3 tenure-track research positions with a focus on species discovery and taxonomy of hyperdiverse arthropod clades at the Center for Integrative Biodiversity Discovery, Museum fuer Naturkunde (MfN) Berlin, Germany
https://jobs.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin/jobposting/067dbdb4c8bb8cd36a232c28a9627486a3687b6a
The opportunity:
The Museum fuer Naturkunde Berlin has an internationally visible Center for Integrative Biodiversity Discovery. It will meet the scientific and societal challenges arising from rapid worldwide ecosystem change, not least the global biodiversity crisis, and capitalise on the chances and innovations from biodiversity. The Center will develop new scientific approaches to the study of biodiversity that will contribute to a more efficient and significantly faster global biodiversity inventory. At the same time it will enable high-quality taxonomic research on extinct and recent organisms and develop targeted knowledge products for various
user groups.
We are seeking three talented and motivated biodiversity researchers (f/m/d) with a focus on methods to develop and support the new Center for Integrative Biodiversity Discovery at the Museum fuer Naturkunde Berlin Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science. To this purpose, the successful candidates will take a leading role in the development of innovative methods for species discovery and apply them to the taxonomy of hyperdiverse arthropod clades. The research should be embedded in the program of the Center for Integrative Biodiversity Discovery and involve engagement in grant applications as well as training and supervision of students and junior researchers. We also expect active participation in public outreach activities of the museum about biodiversity and biodiversity discovery. A particular focus of the Center is to develop new ways for the automatic discovery and description of species. For this purpose we combine biodiversity robotics with DNA barcoding and machine learning so that invertebrates can also be automatically identified by image in the future (see https://www.science.org/news/2021/06/artificial-intelligence-could-help-biologists-classify-world-s-tiny-creatures).
The Museum fuer Naturkunde Berlin provides an excellent research environment. It houses state-of-the-art laboratories for morphology (including histology, imaging, SEM, and CT labs), molecular genetics/genomics and computation. Numerous research groups are working in a wide range of research fields including population genetics, phylogenetics, developmental and evolutionary genetics, and taxonomy. Our world-class zoological collections provide unique access to specimens collected over the last 200+ years.
Requirements:
- PhD or PhD candidate in zoology with a significant publication record in collection-based biodiversity research on hyperdiverse terrestrial or limnic arthropod clades that are ideally dark taxa (clades where <10% of all species are described and the estimated diversity is >1000 species).
- The successful candidates must have described new species in dark taxa and should have experience in developing innovative research approaches to taxonomy that combine high-throughput sequencing and morphological data.
- Demonstrated experience in working on international research projects and obtaining third-party funding.
- Field work experience, preferably also in larger collaborative projects and willingness to participate in research in one of MfN's geographic focus regions (e.g., Southeast Asia, Africa) are expected.
- Successful candidates will be expected to work in an interdisciplinary environment at Germany's largest natural history museum. Excellent team player, proven communication skills and intercultural competence.
- Professional written and verbal communication in English.
We look forward to receiving your application with the usual documents (cover letter, curriculum vitae, certificates) as well as a statement (one page max.) outlining plans for research at MfN by 31.01.2022, preferably via our online application portal.
In support of equal rights applications from qualified women are particularly welcome. Handicapped individuals will be given preference in cases of identical qualifications.
For information on the application procedure, please contact recruiting@mfn.berlin
