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Opportunities

The group has openings for motivated postdocs, graduate students, and undergraduates. Applicants interested in any area of our work are encouraged to contact Ryan Gutenkunst.

At 2,500 feet above sea level, culturally diverse Tucson, Arizona is nestled among five mountain ranges in the beautiful Sonoran Desert and is surrounded by Saguaro National Park. Housing is affordable, quality of life is high, and outdoor recreation opportunities include the southernmost ski area in the United States. The area has over 350 days of sunshine per year, average high/low temperatures of 82/54 °F, and two rainy seasons per year.

Postdocs

Applicants with independent funding and interests related to ours are always welcome to join the group.

Funding available

We are also specifically seeking a postdoctoral research associate to work on an NSF-funded project to develop and apply novel computational methods for inferring demographic history and natural selection from population genomic data. A particular focus will be extending the group's previous work based on diffusion equations and applying the results to whole-genome human data in collaboration with Michael Hammer's group.

The University of Arizona has great strength in population genetics, offering interactions with the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and the Program in Applied Mathematics. The campus is highly interdisciplinary and very collegial. In particular, the Gutenkunst group works closely on population genetics with Profs. Michael Hammer, Joe Watkins, and Joanna Masel. Computational resources are excellent, with centralized high-performance computing and storage.

For more information, please contact Ryan Gutenkunst. Apply through Job 49057 at UA CareerTrack. Review of applications will begin Dec 16, 2011 and continue until the position is filled.

Graduate students

We are currently recruiting graduate students interested in any of our areas of research, as well as graduate students whose own independent interests match well with the culture of the group. Graduate students are not admitted directly into the group, but rather must apply through one of the gradaute programs with which we are associated. We can, however, help shepherd the applications of interested students, so don't hesitate to contact us. Our group currently takes students from the Arizona Biological and Biomedical Sciences program, the Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Applied Mathematics, and the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

ABBS students are normally supported by the program while they do rotations in their first year. Applied Math or EEB students are normally supported through teaching while they do rotations or heavy coursework in their first year. After that, support through research is sometimes available, depending on how well the lab’s funding sources match a students’ research direction. Otherwise, the student may be supported by continued teaching.

Alternative source of funding for US citizens or permanent residents include a Comparative Genomics IGERT and an NIH training grant in Computational and Mathematical Modeling of Biomedical Systems.

Undergraduate students

Undergraduates are normally admitted into our group only if they have at least some prior computer programming experience, but feel free to contact us for advice on getting such experience through coursework. Undergraduates must be willing to commit to a minimum of nine hours per week and more than a single semester; a larger commitment is preferred. MCB's website offers excellent guidance for undergraduate researchers.