Postdoctoral Research Associate in Adaptive Introgression in European Butterflies

Full Time- 35 hours per week

36 months fixed term contract

The opportunity:

We are looking for a skilled and motivated 3‑year Postdoctoral Research Associate to join a NERC-funded project on adaptive introgression in European butterflies, led by Dr Konrad Lohse and Dr Simon Martin. The PDRA will lead population genomic analyses across two work packages:

• Comparative scans of selective sweeps across 42 butterfly species (21 sister-species pairs) to quantify how often adaptive evolution is fuelled by introgressed variants and to identify their functional targets.
• Analysis of a hybrid zone system, integrating whole‑genome resequencing and long‑read sperm sequencing to find spatial population genomic signals of gene conversion and adaptive introgression.

You will work with chromosome-level reference genomes, large WGS datasets and high‑performance computing, and collaborate closely with an RA responsible for lab work. The role includes opportunities for fieldwork in France, work with collaborators in Spain and Czech Republic, presenting at international conferences, and supervising project students.

You will join Konrad Lohse’s lab in the dynamic Institute of Ecology and Evolution, University of Edinburgh, as part of a project funded by the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC). Applicants must have a PhD (or to be completed in 3 months) in evolutionary/population genomics or a related field, strong skills in Python/R, computational genomics and statistics, and enthusiasm for working with large genomic datasets. The post requires creativity in problem solving, and strong communication and organisational skills. An understanding of inference methods for detecting introgression and selective sweeps is desirable. Questions should be directed to konrad.lohse@ed.ac.uk

£41,064 to £48,822 per annum (Grade 7)