The Bond Lab at the University of California, Davis and the Forthman
Lab at the California Department of Food and Agriculture welcome
applications for a postdoctoral researcher to focus on a collaborative
phylogenomic project of the megadiverse plant bugs (Miridae).

PROJECT POSITION:
The successful candidate will work with a multi-institutional team
of researchers, involving the Bond and Forthman Labs, as well as
the Weirauch Lab at the University of California, Riverside (lead
project institution). The candidate will work closely with Ph.D.
students and undergraduate interns to complete projects sponsored
by a recent NSF award. Opportunities to develop complementary
research questions and proposals with the project team will be
encouraged. Considerable field collecting within the western US and
in South Africa will take place throughout the position. The candidate
will also participate in scientific outreach programs at CDFA and
UCD to promote scientific discovery, agriculture, and biodiversity
for public audiences of all ages. Note that this position will
primarily take place at the California Department of Food and
Agriculture Plant Pest Diagnostics Center (PPDC) in Sacramento,
California. We are seeking a candidate with previous leadership and
collaborative experiences, excellent communication and organization
skills, a positive attitude, and motivation for learning new skills
and knowledge. Prior research experience in systematics, evolution,
phylogenetics, biodiversity, and/or entomology is also important.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
This collaborative project will focus on the evolution of Miridae,
a megadiverse and understudied insect family known as plant bugs.
While most plant bugs are phytophagous with a limited host plant
range, the group also includes predatory, mycetophagous, and
zoophytophagous lineages, making this group economically important
as crop pests and beneficial predatory insects. Plant bugs are
extremely speciose in Mediterranean-type regions, including the
California Floristic Province (CA-FP) biodiversity hotspot. Despite
a substantial biodiversity dataset generated for plant bugs through
past NSF-funding, its current utility is hindered by the absence
of robustly supported phylogenetic hypotheses, limiting exploration
of biogeographic history and host plant evolution. In this project,
we will:

  1.  Generate a worldwide phylogeny of plant bugs based on
      ultraconserved element (UCE) data to reconstruct robust tribal and
      subtribal-level relationships and investigate the temporal and
      diet evolution of the group.
  2.  Investigate the biogeographic history and host plant evolution of
      Nearctic Miridae, focusing on 12 well-documented clades, and
      determine the origin of taxa in the CA-FP.
  3.  Test if phylogenetic diversity of Miridae in the CA-FP shows
      similar patterns to those documented for plants and vertebrates.

The postdoc will lead sequence capture and processing for all three
aims, and phylogenomic analyses including manuscript preparation
for Aims 1 and 2 (in part). Postdoc mentoring will balance research,
publications, presentations, grantsmanship, teaching, and outreach.
The successful candidate will gain field experience, expertise in
mirid systematics, including identifications, NGS and bioinformatics
skills, and expertise with phylogenetic and downstream analyses
(e.g., divergence dating, biogeography, phylogenetic diversity).
The candidate will be involved in teaching a course-based undergraduate
research experience class and a True Bug Short Course, as well as
co-mentor undergraduate students.

QUALIFICATIONS:

  *   Hold a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology, entomology, or a
      related field
  *   Have demonstrated background in systematics with preference for
      insect systematics
  *   Have demonstrated skills in phylogenomic approaches from wet-lab
      procedures to bioinformatics
  *   Show skills in data analysis and scientific writing
  *   Show strong leadership qualities and excellent
      communication skills
  *   Work well in a team setting across multiple laboratories
  *   Have experience with mentoring students and interest in outreach
      activities

Preferred (not required) qualifications:

  *   Experience generating and analyzing UCE datasets
  *   Experience conducting field work

For additional details regarding the project, application materials,
and application submission, see https://recruit.ucdavis.edu/JPF06359.
Questions can be directed to Dr. Michael Forthman
(michael.forthman@cdfa.ca.gov) and/or Dr. Jason Bond (jbond@ucdavis.edu).

"Forthman, Michael@CDFA" <Michael.Forthman@cdfa.ca.gov>

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