Job number ACAD104601
Division/School School of Earth Sciences
Contract type Open Ended
Working pattern Full time
Salary £33797 - £38017
Closing date for applications 02-Aug-2020

Applications are invited for two Research Associates, for 36 months, based in the School of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol.

Research Associate 1: Palaeobiology and Macroevolution Modeller

This research is part of an ERC Advanced Research Fellowship awarded to Professor Michael J. Benton. The focus is ‘Reclaiming the world: recovery after mass extinctions’, exploring Palaeozoic and early Mesozoic tetrapods, and the relationships between phylogeny, morphology, and function (size, feeding, locomotion characters).

Applicants will have extensive experience of palaeobiology, phylogenetics and phylogenetic comparative methods and morphometrics, and modelling in R. Relevant specialist skills in large databases, issues of quality and bias in the fossil record, and data analysis in R would be an advantage.

Research Associate 2: Palaeobiology and Macroevolution Modeller

This research is part of an ERC Advanced Research Fellowship awarded to Professor Michael J. Benton. The focus is ‘The double burst of bird expansion’, exploring whether key aspects of bird evolution, from the Mesozoic to the present, were driven by innovation or external drivers such as climate.

Applicants will have extensive experience of palaeobiology, phylogenetics and phylogenetic comparative methods and morphometrics, and modelling in R. Relevant specialist skills in large databases, issues of quality and bias in the fossil record, and data analysis in R would be an advantage.

For both roles you will join the Palaeobiology Research Group, based in the Life Sciences Building. You will interact with other members of the Palaeobiology and Biodiversity Research group, and more widely. The School of Earth Sciences was rated joint second in the UK Research Excellence Framework (REF2014), with 98% of our research output graded as ‘world leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’. The PRG was rated in 2017 (CWUG) as the best palaeontological research group in the world.

For informal enquiries please email Professor Michael Benton - mike.benton@bristol.ac.uk - Please can you make clear in your covering letter which role you are applying for or whether you are applying for both.

We welcome applications from all members of our community and are particularly encouraging those from diverse groups, such as members of the LGBT+ and BAME communities, to join us.