Undergraduates: Work in the lab uses lots of different methods to address questions about ecology and evolution. Depending on the project, work might include collection of plant samples, insect herbivores, or microbial associates of plants in the field, chemistry and/or genomics labwork, or bioinformatic analyses of chemical or genomic data. Motivated students interested in plants, insects, microbial endophytes and pathogens, or chemistry are encouraged to contact Dr. Sedio about possible research opportunities. Opportunities may include labwork in the Sedio Lab at UT Austin, fieldwork at the Big Thicket National Preserve in eastern Texas, fieldwork and labwork at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, and fieldwork at forest dynamics plots in the Smithsonian Forest Global Earth Observatory (ForestGEO) network. When contacting Dr. Sedio, please include your resume, the science courses you have taken and describe your interests.
Ph.D. Students: Students interested in the ecology, evolution, and/or biogeography of plants are encouraged to apply. I am especially interested in students who want to develop independent projects that consider the mechanisms by which secondary metabolites that mediate plant interactions with other organisms shape ecology and evolution in communities and lineages. There is enormous potential for students to develop cutting-edge research projects that integrate components from ecology, evolution, chemistry and/or genomics and that draw on larger datasets the lab is generating, including genomes and secondary metabolite profiles for thousands of tree species in Panama and elsewhere. The lab will have a major focus on chemical ecology and evolution and students with an interest in this area are especially encouraged to apply to the lab through the Department of Integrative Biology.
Before applying to the lab, please contact Dr. Sedio to discuss possible research ideas, fit and admission to the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Texas at Austin.
Postdocs: If you feel that your research interests match those of the lab please contact Dr. Sedio with your CV, examples of published papers as well as a brief description of the sort of project(s) you might be interested in pursuing.
We currently looking for a postdoc to be based at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute who is interested in taking advantage of foliar metabolites for ca. 1000 tree species recorded in a network of forest plots in Panama for which we have soil nutrient, precipitation, and elevation data to ask basic questions about the interplay between plant metabolomes, climate, and community dynamics at the regional scale in Panama. If you are interested please contact Brian Sedio or Joe Wright at STRI (wrightj at si dot edu).
Contact: sediob at utexas dot edu
Department of Integrative Biology University of Texas at Austin 2415 Speedway Stop C0930 Austin, TX 78712
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute ATTN: Brian Sedio, Naos Apartado 0843–03092 Balboa, Ancón Republic of Panama
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