University of Oslo PhD Research Fellowship in Bioinformatics
A position as PhD Research fellow (postition code 1017) is available at Department of Informatics.
The fellowship will be for a period of 3 years, with no compulsory work or for a period of 4 years, with 25 % compulsory work (teaching responsibilities at the department) contingent on the qualifications of the candidate and the teaching needs of the department. Starting date no later than 1 October 2016. No one can be appointed for more than one fixed-term period at the same institution.
The research fellow will take part in the Centre for Computational Inference in Evolutionary Life Sciences (CELS). CELS is a multidisciplinary centre within life sciences comprising strong research environments in biology and statistical and computational methods for data analysis. CELS addresses fundamental biological questions related to the genotype-phenotype paradigm, how the environment affects genome evolution and development of methods for integrated analysis of genomic and other biotic and abiotic data. A main goal is to develop interdisciplinary research activities generating science of true interest for computer scientists, statisticians and biologists.
Project description
Metagenomics is the study of the genetic material in a sample containing a mix of different microbial organisms. These samples may have be obtained from such diverse locations as the vertebrate gut (e.g. human or fish), from the depths of the oceans, from the soil somewhere on earth and so forth. Recent advances in DNA sequencing technologies have enabled very large amounts of such data to be obtained for analysis. Extracting biological meaningful information from these huge datasets involve hard computational challenges that can only be solved by good algorithms and efficient parallelization. Interpreting the data correctly can advance science by a better understanding of, for example, the diversity of ecosystems or how the immune system responds to exposure to microorganisms.
We are seeking a highly motivated candidate to develop new or improved algorithms or
tools for metagenomics with improved functionality, accuracy or speed that will be valuable for the scientific community. This is an opportunity to develop open source software in areas like error detection and removal, clustering, searching, classification, genome assembly as well as other areas of metagenomics. We have already contributed with tools like Swarm (http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.593) and VSEARCH. The successful candidate will be embedded in a vibrant bioinformatics environment connected to two Norwegian Centres of Excellence, and have access to first-rate computational infrastructure. The position is associated with the Centre for Computational Inference in Evolutionary Life Science (CELS) at UiO. The CELS research environment offers extensive experience with high-throughput sequencing and assembly of large genomes such as that of Atlantic cod (http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature10342). The candidate will be supervised by an interdisciplinary team of scientists and will collaborate with other PhD research fellows within CELS.
Requirements
The Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences has a strategic ambition of being a leading research faculty. Candidates for these fellowships will be selected in accordance with this, and expected to be in the upper segment of their class with respect to academic credentials.
Applicants must hold a Master's degree or equivalent in bioinformatics or computer science, and need to document good software development skills.
The candidate would need to learn genomics/metagenomics during the project, but no formal prior knowledge of biology is required.
The purpose of the fellowship is research training leading to the successful completion of a PhD degree.
The fellowship requires admission to the PhD programme at the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences. The application to the PhD programme must be submitted to the department no later than two months after taking up the position. For more information see:
http://www.uio.no/english/research/doctoral-degree-and-career/phd/application/
http://www.mn.uio.no/english/research/doctoral-degree-and-career/phd-programme/index.html
A good command of English is required.
http://www.mn.uio.no/english/research/doctoral-degree-and-career/regulations/proficiency-requirements.html
Salary
Position code 1017, Pay grade: 50 - 57 (NOK 430 500 – 483 700 per year)
The application must include:
- Application letter
- CV (summarizing education, positions and academic work - scientific publications)
- Copies of educational certificates, transcript of records and letters of recommendation
- Documentation of English proficiency
http://www.mn.uio.no/english/research/doctoral-degree-and-career/regulations/proficiency-requirements.html - List of publications and academic work that the applicant wishes to be considered by the evaluation committee
- Names and contact details of 2-3 references (name, relation to candidate, e-mail and telephone number)
Foreign applicants are advised to attach an explanation of their University's grading system. Please remember that all documents should be in English or a Scandinavian language.
In accordance with the University of Oslo's equal opportunities policy, we invite applications from all interested individuals regardless of gender or ethnicity.
UiO has an agreement for all employees, aiming to secure rights to research results a.o.
Contacts
Professor Torbjørn Rognes
Telephone: +47 22 84 47 87
Questions regarding EasyCruit, contact HR Officer Helene Beate Jansen
Telephone: +47 22857196
This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:
http://uio.easycruit.com/vacancy/1567523/64290?iso=no