 2012. Prospective candidates are encouraged to contact nico.franz@asu.edu.

The National Science Foundation’s Division of Integrative Organismal Systems has issued an updated solicitation for the core programs (NSF 13-506) along with a revised set of IOS Frequently Asked Questions (NSF 13-09) which are now available on the IOS home page at: http://www.nsf.gov/div/index.jsp?div=IOS

The core programs covered under this solicitation in the Division of Integrative Organismal Systems (IOS) support research aimed at understanding why organisms are structured the way they are and function as they do. Areas of inquiry include, but are not limited to, developmental biology and the evolution of developmental processes, nervous system development, structure, and function, physiological processes, functional morphology, symbioses, interactions of organisms with biotic and abiotic environments, and animal behavior.

The Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Brown University seeks to fill an open-rank faculty position in Plant Evolutionary Biology. We will consider outstanding candidates from all areas of evolutionary biology, but especially encourage applications from researchers working on ecological adaptation and plant-environment interactions, employing a macro-evolutionary, comparative perspective. The Department is a highly interactive, diverse group of faculty with numerous collaborations with affiliated departments and research centers at Brown. We are seeking candidates whose research is naturally interdisciplinary and who can make connections with colleagues in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, the Center for Computational Molecular Biology, the Environmental Change Initiative, and the Ecosystems and Josephine Bay Paul Centers at the Marine Biological Laboratory, Woods Hole, MA.

The U.S. Workshop on DNA Banking will be held at the Drury Inn & Suites Forest Park in St. Louis, MO on January 3–4, 2013 under the auspices of the Missouri Botanical Garden and through the support of the National Science Foundation. The workshop will bring together representatives of natural history institutions and academic research programs to discuss means of encouraging development and utilization of DNA banks, increasing networking among American DNA banks, and responding to the anticipated needs of the systematics and barcoding communities. Taxonomic groups including plants, animals, fungi, and protists will be represented. Discussion sessions will guide the production of a white paper of recommendations. Interested parties can register to attend until Nov. 30 (or until the maximum number of participants has been reached) using the link below; a registration fee of $125 is requested to cover participants’ costs. Please email wendy.applequist@mobot.org if you have any questions.

The Department of Botany of the Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History seeks a systematic botanist for a full-time research position, initially as a four-year term appointment. Candidates should have demonstrated expertise that emphasizes innovative as well as conventional application ofsystematic techniques/theory, utilizing modern methods of comparative morphology and tools such as molecular phylogenetics. Candidates should also have expertise in additional fields, such as biogeography, biodiversity and conservation, floristics, informatics, or theoretical systematics. Candidates with a recognized research program on the systematics of lichens, ferns, marine algae, or a major angiosperm group such as Asteraceae, Fabaceae, Melastomataceae, and Rubiaceae, in which the US National Herbarium has strong holdings, may be given preference. The position will be filled at the GS-12 level with a starting salary of $74,872. U.S. citizenship is required. Applicants must have demonstrated ability to establish an externally funded research program, and to conduct fieldwork and/or collection building. See announcement number 13A-JW-297816-DEU-NMNH at www.sihr.si.edu or www.usajobs.gov for details about the application process for this position. To learn more about the Smithsonian’s Botany Department, see http://botany.si.edu/. Applications must be received online by November 15, 2012 and must reference the announcement number. Applicants will be notified by email when their applications are received.