PhD Student- The evolution of sexual conflict
We offer a fully funded 3+1 yr PhD position starting ca. July-August 2022; meaning that, if the PhD is finished in less than 4 years, the student can transfer to a junior post doc position for the remaining time.
We are looking for a PhD student interested in studying the evolutionary factors modulating the intensity of male-male competition and sexual conflict, and its consequences in terms of population viability. Strong sexual selection can improve population viability and evolvability through processes such as genic capture. However, strong sexual selection will also often give rise to sexual conflict and female harm, which does not only tend to deviate females from their evolutionary optima, but can drastically affect population viability, leading to a “reproductive tragedy of the commons”. We are interested in understanding what factors modulate the evolution of male-male competition, female harm levels, and sexual conflict at large, and how this all feeds back into population viability and evolvability.
We work mainly with (mostly wild) Drosophila melanogaster, which typically involves behavioural experiments in the lab, experimental evolution, some fieldwork across Europe and the USA/Australia, and potentially some genomics/proteomics. This PhD position may also involve some mathematical modelling.
We are looking for a motivated, enthusiastic, hard-working candidate with some background (and a strong interest) in sexual selection, and evolutionary biology and animal behaviour at large. The student will be supervised by Dr. Pau Carazo and based at the Behaviour and Evolution group of the Ethology Lab, at the Cavanilles institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology (University of Valencia, Spain). For information about our group visit our website (http://paucarazo.com). Mathematical modelling will be supervised by Dr. Gonçalo Faria (University of East Anglia).
For further information and expressions of interest, please contact Pau Carazo (University of Valencia; pau.carazo@uv.es). The deadline for applications for this position is the 15th of October.
Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology
University of Valencia
Tel: +34 963544051
http://paucarazo.com