Post-doctoral Research Associate

Department of Biology

The post-holder will join the team of project "ARISE: Accelerating ReIntroduction of EcoSystem-Engineering Ant Colonies with Embodied AI". This is an interdisciplinary project between the Department of Biology, the Department of Computer Science and the Institute for Safe Autonomy at the University of York, UK. The post holder will be based in the Department of Biology at the University of York under direct supervision of Elva Robinson, Professor in Ecology. This job is part of an Advanced Research + Invention Agency-funded project, subject to contract negotiations.

The goal of the project is to increase the effectiveness of wood ant translocations, used to restore their ecosystem engineering functions to woodlands where they are lacking. Current ant translocation projects typically disregard the complex ant-aphid mutualisms occurring in the forest canopy, despite their key role in providing the energy to fuel wood ant colony success. This project will quantify the effectiveness of mutualism establishment in translocated colonies by combining three cutting edge techniques: drone-enabled microsampling of canopy aphid colonies; nutritional metabolomic analyses of ant-collected honeydew; and hyperspectral imaging with machine learning to remotely quantify aphid density and physiological state. The results will be field validated in the context of an ongoing wood ant translocation project, and will provide a scalable management tool for accelerating forest ecosystem restoration.

Role

The successful candidate will implement the molecular ecology aspects of the project. This will include leading on the ecological aspects of the fieldwork (UK based), including liaising with site managers and collaborating with the technical team who will operate the drone technology. The candidate will carry out laboratory and bioinformatic analyses to characterize the nutritional metabolomics of the samples collected. The candidate will also work with the technical team on providing the ecological insight to validate the hyperspectral imaging protocol. The candidate will collaborate in the preparation of reports and articles and represent the research group at meetings with stake holders and at conferences.

Skills, Experience & Qualification needed

The successful candidate will have completed a PhD degree in an area of biological sciences and have experience of a range of biological research techniques and methodologies, including laboratory analysis of ecological samples and the bioinformatic analysis of molecular ecology data. Ideally, the candidate will have experience of ecological fieldwork. The candidate will have the ability to work as part of an interdisciplinary team and also to work independently using their own initiative. They will have experience of communicating with non-academic stake holders, and of presenting work at conferences and for publication.

For informal enquiries: please contact Elva Robinson