Researcher (f/m/d) - Species Discovery and Taxonomy of Hyperdiverse Arthropods

Our Mission:Discovering and describing life and earth - with people, through dialogue.

The Museum für Naturkunde Berlin (MfN) is an excellent and integrated research museum of the Leibniz Association with an international reputation and globally connected research infrastructure. MfN is active in three closely interlinked fields: collection-based research, collection development, and research-based public and educational outreach. Over the next ten years, the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin will build up a science campus for nature and society in the centre of Berlin as science hub, together with the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin. New laboratories and workplaces for cutting-edge research will be established. One of the world's most comprehensive natural history collections with over 30 million objects will be housed in state of the art buildings as well as fully digitized. The implementation of the so-called Zukunftsplan (future plan), funded with a total of 660 million euros from the Federal Government and the State of Berlin, strongly relies on interdisciplinary national and international partners. Become part of our team.

Position:  Researcher (f/m/d) - species discovery and taxonomy of hyperdiverse arthropods in soil/leaf litter or as disease vectors

Work schedule:   Full-time

Duration:  initially for 2 years; tenure after successful evaluation within the first 2 years (tenure track)

Salary level:  E 13 TV-L

Code:17/2023

Responsibilities:

Museum für Naturkunde Berlin is currently establishing an internationally visible „Center for Integrative Biodiversity Discovery“. It will meet the scientific and societal challenges arising from rapid worldwide ecosystem change, not least the global biodiversity crisis, and capitalise on the chances and innovations from biodiversity. The center will develop new scientific approaches to the study of biodiversity that will contribute to a more efficient and significantly faster global biodiversity inventory. At the same time it will enable high-quality taxonomic research on extinct and recent organisms and develop targeted knowledge products for various user groups.

We are seeking a talented and motivated biodiversity researcher (f/m/d) with a focus on methods to develop and support the new “Center for Integrative Biodiversity Discovery” at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin – Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science. To this purpose, the successful candidate will take a leading role in the development of innovative methods for species discovery and apply them to the taxonomy of hyperdiverse arthropod clades that dwell either in soil or leaf litter, or are disease vectors. The research should be embedded in the program of the Center for Integrative Biodiversity Discovery and involve engagement in grant applications as well as training and supervision of students and junior researchers. We also expect active participation in public outreach activities of the museum about biodiversity and biodiversity discovery. A particular focus of the center is to develop new ways for the automatic discovery and description of species. For this purpose we combine biodiversity robotics“ with „DNA barcoding“ and „machine learning“ so that invertebrates can also be automatically identified by image in the future (see https://www.science.org/content/article/artificial-intelligence-could-help-biologists-classify-world-s-tiny-creatures ).

The Museum für Naturkunde Berlin provides an excellent research environment. It houses state-of-the-art laboratories for morphology (including histology, imaging, SEM, and µCT labs), molecular genetics/genomics and computation. Numerous research groups are working in a wide range of research fields including population genetics, phylogenetics, developmental and evolutionary genetics, and taxonomy. Our world-class zoological collections provide unique access to specimens collected over the last 200+ years.

Requirements:

PhD or PhD candidate (compulsory completion until 12/2023) in zoology or related discipline. The applicant’s research focus, documented by a publication record commensurate with the applicant’s career stage, should be on collection-based biodiversity research on hyperdiverse terrestrial or limnic arthropod clades that are dark taxa (clades where <10% of all species are described and the estimated diversity is >1000 species) and either live in soil or leaf litter (larvae or adults), or are disease vectors. The successful candidate must be interested in describing new species in dark taxa using integrative methods and ideally have experience in developing innovative research approaches to taxonomy that combine high-throughput sequencing and morphological data. Demonstrated experience in working on international research projects and obtaining third-party funding appropriate to career stage. Field work experience, preferably in larger collaborative projects, and willingness to participate in research in one of MfN’s geographic focus regions (Southeast Asia, Africa) are expected. Successful candidates will be expected to work in a highly collaborative, interdisciplinary environment at Germany’s largest natural history museum. Ideal candidates will be excellent team players, have proven communication skills and intercultural competence. Professional written and verbal communication in English is required.

Special notes:

In support of equal rights applications from qualified women are particularly welcome. Disabled individuals will be given preference in cases of identical qualifications.

We look forward to receiving your application with the usual documents (cover letter, curriculum vitae, academic certificates) as well as a statement (one page max.) outlining plans for research at MfN by 14.05.2023, preferably via our online application portal .

For information on the application procedure, please contact recruiting(at)mfn.berlin .

Further informations:

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Family Policy:

The Museum für Naturkunde has set itself the goal of promoting a work-life balance and has been awarded the certificate berufundfamilie audit of berufundfamilie gGmbH - an initiative of the Hertie Foundation.

Further information can be found under: https://www.museumfuernaturkunde.berlin/en/uber-uns/jobs-und-karriere/arbeiten-am-museum-fur-naturkunde/reconciling-work-and-family-life-audit