Postdoctoral Research Associate – University of North Caroline, Chapel Hill, NC
Postdoctoral Research Associate - University of North Caroline, Chapel Hill, NC
Postdoctoral Research Associate
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill NC
Full-time
Salary: negotiable
Application deadline: N/A
The Mitchell Lab at UNC Chapel Hill is looking for a postdoc to help lead a collaborative project investigating the roles of historical contingency, species interactions, and climate variation in seasonal epidemics. The project seeks to advance a mechanistic understanding by leveraging an experimentally tractable field system: fungal diseases infecting leaves of the grass species tall fescue. Experience with plants, fungi or disease is not required; training with the organisms will be provided and past postdocs have come from a variety of backgrounds. The postdoc will join a multi-institutional, multidisciplinary team funded by the US National Science Foundation via the NSF-USDA-NIH joint program in the Ecology and Evolution of Infectious Diseases. Start date is flexible. This is a 12-month position that may be renewed for up to four years.
Working in collaboration with a dynamic and diverse group of researchers, the postdoc’s chief responsibility will be to analyze data and publish papers on disease epidemics from field experiments. The field experiments will manipulate the history of infections by multiple pathogen species, both within host individuals and across host populations, then track disease transmission and microbial community assembly. Additionally, depending on the interests of the postdoc, they may further collaborate with other team members to (A) use experimentally parameterized dynamical models to analyze and simulate epidemics, (B) use pathogen population genetics to explore potential eco-evolutionary feedbacks, (C) use high-throughput sequencing to explore potential feedbacks between epidemics and the host microbiome, or (D) design and conduct other research that supports project goals and the postdoc’s interests. The postdoc will also have the opportunity to receive training in scientific communication and to participate in outreach and education programs supporting the project’s broader impacts. The postdoc will receive mentoring and support to achieve their career goals, whatever those may be.
To begin the application process, email a cover letter describing your interest in the project, plus a CV, to Charles Mitchell:mitchell@bio.unc.edu. Review of applications will begin immediately and continue until the position is filled. Questions and pre-application inquiries are welcome. To read more about the research group and project, see: https://mitchelllab.web.unc.edu/.