One or more postdoctoral positions for 2-3 years are available immediately for work on the social amoeba Dictyostelium discoideum, a unique and exciting model organism for social evolution. D. discoideum has cooperation, conflict, and complete reproductive altruism in its social stage. It also has a short generation time, sequenced genomes, a library of identified cheater knockouts, and it can be easily studied in the laboratory and the field. Projects include testing whether social conflict leads to rapid evolution and arms races, determining how cheating is controlled, kin recognition, and relating laboratory findings to social evolution in the wild. Experimental evolution projects can also be done on social function. We are a friendly and interactive team of highly motivated investigators. We are seeking an energetic postdoc with a strong background in evolutionary biology, social behavior, microbial evolution, or molecular biology with an interest in working at the interface of these disciplines. Check out our website, www.ruf.rice.edu/~evolve for more information on our research. If you are interested, please send an email to David Queller (quel...@rice.edu) or Joan Strassmann (stra...@rice.edu) with a CV, statement of research interests, and the names, phone numbers and email addresses of three references. Women and minorities are particularly encouraged to apply. We will begin reviewing applications immediately and will continue to do so until the position is filled which we hope to happen by 20 May 2010. The entire lab group will move to Washington University in St. Louis in June 2011 where we will join a very dynamic biology department in newly renovated space. David C. Queller, Joan E. Strassmann, Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, MS 170, Rice University, 6100 Main St. Houston TX 77005-1892.
