Postdoc position: amino acid substitution models A postdoc position is available with PI Joanna Masel (https://www.masellab.org/) at the University of Arizona in Tucson. Tucson is a vibrant city of nearly a million people, located in the biodiverse Sonoran desert, surrounded on all four sides by mountainous national and state parks, with an attractive climate for most of the year. The EEB department is ranked 12th by US News & World Report. Stipend is at NIH rates, and the cost of living in Tucson is around the US national average, i.e. well below most US academic destinations. Start date is negotiable, with the position renewable annually, with 3 years of NSF funding anticipated. Phylogenetic methods typically use a "good enough" approach to modeling amino acid or nucleotide substitution in the process of inferring a tree. The project will focus on inferring accurate amino acid (and perhaps also codon) substitution models, for their own sake as well as to potentially improve tree inference. This includes time non-reversible models (see https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syac007) and non-stationary models (see https://doi.org/10.1093/sysbio/syu106). Work will involve collaboration with IQ-Tree lead Minh Bui and cogent3 lead Gavin Huttley at the Australian National University. Depending on interests, the postdoc will - Investigate how substitution models vary as a function of taxonomic group, type of protein structure, GC content, and/or the evolutionary age (phylostratum) of a sequence - Interpret substitution models in terms of mutational spectra + the biophysical basis of selection, including relating them to deep mutational scanning data - Improve phylogenetic methods through improving substitution models, eg via partition or mixture models previously trained in a structure- informed manner. Strong bioinformatics skills are strongly preferred, although unusually strong candidates who wish to retrain as bioinformaticians will also be considered. Knowledge of more advanced mathematical and statistical approaches, a background in evolutionary biology, and knowledge about protein structure and folding, are all advantages, but candidates are not expected to have all three. Contact Joanna Masel at masel@arizona.edu for more information and to apply. "Masel, Joanna - (masel)" (to subscribe/unsubscribe the EvolDir send mail to golding@mcmaster.ca)