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Postdoctoral associate researcher "One Health", Switzerland

University of Bern is looking for a postdoctoral associate researcher to join the newly established Interfaculty Research Cooperation (IRC) “One Health”  and investigate cascading and microbiome-dependent effects on multi-trophic health.

Background: “One Health” is an important emerging framework which emphasizes the connection between the well-being of the environment, animals and humans. Within this IRC involving the faculties of Science, Veterinary Medicine and Medicine, we will investigate how environmental perturbations affect the microbiomes and microbiome-mediated health at the interfaces between soils, plants, animals and humans. Successful candidates will work within this exciting and highly interdisciplinary project by benefiting from and connecting the expertise of different research groups that specialize in microbiomes, environmental factors, health and bioinformatics.

We seek an ambitious researcher with a strong interest in microbial diversity and ecology, and in applying multivariate statistical models and visualization to high dimensional microbial datasets. The main tasks will include comprehensive assessment of biodiversity in systems with contrasting conditions and data integration within and across compartments.

Essential qualifications include:

  •  PhD degree in microbial ecology, diversity assessment, bioinformatics, or related fields
  • 1-2 years relevant work experience with microbiome datasets (16S, ITS, functional genes) and NGS data analysis (WGS, meta-genomics/transcriptomics)
  • advanced scripting skills (e.g., Python/Perl, R, shell scripting, C++, Java)
  • excellent communication, teamwork and organizational skills
  • spoken and written fluency in English. Fluency in German, French, or Italian are advantageous, but not mandatory.

The Institute for Infectious Diseases (IFID) provides an international, collaborative atmosphere with regular seminars in English, and a multidisciplinary approach to microbiology and virology. Opportunities to be trained specifically on emerging sequencing technologies and in bioinformatics will be offered as needed.
The salary will be based on the Swiss National Science Foundation scale (www.snf.ch).
Percentage of salary: 100%
Starting date: June 2018
Duration: 1-3 years

Applications include:

  1. Curriculum Vitae, including a description of research experience, bioinformatic skills, and publication list
  2. Accompanying letter, indicating the reasons for applying to the position, and the foreseen career objectives
  3. Contact information of at least two referees (no need for reference letter at this stage).

Please send your application documents electronically to Dr. Alban Ramette (alban.ramette@ifik.unibe.ch). Applications will be considered on an on-going basis.

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