ERC.2.EvolutionaryGenomics Postdocs in evolutionary genomics and phylogenomics are available to join the ERC 'GENECLOCKS' project (http://cordis.europa.eu/project/rcn/207593_en.html) headed by Gergely Szollosi (http://ssolo.web.elte.hu) . Two positions are offered for 2 years with the possibility of a one year extension. The position comes with a salary of up to EUR 43,200 per year (approx. up to EUR 2,000 net per month after taxes), as well as a travel and research funds. We are looking for an individual who received his or her PhD preferably within the last six years, who is highly self-motivated and can work independently on a project that he or she will help develop in the context of GENECLOCKS. A central theme of GENECLOCKS is disclosing new sources of information for dating the first three-quarters of Earth's evolutionary history that are independent from both fossils and molecular clocks. Life's early history has remained terra incognita until now, because the fossils needed to calibrate standard evolutionary timescales are simply not available for microbial life. Microbial fossils are scarce and difficult to interpret in a phylogenetic context with confidence. In previous work we have shown that patterns of lateral gene transfer inferred from modern genomes encode a record of co-existing lineages throughout the history of life, and that we can use this record to reconstruct the relative ages of microbial groups from the three domains of life in deep time. This discovery is a game changer for anyone interested in the history of life, from either a geological or genomic perspective. It demonstrates the existence of a new and abundant source of dating information that is inscribed in the genome of any organism, provided a gene transfer occurred in its ancestry. This constitutes the overwhelming majority of the diversity of life. Postdocs will undertake projects together with international collaborators with the goal of either i) developing new methods that systematically extract information on the pattern and timing of genomic evolution by explaining differences between gene trees, or ii) apply existing methods to resolve the timing of microbial evolution and its relationship to Earth history and answer long standing questions. Possible collaborations and associated projects include: Reconstructing a dated phylogeny of Eukaryotes including their position within Archaea in collaboration with Tom Williams at the University of Bristol. Implementing and applying methods to include transfer derived relative age constraints in molecular clock estimates with Bastien Boussau and Vincent Daubin at the LBBE in Lyon. Developing novel species-tree aware phylogenetic methods with the guys who make RAxML at Exelixis Lab in Heidelberg and Nicolas Lartillot at the LBBE in Lyon. Developing new hierarchical probabilistic models of gene tree-species tree reconciliation with Sebastian Höhna at LMU in Munich. Research visits of up to several months are foreseen as part of potential collaborations. Recent GENECLOCKS publications: AA Davín, E Tannier, TA Williams, B Boussau, V Daubin, GJ Szollosi Gene transfers can date the tree of life Nature ecology & evolution 2 (5), 904 (2018) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0525-3 pdf: http://ssolo.web.elte.hu/Davin_2018_NEE.pdf TA Williams, C Cox, P Foster, GJ Szollosi, T Embley Phylogenomics provides robust support for a two-domains tree of life Nature Ecology and Evolution (2019) https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-019-1040-x pdf: https://ssolo.web.elte.hu/Williams_2019_NEE.pdf D Schrempf, N Lartillot , GJ Szollosi Scalable empirical mixture models that account for across-site compositional heterogeneity BioRxiv preprint (2019) https://doi.org/10.1101/794263 GeneRax: A tool for species tree-aware maximum likelihood based gene tree inference under gene duplication, transfer, and loss B Morel, AM Kozlov, A Stamatakis, GJ Szollosi BioRxiv preprint (2019) https://doi.org/10.1101/779066 To be considered, please send a single merged PDF to ssolo@elte.hu that contains your CV including publication list, preferably with a link to your google scholar profile, academic transcripts, a statement of research interests (3 pages or less) as well as three academic references. Please include 'GENECLOCKS2020' in the subject of your email. Applications will be considered until the position is filled with first round of selection expected at the end of October 2020. The research group is lead by Dr. Gergely Szollosi ( https://scholar.google.hu/citations?user=sPrYT-oAAAAJ ) and is hosted at Eotvos Universities Institute of Physics in Budapest. The Institute of Physics has been included in the Excellence Group of European Universities, and has achieved top placement in the number of citations, the number of ERC grants, the time available for PhD research and the gender balance of master's students in the CHE Excellence Ranking. Budapest is a vibrant capital city with exciting cultural life, a unique atmosphere affordable living costs (cf. https://goo.gl/86II3s ), and an opposition mayor. Please direct any enquiries to Dr. Gergely Szollosi (ssolo@elte.hu, http://ssolo.web.elte.hu).