Dear colleagues,

I would appreciate your help in distributing this announcement as widely
as possible.

Thanks!
Surangi Punyasena
Plant Biology, University of Illinois



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A one-year postdoctoral position is available in the palynology and
paleoecology laboratory of Dr. Surangi W. Punyasena (Plant Biology,
University of Illinois). The appointment is for the final year of a 3-year
NSF collaborative project on the quantification of biological shape
("Biological Shape Spaces, Transforming Shape into Knowledge").  The
project represents a unique partnership of computer scientists,
mathematicians, and biologists, brought together by the 2010 NSF Ideas Lab
in Innovations in Biological Imaging and Visualization.

The Punyasena Lab has used this collaborative opportunity to fundamentally
rethink approaches to pollen classification by exploring novel methods for
analyzing pollen morphology and improving pollen identification.
Representative publications include Punyasena et al, New Phytologist 2012
(http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2012.04291.x/abstract)
and Sivaguru, Mander et al, PLoS ONE 2012
(http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0039129).

This upcoming year will focus on the broader application of these methods
to paleoecological analysis. The successful applicant will help advance
this next phase of research, taking full advantage of the resources and
expertise available on campus, including the Institute for Genomic Biology
Core Facilities (http://www.igb.illinois.edu/core), the National Center
for Supercomputing Applications (http://www.ncsa.illinois.edu/), and the
Illinois Informatics Institute (http://informatics.ncsa.illinois.edu/).

Applicants are expected to have:
-  a PhD at the time of appointment
-  strong writing and communication skills, demonstrated by peer-reviewed
first-authored publications
-  knowledge of pollen morphology and palynological methods

The following additional skills are preferred:
-  experience with advanced optical and electron microscopy techniques
-  knowledge of Java, C++, and Matlab


Preferred start date is between January and June 2013. Salary will be
commensurate with experience.

To apply, please send a CV, brief statement of research interests, and
names of three references to: [log in to unmask]

Applications will be considered on a rolling basis. Informal interviews
are also possible upon request at GSA (Charlotte) next month and at the
Palaeo50 (Oxford) and PalAss (Dublin) meetings in December.