Recruiting: Ph.D. student

Project: Systems biology enabled research on the roles of microbial communities in carbon cycle processes – Determination of the roles of pyrophilous microbes in the breakdown and stabilization of pyrolyzed forms of soil organic matter

Institution: University of Wisconsin-Madison (Dr. Thea Whitman)

Collaborators: University of California-Berkeley (Dr. Matthew Traxler and Dr. Tom Bruns), and Joint Genome Institute (Dr. Igor Grigoriev)

We are recruiting a Ph.D. student (UW-Madison) to work on a DOE-funded multi-institutional project investigating the role of microbes in post-fire soil organic matter (SOM) dynamics. The ideal candidate will have an MS (but we will consider a BSc with research experience), with expertise and interest in some or all of the following areas: microbiology and soil science, stable isotope probing of DNA, bioinformatics, microbial community ecology, soil carbon cycling or pyrogenic organic matter cycling, and gas flux tracing using stable isotopes. Successful candidates will join a dynamic team of researchers to use a systems biology approach, coupling 13C stable isotope probing of nucleic acids, gas flux analyses, small experimental “pyrocosms”, and mass spectrometry to dissect the effects of microbes on post-fire SOM dynamics.

The position could start during the summer or fall semesters of 2017. If you are interested in this project, please contact twhitman@wisc.edu, sending a statement of interest and your cv before April 15, 2017.