PhD position to study epigenomic diversity and altitude adaptation in Arabis alpina

Organisation/Company ETH Zürich Research Field Biological sciences → Biology Biological sciences → Botany Biological sciences → Other Researcher Profile First Stage Researcher (R1) Country Switzerland Final date to receive applications 15 Mar 2026 - 22:59 (UTC) Type of Contract Temporary Job Status Full-time Is the job funded through the EU Research Framework Programme? Not funded by a EU programme Is the Job related to staff position within a Research Infrastructure?

No

PhD position to study epigenomic diversity and altitude adaptation in Arabis alpina

The Plant Ecological Genetics (PEG) group at the Institute of Integrative Biology, led by Prof. Alex Widmer, studies plant ecology, genetics and evolution to investigate biodiversity of plants and fungi. The group consists of several research teams that work on diverse topics such as altitude adaptation genomics, plant physiology, herbariomics of historical plant specimens, as well as genetic diversity monitoring in various plant and fungal species.

All of these teams closely interact on a regular basis, and also engage in collaborative projects and field experiments.

From August 2026, Dr. Thanvi Srikant will join the group as an Ambizione Fellow (grant awarded by the Swiss National Science Foundation) to begin her independent research team "Epigenome Diversity lab" in the PEG group. She will study epigenomic signatures associated with high-altitude adaptation in the alpine plant Arabis alpina, and is looking for a motivated PhD student to join her team.

High altitudes are generally associated with reduced atmospheric pressure, reduced temperature, increased radiation and extended periods of snow coverage. How do plants growing at these altitudes adapt to such environmental conditions?

Epigenome features such as DNA methylation and chromatin modifications can strongly influence gene expression in the absence of genetic changes, giving sessile plants the flexibility to cope with changing environments. Studying epigenomic landscapes across and within plant species can therefore tell us how plants fine‑tune gene regulation and adapt to their local habitats.

The Epigenome Diversity lab will study the alpine plant Arabis alpina which grows across diverse ecological niches and altitudes (from 500 metres up to 2900 metres above sea level). Incidentally, this plant species is also abundantly found in the Swiss Alps. The lab's research will focus on :

• Characterising genomic, epigenomic and transcriptomic variation in natural populations of Arabis alpina from varying altitudes
• Investigating whether epigenome features are associated with local environments
• Investigating whether epigenome features can be stable across various growth environments and across generations

We are looking for a PhD candidate to work on the project "Functional epigenomics of high‑altitude adaptation in Arabis alpina", starting in August 2026. The student will be supervised by Dr. Thanvi Srikant and Prof. Alex Widmer. The position will be fully funded until the completion of the student's PhD thesis.

The PhD program at D‑USYS (Department of Environmental Systems Science), ETH Zürich typically lasts three to four years on average. PhD students usually have to conduct research, study, and a limited amount of teaching duties. To know more about the doctoral program, .

We are looking for a candidate who is:

• Enthusiastic to learn new skills and techniques, from their supervisor and from colleagues/collaborators
• Motivated for independent literature reading and generating testable hypotheses
• Diligent in documenting their work – both lab work as well as bioinformatic work
• Open minded to learn from mistakes and failed experiments, and aims for high scientific rigor and integrity

The student can start earliest on August 1st 2026 (preferable), and latest by October 1st 2026.

We highly encourage candidates with the following skills to apply:

• Background in Plant Biology / General Biology
• Fluency in English
• Experience with bioinformatics (analysing genomics data) using R, bash/python
• Experience with molecular biology experiments
• Good…