The newly created Resilience Institute Bridging Biological Training and Research (RIBBiTR) is looking for a few good students! RIBBiTR is a Biology Integration Institute, funded by the National Science Foundation to conduct research and training that integrates across sub-disciplines in the biological sciences to better understand how living systems achieve resilience to emerging infectious diseases and other global change stressors (https://ribbitr.com/). The institute is comprised of researchers/educators from eleven universities within the United States, each with expertise in research and training relevant to the group’s focus on the amphibian disease chytridiomycosis. The institute’s students will be based at one institution but will work collaboratively with other RIBBiTR team members to contribute to the core research and training missions of the institute. They will receive training and mentorship from the PI at their home institutions and from other RIBBiTR researchers with diverse skills in integrative biology.
We are looking for prospective students who are excited about laboratory projects, mathematical modeling, and/or conducting field research in Panama, Brazil, or Northwest Pennsylvania (USA) to uncover individual-, population- and community-level mechanisms by which amphibians are achieving resilience to the disease caused by the fungal pathogen Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. This work could include designing and conducting field surveys, collecting samples from amphibian hosts and their habitats, and collaborating on the analysis of these data within a resilience framework. In addition, we are seeking prospective students who are interested in conducting lab research focused on amphibian immunity, the microbiome, and ecophysiology to understand cellular and organismal-level mechanisms of resistance/tolerance to disease development. As such, we encourage applicants with diverse interests, including physiology/immunity, microbiology, population genomics, mathematics and statistics, and population and community ecology.
Prospective mentors include Dr. Jamie Voyles (University of Nevada, Reno), Dr. Mark Wilber (University of Tennessee), Dr. Doug Woodhams (University of Massachusetts, Boston), Dr. Michel Ohmer (University of Mississippi), and Dr. Cori Richards-Zawacki (University of Pittsburgh). Please see https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/track?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:ed348292-bbec-4538-b9bc-74f3c7e26569#pageNum=1 for more information.
Candidates should contact PIs for additional information on how to apply to the graduate programs at the respective intuitions. RIBBiTR’s constituent institutions are Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employers and our team greatly values equality of opportunity, human dignity, and diversity. Women and people of identities that are underrepresented in STEM are especially encouraged to apply.
