The Porter lab at Washington State University, Vancouver, is recruiting a graduate student for fall 2017. Our lab explores the evolutionary and ecological dynamics of plants and their microbial symbionts to test fundamental theory about cooperative interactions. We focus on environmentally acquired symbioses between plants and microbial mutualists such as nitrogen-fixing rhizobium bacteria. Our research projects range from the field, to the lab to the greenhouse and integrate approaches from quantitative genetics, ecological genetics and genomics.
Graduate students will have the opportunity to participate in a collaborative multi-year NSF-funded project with the Friesen lab at Michigan State University to investigate evolutionary and ecological shifts in plant-symbiont mutualism during plant invasions. Students are also welcome to develop a research program aligned with their own interests in plant or microbial evolutionary ecology. The lab supports diverse projects ranging from the importance of microbes to plant adaptation, to quantifying natural selection on cooperation (https://labs.wsu.edu/stephanie-porter/) Graduate students will be supported through a combination of research assistantship in the Porter lab and TAship (5 years for PhD, 2 for MS) with the opportunity for summer funding. WSUV is a vibrant, rapidly growing institution located in the greater Portland/Vancouver metropolitan area, near the Columbia River, Cascade Mountains and coastal ocean, and as such offers an exceptional quality of life. Interested students should send a copy of their CV, description of research interests, and unofficial copy of transcripts to stephanie.por...@wsu.edu. Stephanie S. Porter Assistant Professor, School of Biological Sciences Washington State University, Vancouver https://labs.wsu.edu/stephanie-porter/
