Dear all, I am looking for a PhD student in bioinformatics, modeling marine microbial interactions at the NIOZ on Texel. *What is it about?* The project is concerned with elucidating marine microbial inter-species interactions based on high-throughput genomic data by applying network modeling. Microbes in the oceans, sediment and in microbiomes of higher organisms, form communities which keep the element and nutrient cycles in the seas and on land running. Different microorganisms have different metabolic capabilities. The product of one species can be the substrate for another. Besides dependencies based on individual nutrients, more complex interactions, such as symbiosis, predator-prey and competition for limited resources among marine microbes, will be elucidated in this project. Moreover, the impact of changing environmental conditions due to climate change on microbial communities will be assessed. To do so, causal network modelling will be applied to microbial abundance data and measurements of environmental parameters such as temperature and salinity to predict causal effects of species and environmental parameters on other species. The PhD student will then perform follow-up experiments in the lab to validate predicted interactions. *Who are we looking for? * We like to get into contact with a PhD student holding an MSc degree in Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Computer Science, Mathematics, (Bio-)Statistics, Physics, Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Microbial Ecology or related fields. You are highly organized, motivated, and fluent in oral and written English. Experience with Unix is mandatory. Candidates need to have a proven record of their bioinformatics and programming skills. Candidates with good command of R, Bash and Python are preferred. If your background is in Biology-related fields, you will need to catch up with some mathematics and statistics. The ideal candidate also has experience in the analysis of high-throughput genomic data, including metagenomic data. *For more information and to apply, see:* https://www.workingatnioz.com/our-jobs/phd-student-%E2%80%9Cmodelling-causal... Please apply before July 15, 2018. Thanks and kind regards, Julia -- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Julia C. Engelmann Tenure-track scientist Department of Marine Microbiology and Biogeochemistry NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and Utrecht University Landsdiep 4, 1797 SZ ‘t Horntje Texel, The Netherlands Phone: +31 (0) 222 369 388 Email: julia.engelmann@nioz.nl