Postdoc in Macroecology at the Villum Center for Global Mountain Biodiversity, Globe Institute

We are looking for a highly motivated and dynamic person for a three-year position as postdoc at the Villum Center for Global Mountain Biodiversity at the GLOBE Institute to commence 1st January 2024.

The position will be at Globe Institute that is part of the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen. The Institute’s main purpose is to address basic and applied scientific questions through interdisciplinary approaches. The institute operates at the intersection of natural, and medical sciences and the humanities.

The research will be performed at The Center for Global Mountain Biodiversity, which is a Center of excellence funded by the Villum Foundation. The Center is led by Professor Carsten Rahbek and includes 25 scientific staff, technicians and students. The Center tries to understand the role of mountains in shaping the distribution and diversity of life on Earth. It focuses in specifics on trying to explain the extraordinary biodiversity of tropical mountains. The Center combines natural history knowledge, rigorous field work in all corners of the world and an assemblage of huge biological data sets built from primary sources with the use of cutting-edge DNA and genomic techniques, novel macroecological and null models, powerful bioinformatics tools and statistics to enable a truly holistic approach for addressing fundamental questions about life on Earth.

It is institutionally placed at the Section of Biodiversity with the Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate (CMEC) at the GLOBE Institute. CMEC is a large center of excellence with a cross-disciplinary research program addressing fundamental questions on the origin, maintenance, conservation and future of life and biological diversity on Earth. The 40+ researchers at CMEC currently represent 14 different nationalities and the working language is English. The center juxtaposes faculty staff scientists from the fields of macroecology, historical biogeography, oceanography, evolutionary biology, community ecology, population biology, climate change research, conservation biology and environmental economics.

Job description
We offer a three-year postdoc-position to work within the research-framework of the Villum Center for Global Mountain Biodiversity to develop together with the center’s other researchers an integrative framework for combining data on phylogeny, traits, and species distribution with land-use and climate data. The focus is on understanding the fundamental processes speciation, movement, biotic and abiotic interaction, adaptation and extinction that drives past and current range-dynamics in order to understand global patterns of species assemblages and species richness patterns to elucidate the role of mountain regions in shaping biodiversity patterns. The research should be focused primarily on vertebrates, preferable birds, but there can be space for working with similar data and questions in other realms using data from other organisms groups.

Your job will primarily consist of:

• Research, including publication/academic dissemination
• Research-based teaching, including associated examination
• Research leadership, including guidance and co-supervision of Masters and PhD students.
• Obligation to share knowledge with the rest of society, including participation in public debate
• Attraction and management of externally funded research projects
• Public dissemination of research outcomes
• Academic assessments

Applicants are expected to engage in ongoing research projects using the center’s data/resources and to contribute to further development of new projects. We expect successful candidates to be interested in conducting collaborative projects within the center with other center scientists.

Profile
We are looking for a highly motivated and enthusiastic scientist with the following skills and experience:

Essential experience and skills:
The postdoc position requires a PhD degree. We seek an internationally competitive candidate with:

• You have a PhD in biology (or related fields relevant for the research of the position)
• A very strong publication record in macroecology in the best international peer-reviewed journals.
• Documented strong analytical and large-scale data handling skills.
• You are highly experience in programming and development and use of models (e.g., correlative, process-based and null models), including application of huge empirical data sets to such models to address macroecological questions.
• You have pre- and postgraduate university level teaching experience within macroecology and must be able to explain and reflect upon own teaching practice and portfolio.
• Proficient communicate skills and the ability to work and communicate within a cross-disciplinary research center.
• Excellent English skills written and spoken

Desirable experience and skills:

• Strong natural history knowledge
• Experience with field work.

Place of employment
The place of employment is at the Section for Biodiversity, working in the Villum Center for Global Mountain Biodiversity located at Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100, Copenhagen K, Denmark.

About Globe Institute
The Globe Institute is part of the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences at the University of Copenhagen. The Institute’s main purpose is to address basic scientific questions through interdisciplinary approaches. The institute operates at the intersection of natural and medical sciences and the humanities. Information on the institute can be found at: http://www.globe.ku.dk/.

The Globe Institute is committed to creating an inclusive and diverse environment where employees and students can belong and thrive. See website for more information. All qualified applicants will receive full consideration. Candidates who, through their research, teaching, and/or service, contribute to diversity and competencies of our Institute are encouraged to apply. The University of Copenhagen strives to offer a family friendly and flexible working environment with a sustainable balance between work- and private life, including parental leave schemes (up to 47 weeks for both parents) and up to six weeks of paid holidays per year. Researchers that have not been tax liable in Denmark for the last 10 years can apply for a special (reduced) tax scheme. The university offers a variety of services for international researchers and accompanying families.

Terms of employment

The average weekly working hours are 37 hours per week.

The position is limited to a period of 3years. The starting date is 1st of January 2024 or in agreement with the chosen candidate.

Salary, pension and other conditions of employment are set in accordance with the Agreement between the Ministry of Taxation and AC (Danish Confederation of Professional Associations) or other relevant organisation. Depending on qualifications, a supplement may be negotiated. The employer will pay an additional 17.1 % to your pension fund.

Foreign and Danish applicants may be eligible for tax reductions if they hold a PhD degree and have not lived in Denmark the last 10 years.

The position is covered by the Job Structure for Academic Staff at Universities 2020.

Questions
For further information, please contact Professor Carsten Rahbek, [email protected].

Foreign applicants may find this link useful: https://www.ism.ku.dk/ (International Staff Mobility).

Application procedure
Your online application must be submitted in English by clicking ‘Apply now’ below. Furthermore, your application must include the following documents/attachments – all in PDF format:

1. Motivated letter of application (max. one page).
2. CV incl. education, work/research experience, language skills and other skills relevant for the position.
3. A certified/signed copy of a) PhD certificate and b) Master of Science certificate. If the PhD is not completed, a written statement from the supervisor will do.
4. List of publications.

Deadline for applications: 23 November 2023.
We reserve the right not to consider material received after the deadline, and not to consider applications that do not live up to the abovementioned requirements.

The further process
After the expiry of the deadline for applications, the authorized recruitment manager selects applicants for assessment on the advice of the hiring committee. All applicants are then immediately notified whether their application has been passed for assessment by an unbiased assessor. Once the assessment work has been completed each applicant has the opportunity to comment on the part of the assessment that relates to the applicant him/herself.

You can read about the recruitment process at http://employment.ku.dk/faculty/recruitment-process/

The applicant will be assessed according to the Ministerial Order no. 242 of 13 March 2012 on the Appointment of Academic Staff at Universities.

The University of Copenhagen wish to reflect the diversity of society and encourage all qualified candidates to apply regardless of personal background.

Kilde: Jobnet.dk