PhD: BEE-PLANT INTERACTIONS, MUNICH
A PhD position is available at the Plant-Insect Interactions group as part of the Department of Ecology and Ecosystem Management at the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Starting date is March 1st 2020. The position is fixed-term (36 months). Salary scale: TV-L 13, 65%.
Project description
As part of a close collaboration between Würzburg (A. Keller) and München (S. Leonhardt), we want to elucidate how land-use affects the mutualistic interactions between bees and plants. The projects aims for a better understanding of a) the effect of land-use driven changes in plant community composition and diversity on visitation patterns, foraging choices, diet, health and fitness of wild and managed bees and b) the effect of altered bee foraging decisions and thus visitation patterns on pollen transfer and seed set in plants. The successful applicant will conduct field work within the framework of the Biodiversity Exploratories (https://www.biodiversity-exploratories.de/1/home/), NGS-based pollen analysis, dietary bioassays with bees, chemical analyses of pollen and statistical analyses.
Applications and further information
We invite applications from highly motivated candidates with passion for and experience in research related to plant-insect interactions and biodiversity research. Please send your application via eMail to Dr. Sara Leonhardt (leonhardt@wzw.tum.de) as a single PDF document until 1st December 2019. Applications should include a cover letter, a short summary of research interests and experience, CV, certificates, and contacts of two potential referees. Note that the position is pending a final funding decision.
We require
* Strong interest and motivation in conducting biodiversity research at different levels.
* MSc/Diplom (DE) in a field related to ecology (e.g. pollination ecology, species interactions, chemical ecology, molecular ecology and / or bioinformatics).
* Strong experience with statistical data analyses.
* Willingness to work in an international team and to become acquainted with the above topics during the project.
* Excellent command of English language (written & oral) and experience with scientific writing.
* Driver’s license valid in Germany.
* (Ideally) Access to car for field work.
We offer
* Friendly and inspiring working atmosphere in international ambitious young research work groups, as part of a vivid ecological department.
* Direct admission to Biodiversity Exploratories, a renowned and highly successful large scale experiment maintained by a large group of internationally renowned scientists and associated PhD students and Postdocs.
* Free access to transferable skill and statistical courses as part of the TUM Graduate School and the Biodiversity Exploratories.
Salary & Conditions
TUM strives to raise the proportion of women in its workforce and explicitly encourages applications from qualified women. Applications from disabled persons with essentially the same qualifications will be given preference.
As part of your application, you provide personal data to the Technical University of Munich (TUM). Please view our privacy policy on collecting and processing personal data in the course of the application process pursuant to Art. 13 of the General Data Protection Regulation of the European Union (GDPR) at https://portal.mytum.de/kompass/datenschutz/Bewerbung/. By submitting your application you confirm to have read and understood the data protection information provided by TUM. Find out more about us at www.tum.de.