The Laskowski Lab is searching for a new Amazon Warrior to join our team! The position is funded through the NSF grant “Disentangling the developmental drivers of behavioral individuality” using our incredible little clonal Amazon mollies. The grant has two years of guaranteed funding already and there are likely more funds available for modest extensions.
If you’re interested, then please get in touch! While the main goals of the project are set by the NSF grant, there is still lots of room for the successful applicant to start building their own independence through projects of their own design.
The formal ad is copied below. I’ll start reading applications as they come in but getting your application in by Nov 11 would be great. We’d love to get someone here as soon as possible (i.e. the start of 2023) but this can be flexible based on what works best for everyone.
Post-doctoral position in Behavioral Ecology
A two-year postdoctoral position is available in the Laskowski lab at UC Davis in the Department of Evolution and Ecology. The postdoc will be funded through an NSF grant (IOS-2100625) investigating the developmental drivers of behavioral individuality. Overall, the lab aims to understand how individuals integrate information from their parents and their own personal experiences to determine the trajectory of their behavioral development. We address this question from both behavioral and molecular perspectives.
Our lab uses the Amazon molly as a model system to disentangle genetic and environmental determinates of behavior. This all-female, live-bearing freshwater fish reproduces gynogenetically producing broods of genetically identical offspring that require no parental care. The Laskowski lab uses a high-resolution tracking system to follow behavior of individuals throughout their lifetimes. The project will investigate how individuals integrate personal and parental cues about predation risk from a behavioral, neurological and molecular level and has plenty of opportunity for independence. In addition to research opportunities, the postdoc is encouraged to participate in the lively and supportive environment of UC Davis by participating in workshops and seminars; they will also receive professional mentoring on manuscript and grant writing, job applications, interview strategies, CV preparation, etc.
Experience with experimental behavioral work is required. Experience with molecular methods/analysis (e.g. RNAseq, immunohistochemistry, bioinformatics, etc) and/or fish is desirable but not required as we can train you on the job. The successful applicant will be joining a relatively new lab (the Laskowski lab was established at UC Davis in Fall 2019), so should value the opportunity to meaningfully contribute to a new lab’s culture and values: https://laskowskilab.faculty.ucdavis.edu/lab-values-expectations/ The post-doc is expected to: 1) conduct and coordinate research in a transparent and reproducible way, 2) interact with and mentor undergraduate and graduate students in the Laskowski lab, 3) participate in lab meetings, and 4) write up results for publication in a timely manner.
Salary commensurate with experience starting at least $55,632 for new postdocs (i.e. with no previous postdoc experience) with additional generous benefits. While the anticipated start date is January 2023, this can be negotiable.
Interested candidates should submit a cover letter that outlines their previous research experience and how they hope to leverage this in our lab, CV, copies of two publications (preprints are okay too), and email addresses and phone numbers of three references to Kate Laskowski at klaskowski@ucdavis.edu no later than Nov 11, 2022. Please email as ONE PDF and use subject line: “Postdoc application – your last name”.
The University of California at Davis is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer with a strong institutional commitment to the achievement of diversity among its faculty and staff. Smoking, the use of smokeless tobacco products, and the use of unregulated nicotine products (e-cigarettes) will be strictly prohibited on any UC Davis owned or leased property.