Application closing date: September 30th 2016.
The School of Biological Sciences, University of Auckland, New Zealand, invites applications for a PhD project on the transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic responses of green-shell mussels to ocean acidification. This project is part of the CARIM project – (https://www.niwa.co.nz/coasts-and-oceans/research-projects/carim-coastal-acidification-rate-impacts-management) which examines the ecosystem effects of ocean acidification on primary production, food quality and habitat availability, with a particular focus on the sensitivity of the different life stages of iconic NZ species including pāua, greenshell mussel and snapper larvae.
The PhD project will involve experimental work, sample preparation, analysis of the separate –omics datasets, and an integrated –omics analysis using the mixOmics package in R (http://mixomics.org/).
This position is open to national and international applicants. The successful candidate will need to have a high quality BSc Honours or Masters Degree in a related field, and ideally should have experience in two or more of the following areas: ocean acidification, manipulative experiments, larval culture, analysis of –omics data sets, bioinformatics and programming in R.
The project will require some time to be spent off-campus at the Cawthron Research Institute in Nelson to conduct experiments. The PhD scholarship will provide a 3-year tax free stipend of $27,000 pa (NZ) and tuition fees. No course work is required.
Interested applicants should send their CV, unofficial university transcripts, a short summary of their research background and interest in this position, and the names of at least 2 referees to Dr Mary Sewell (m.sewell(at)auckland.ac.nz). Short-listed candidates will be requested to participate in a telephone or video-conference interview; only short-listed applicants will be notified. The closing date for applications is September 30th, 2016, but may be extended if the position is not filled. The starting date is flexible, but ideally the candidate should start by early December 2016.