This position has been filled. See People for a list of current lab members. Feel free to get in touch for future opportunities to join our lab.
Our lab is looking for a new PhD student on a fully-funded 4-year studentship to start as early as October 2024 at Uppsala University. The PhD project will study why does buzz pollination evolve using a series of experiments in the lab and the field. If you are interested in evolutionary biology, plant-pollinator interactions, and enjoy doing experiments with live bees and plants, this project might be for you.
For more details and how to apply see below.
Deadline: 18 September 2024
The project
Buzz pollination is a type of pollination in which bees use vibrations to shake pollen out of flowers. Buzz pollination is critical for thousands of plant species as well as for crops like tomato, eggplant, and kiwifruit. Buzz pollinated flowers have evolved independently across many and different lineages , with perhaps as many as 145 independent origins across all flowering plants, making them one of the most widespread and striking examples of convergent evolution in floral form. Yet, we still do not know why plants evolve buzz pollinated flowers. The repeated evolution of buzz pollinated flowers, provides a powerful way to test hypotheses for why buzz pollination evolves, thus contributing to solve the biological puzzle of the repeated evolution of an ancient pollination system that includes thousands of bee and plant species.
The main aim of this project is to leverage the repeated evolution of buzz pollination across multiple plant lineages to test four general hypotheses of why buzz pollination evolves. The proposed project is of general significance because it addresses a fundamental phenomenon in biology: Why do similar morphological structures evolve in distantly related lineages?
Supervision
This project is co-supervised by Mario Vallejo-Marin (main supervisor) and Nina Sletvold (co-supervisor).
What we offer
We offer a fully-funded 4 year PhD studentship open to qualified applicants of all nationalities. Our lab is based at the Department of Ecology and Genetics, which is part of the Evolutionary Biology Centre (EBC) at Uppsala University. Within the Department, our lab is part of the Program in Plant Ecology and Evolution, which is home of about 8 full-time faculty, and several postdocs and PhD students. You can find more about research in our program here. Researchers and students here have access to excellent glasshouse and controlled environment facilities, as well as fully equipped molecular labs and high-performance computer clusters. The Department works closely with the national infrastructure facility SciLifeLab. In our lab, we have access to specialised equipment to study buzz pollination including a laser vibrometer, high-speed camera, particle counter, force and acceleration sensors, and other useful tools.
EBC is a dynamic and welcoming place where to conduct evolutionary studies and includes research groups working across all levels of biological organisation (from molecules to ecosystems) and study systems (plants, animals, fungi, bacteria, etc.). Our Department is highly international and we welcome researchers and students from all over the World. PhD students are involved in taking courses as well as conducting research, and there are options for gaining teaching experience as teaching assistants. At Uppsala, we also have a Biology PhD School that brings together students from multiple departments and organises symposia, courses, newsletters, and science meetings for PhD students.
Being a PhD student at Uppsala University comes with many social benefits including sickness and parental benefits, as well as Sweden’s medical care, University’s accident insurance, etc. As a PhD student here, you are considered an employee with all the benefits and responsibilities it entails. Read more here.
Feel free to contact current and past people in our lab if you want to get a sense of our lab’s working environment. Our lab is highly collaborative and we often work together in related projects both within our lab and in collaboration with other research groups. Current ongoing projects include ongoing collaborations with colleagues at UNAM Mexico, U. Vienna, U. F Uberlandia, Brazil, Missouri State University, Imperial College London, and U. Mass. Lowell.
The Funder
This project is funded by a generous grant from Olle Engkvists Stiftelse.
How to apply
Formal applications must be prepared and submitted via the University’s system. You can find the job advertisement for this position in this link from 21 August 2024.
Informal queries can be directed to Mario Vallejo-Marin via email. Please read the ad carefully before contacting me.
Deadline: 18 September 2024.
For full application details please check the official job ad in the University’s website (link here, notice that the ad will be published on 21 August). If it is useful for preparing ahead of time, the application should include 1) a brief letter stating your research interests, and a motivation of why you want to pursue a Ph.D., your interest in this specific project, and your suitability for the position, 2) your CV including your education, research experience, and references to publications, if applicable, and 3) names and contact details of two referees (email addresses, institution, and phone numbers).