Our lab here at UW-Madison is recruiting a postdoctoral researcher. We have an opening in an NIH-funded (MIRA) postdoc position to work on the development and/or application of population genetics approaches for evolutionary inference. There is quite a bit of flexibility in research focus. Possible projects include demographic inference in humans and hominins (in particular, the deep evolutionary history of both modern and archaic humans), inference of natural selection and selective interactions (such as dominance, epistasis, or background selection), and connecting selection on quantitative traits (e.g., stabilizing selection) to selection on trait-contributing variation in non-equilibrium demographic settings. Potential applicants with related interests in population genetics and evolution are encouraged to reach out via email with informal inquiries.
UW-Madison offers a vibrant and interactive research community in evolution, genetics and genomics (Evolution at UW-Madison). Quality of life in Madison, Wisconsin, is high, with excellent biking and public transit infrastructure, affordability, and ready access to both outdoors and urban activities.
The position follows the NIH postdoc salary scale. Start date is flexible, with possible start dates between Fall 2024 and Spring 2025.
Informal inquiries are welcome and should be emailed to Aaron Ragsdale (apragsdale@wisc.edu), and more information about our lab and research can be found on our webpage (https://apragsdale.github.io/).
To apply, please email apragsdale@wisc.edu with your CV by August 31, 2024.
Santiago’s paper, “Demographic modeling of admixed Latin American populations from whole genomes” is now published in AJHG (bioRxiv link)! In collaboration with Andrés Moreno at LANGEBIO and other researchers at LIIGH-UNAM, we inferred detailed demographic models for Latin American populations using whole genome data, including 50 newly sequenced whole genomes from Indigenous individuals in Mexico. The demographic models are big improvements over existing models for demographic history in the Americas, and you can simulate data using simulation software that support Demes (such as msprime, fwdpy11, dadi, and moments). The models are provided as supplementary files in the publication, and can also be found on github. In Santiago’s paper, we show how these models can be combined with parameters of selection to run realistic genomic simulations of functional variation in admixed Latin American populations.
Some nice perspectives and summaries have been published covering our recent article (A weakly structured stem for human origins in Africa).
First, an accompanying perspective by Elleanor Scerri: One species, many roots?
In The NY Times, by Carl Zimmer: Study Offers New Twist in How the First Humans Evolved
In National Geographic, by Tim Vernimmen: Did early humans interbreed with a ghost population?
We are excited to share that our work on understanding ancient population structure within Africa is now published as an article in Nature! In this paper, we use geographically and genetically diverse populations across Africa and Eurasia to reconstruct detailed demographic models for our species in the deep past. We find that a model that includes long-lasting population structure, with populations connected by ongoing migration, provides the best fit to the genetic data. In contrast to other recent studies, we do not find evidence for a substantial contribution from an unidentified “ghost” population within Africa (akin to Neanderthal and Denisovan contributions in Eurasia). This work is in collaboration with my former postdoc advisor Simon Gravel, at McGill University, Brenna Henn and Tim Weaver at UC Davis, and others.
Our group has positions available for both postdocs and PhD students interested in population genetics and evolution! Postdoc funding is available for at least two years, with a flexible start date. See the evoldir listing for details. PhD students are admitted through the Integrative Biology Graduate Program, and the application deadline is December 1, 2021. Informal inquiries are most welcome!