Researcher Positions in Predictive Ecology

The Predictive Ecology Group at the University of Zurich, lead by Owen Petchey, invites pre-applications for a postdoctoral or PhD level researcher positions, with strong quantitative skills in population and community ecology, that are very likely available in the next six months.

Why are we advertising positions and inviting pre-applications before funding is secured?
Once funding is secured we will want to hire relatively quickly.
To give ample opportunity for applicants to distinguish themselves.
To give applicants the opportunity to learn more about us.
We are confident that funding will become available, from one source or another.

The Predictive Ecology Group aims to advance ecology as a predictive science. Doing so requires understanding the processes that determine population, community, and ecosystem dynamics; processes such as predation, competition, adaptation, environmental change, and chance. We use experiments with field and laboratory communities, mathematical modeling, and analyses of macro-scale datasets. We also develop simple and intuitive methods for researching and communicating about ecological predictability.

Postdoctoral and PhD researcher positions are likely available, and competitive applicants will have strong quantitative knowledge of population and community ecology. Other desirable attributes include: expertise in time series analysis and dynamical systems research, ability to self-learn, a track-record of academic creativity, excellence in teamwork and communication, proven ability to coordinate and manage research, and desire to share.

The University of Zurich and Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies offers a very well resourced, energetic, and highly interactive research environment. The city of Zurich has very high quality of living with salaries to match.

Pre-applications should be emailed to Owen Petchey as a single PDF document and consist of a one-page cover letter (which includes a short statement of your own interests, references to three highly relevant research papers with justification for their relevance [applicants should not be an author of these papers], and the date which you would likely be available) and an academic CV.

Applicants wishing to further distinguish themselves, at the same time as taking part in a valuable activity, should consider contributing to the reproduction of the results of an important paper in ecological predictability research, such as Benincà et al (2008) Nature. Follow the last link below for more details.
Predictive ecology group
Institute of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies
Reproducible Research in Ecology, Evolution, Behaviour, and Environmental Studies