Postdoctoral Associate

Job Description

The Urban Evolutionary Entomology Laboratory at Virginia Tech is seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral associate to investigate fundamental questions in population genomics and urban evolution using pest insect systems. Research will focus on understanding the genomic mechanisms underlying lineage establishment, persistence, adaptation, and extinction in highly inbred populations inhabiting urban environments. The successful candidate will address questions at the interface of evolutionary genetics, population genomics, and urban ecology, with broad implications for our understanding of adaptation in anthropogenic ecosystems and the evolution of economically important pest species.

Job Description

The Urban Evolutionary Entomology Laboratory at Virginia Tech is seeking a highly motivated postdoctoral associate to investigate fundamental questions in population genomics and urban evolution using pest insect systems. Research will focus on understanding the genomic mechanisms underlying lineage establishment, persistence, adaptation, and extinction in highly inbred populations inhabiting urban environments. The successful candidate will address questions at the interface of evolutionary genetics, population genomics, and urban ecology, with broad implications for our understanding of adaptation in anthropogenic ecosystems and the evolution of economically important pest species.

Current research themes include insecticide resistance evolution over historic to contemporary time frames, population genomics across socioeconomic landscapes, and the heritability of stress induced epigenetic marks. A variety of next-generation sequencing approaches may be employed, including ddRADseq, whole genome sequencing, targeted sequence capture, and other emerging genomic technologies.

The successful candidate will participate in all aspects of the research program, including experimental design, molecular laboratory work, bioinformatic analyses, data interpretation, and the preparation of peer-reviewed publications. The candidate will be expected to lead first-author publications and contribute to collaborative manuscripts arising from the projects. In addition, the postdoctoral associate will collaborate with Dr. Booth in the development of grant proposals and will have opportunities to contribute to the development of independent research ideas.

The candidate will play an active role in laboratory operations, including mentoring graduate and undergraduate students, assisting with project coordination, and fostering a collaborative research environment. The position is designed to support the candidate’s professional development through opportunities in scientific publishing, grant writing, student mentorship, research leadership, scientific outreach, and teaching. Opportunities may also exist to assist the development and delivery of courses related to population and evolutionary genetics, invasive species genomics, and urban evolutionary biology.

Virginia Tech provides a highly collaborative research environment with strengths in genomics, evolutionary biology, ecology, entomology, and computational biology. The successful candidate will have opportunities to interact with scientists across the Department of Entomology, the Fralin Life Sciences Institute, The Invasive Species Collaborative, and other interdisciplinary research programs across the university.

Interested applicants should submit

• A one-page cover letter describing research experience, career goals, and interest in the position
• Curriculum Vitae
• Contact information for 3 references.

• Strong background in population genomics and evolutionary biology.
• Significant experience with molecular laboratory techniques including DNA extraction, PCR, and genomic library preparation.
• Expertise in next…