Researcher on Metatranscriptomics of Sea Ice Microbial Interactions

Job Details

A position as Researcher on the study of microbial prokaryote-eukaryote interactions across the sea ice biome is available at The Department of Arctic and Marine Biology (AMB), affiliated with the Arctic Marine System Ecology research group and the laboratory for Sea Ice Biome research (iSIBio).

The position is for a period of 2 years. The candidate must be able to commence the position between January and March 2026.

The Researcher position is affiliated to iSI-Bio, which studies the biodiversity and productivity of microorganisms living in association with sea ice in the Arctic. Project work will focus on analyses of existing datasets collected from the Arctic Ocean. There may be possibility for sea ice fieldwork as part of this position.

The workplace is at UiT in Tromsø.

The position's field of Research

The person hired will use advanced statistical tools to analyse sea ice metatranscriptomic datasets and identify interactions between and within bacterial and algal communities. The project will quantify how prokaryotic and eukaryotic gene expression patterns influence one another. The candidate will model the relationship between species relative abundances and gene expression to distinguish between direct metabolic coupling and indirect competitive interactions. The candidate will assess how these relationships vary over time, and across the different microhabitats of the sea ice biome.

Requirements

• Successfully completed a doctoral degree in the field of molecular genetics, oceanography, microbiology or similar field, from a Norwegian institution or equivalent degree program
• Experience doing sterile technique, DNA extractions, nanopore sequencing and quality control
• Experience working with metatranscriptomic or metagenomic data
• Experience using Linux and bioinformatics approaches, including binning and functional gene analysis
• Fieldwork experience on sea ice
• First-author publications in peer-reviewed literature
• Documented good oral and written communication skills in English
   

Additional Desirable Qualifications, Knowledge And Experience
 

• Culturing experience of cold-adapted microalgae, bacteria and/or fungi
• Method development in the field of sea ice microbiology
• Supervision experience of student (e.g. BSc. Honors) thesis projects
• Developing custom analytical pipelines for metagenomic or metatranscriptomic projects

Qualification with a PhD degree is required before commencing the position. If you are near completion of your PhD, you may apply with the additional submission of PhD thesis draft and statement from granting institution on when the degree will be obtained. You must document completion of your PhD degree before commencement in the position

Contact Information

Further information about the position and UiT is available by contacting Associate Professor Karley Campbell, e-mail: karley.l.campbell@uit.no