Postdoctoral Fellow- Genetic pest control methods

About us/Mō mātou

The Biochemistry Department is a large research and teaching department housed in a well-equipped building. It is part of the University of Otago and located in Dunedin, a culturally vibrant and diverse university city.

The role/Te mahi

This Postdoctoral Fellow position is funded by an MBIE Programme Grant located with Professor Peter Dearden in the Department of Biochemistry. In this role, you will be required to work within a nationally distributed team, including close interactions with project members based at Lincoln University and Victoria University of Wellington Te Herenga Waka.

We are seeking an enthusiastic and driven Postdoctoral Fellow to join a team working on developing genetic solutions to the control of invasive eusocial wasps. You will join a large laboratory working on many aspects of animal development, genomics and evolution.

This project provides an exciting opportunity to generate new ideas on how to control pest insects, deploy genetic technology for the control of significant pest species and understand the biology and population genomics of invasive species. The outcomes of this project will be new knowledge and tools to control invasive social wasps.

Your skills and experience/Kā pūkeka me kā wheako

Applicants must have a PhD in genetics, genomics, developmental biology, bioinformatics, population genetics, insect sciences, or evolution and development, as well as experience with:
• Relevant programming language(s) (e.g., R, Python, C/C++, Java).
• Genome assembly and annotation.
• Insect rearing and biology.
• Molecular biology.
• CRISPR/cas9 gene editing
• Large data analysis.
• Reproducible Research concepts and tools.

Preference will be given to applicants with skills in developmental biology and genetic transformation techniques.