(c) Frank Pasmans
PhD positions at Wildlife Health Ghent
We are hiring several enthusiastic, driven, early career scientists whom we can offer a four year scholarship for conducting top notch PhD research at Wildlife Health Ghent. PhD students will study different aspects of disease ecology and epidemiology of infections with the chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) in European salamanders and newts. We will address several key features of the disease, including host susceptibility, transmission pathways and reservoirs. Novel insights will serve to inform policy makers in how to tackle this disease, which poses a threat to most European species of salamanders and newts.
We are looking for different profiles that will combine in a multidisciplinary team of scientists, embedded within Wildlife Health Ghent:
A first profile will conduct mainly field work on amphibians to follow up infection and disease dynamics of the pathogen and host population dynamics and characteristics, testing hypotheses in the field.
A second profile will mainly focus on developing and testing hypotheses in proof of concept lab trials with amphibians and Bsal.
The third profile will focus on molecular aspects of the host-pathogen interaction (including cell cultures, transcriptomics and CRISPR based technologies).
For all positions, a higher education diploma in science (biomedical sciences, biology, veterinary sciences...) is required. Excellent knowledge of the English language is a prerequisite. For the positions involving field work, communication with local people will be mainly in Dutch. Since studies comprise working with live animals, candidates will have to comply with the European laboratory animal legislation.
We welcome applications until 1/5/2023. Applications must include a CV and a motivation letter, sent to an.martel@ugent.be and frank.pasmans@ugent.be