University of Vienna: Graduate Program - Microbial Nitrogen Cycling - From Single Cells to Ecosystems

The FWF-funded Graduate Program
Microbial Nitrogen Cycling – From Single Cells to Ecosystems

 invites applications for 10 PhD positions

The graduate student program offers a unique multidisciplinary PhD training on Microbial Nitrogen Cycling approached from the three complementary areas of Microbial Ecology, Functional Genomics and Ecosystem Research at the University of Vienna. Our mission is to provide an excellent interdisciplinary education, extensive laboratory training and international networking. For more details on this PhD program, details on PhD topics and the participating faculty see http://www.phd-n-cycle.at.

Ten PhD positions funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) for up to 4 years are available from January 1, 2016 in Vienna. The program will be open to students who hold a Master of Science degree (or an equivalent qualification) in Ecology, Biogeochemistry, (Environmental) Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Bioinformatics or related fields. The official language of the program is English.

The following projects and supervisors are part of the program:
Terrestrial Ecosystems and Eukaryote/Microbe Interaction:
Impact of N-processes in animal-bacteria associations (Silvia Bulgheresi)
Unraveling microbial nitrogen utilization and turnover in soil by Chip-SIP (Andreas Richter)
Plant-microbe interaction in the nitrification process (Wolfram Weckwerth)
Effects of nutrients on N-fixation of Lotus spp. and Rhizobium strains (Stefanie Wienkoop)
Investigating factors that govern biological N2 fixation in soil by CHIP-SIP (Dagmar Woebken)
Metabolic Flexibility and Niche Differentiation:
Post-genomic characterization of Nitrospina, a major marine nitrite oxidizer (Holger Daims)
Relation between the age and morphology of marine snow and N cycling (Gerhard Herndl)
Model-based optimization of cultivation conditions for nitrifiers (Thomas Rattei)
Differential gene expression in ammonia oxidizing archaea (Christa Schleper)
Importance of cyanate as substrate for nitrifiers (Michael Wagner)

Applications should be sent as a single pdf file to nathalia.jandl@univie.ac.at, including a motivation letter, your preferred topics, CV (including grades and - possibly - scientific publications). Additionally, two recommendation letters should be directly sent by the referees to the same address. Application deadline: November 15th 2015. Selected applicants will be invited for interviews beginning of December 2015.