Florida International University is Miami’s public research university, focused on student success. According to U.S. News and World Report, FIU has 42 top-50 rankings in the nation among public universities. FIU is a top U.S. research university (R1), with more than $200 million in annual expenditures. FIU ranks 15th in the nation among public universities for patent production, which drives innovation, and is one of the institutions that helps make Florida the top state for higher education. The Next Horizon fundraising campaign is furthering FIU’s commitment to providing students Worlds Ahead opportunities. Today, FIU has two campuses and multiple centers, and supports artistic and cultural engagement through its three museums: Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum, the Wolfsonian-FIU, and the Jewish Museum of Florida-FIU. FIU is a member of Conference USA, with more than 400 student-athletes participating in 18 sports. The university has awarded more than 330,000 degrees to many leaders in South Florida and beyond. For more information about FIU, visit www.fiu.edu.
Pienaar Lab: Tardigrade Transcriptomics
The Department of Biology (https://case.fiu.edu/biology/expertise/index.html) at Florida International University is seeking a highly motivated Postdoctoral Research Associate with a strong background in transcriptomics. The successful candidate will assist with NSF funded research (see grant # 2225683) aimed at understanding how changes in gene expression associated with extreme desiccation resistance in various limno-terrestrial tardigrade species are affected by changes in gene expression of their host moss or lichen species and vice versa as they concomitantly enter a desiccation resistant state. The candidate should have 1) benchtop experience working with RNA and 2) bioinformatic experience such as de novo transcriptome (or genome) assembly and analysis of population level differences in gene expression (or a willingness and ability to learn). Experience with both long and short read sequencing is a plus, as the candidate will, in part, be responsible for producing and assembling several transcriptomes combining data from Oxford Nanopore, PacBio and Illumina platforms. The successful candidate could also be involved in desiccation experiments, field data collection and analysis of data from populations of tardigrades across the eastern United States and broader as well as outreach programs. Pienaar lab members benefit from sharing lab resources and discussion groups with Dr. Janna Fierst’s lab members, who specialize in computational biology, cutting-edge “omics” techniques and experimental evolution to answer evolutionary questions using the model organism C. elegans and its relatives. We are also a lab highly invested in integrative and collaborative biology, developing and using phylogenetic comparative methods, population genetics, phenotypic and genomic data analysis and proteomic tools.
The minimum qualification for this position is a Ph.D. in the Biological Sciences.
Qualified candidates are encouraged to apply to Job Opening ID 527272 at https://facultycareers.fiu.edu/ and attach a cover letter, curriculum vitae and statement of research philosophy. Candidates will be requested to provide names and contact information for at least 3 references (more are welcome) who will be contacted as determined by the search committee. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled.