Postdoctoral Fellow: Genomics & Population Genetics

University of California - Davis; Davis (CA); On-site; USD 60,000 - 72,000; Full time

Job summary

The Henn Laboratory at University of California, Davis invites applications for a Postdoctoral Fellow to advance two integrated research programs: GWAS methods in underrepresented populations and adaptive evolution at HLA/MHC loci. The role involves collaboration with Brown University and McGill on SWIF(r) toolkit-based inference and active manuscript preparation.

Responsibilities include building pipelines for sequencing data, developing demographic models, training SWIF(r), simulating HLA

Qualifications

• PhD in evolutionary biology, statistical genetics, computational biology, or related field.
• Experience with population genetic methods and large-scale genomic datasets (WGS, SNP arrays).
• Proficiency in Python and/or R; comfort in Unix/Linux computing environments.
• Peer-reviewed publication(s) or manuscripts in preparation.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain QC and variant-calling pipelines for next-generation genomic sequencing data.
• Develop population-specific demographic models and encode parameters in stdpopsim format.
• Train SWIF(r) per population and selection regime; integrate HLA summary statistics; compute posterior probability distributions.
• Develop and validate HLA simulation framework (msprime/SLiM) for directional and balancing selection; release via GitHub.
• Execute selection-guided GWAS for BMI, tuberculosis susceptibility, and skin pigmentation.
• Lead peer-reviewed manuscript preparation and conference presentations.

Skills

Python

R

Unix/Linux

Genomics

Population genetics

GWAS

Education

PhD in evolutionary biology, statistical/human genetics, computational biology, or related field

Tools

msprime

SLiM

SWIF(r) toolkit

GitHub

Job description

The Henn Laboratory at University of California, Davis invites applications for a Postdoctoral Fellow to advance two integrated research programs: GWAS methods in underrepresented populations and adaptive evolution at HLA/MHC loci. The role involves collaboration with Brown University and McGill on SWIF(r) toolkit-based inference and active manuscript preparation.

Responsibilities include building pipelines for sequencing data, developing demographic models, training SWIF(r), simulating HLA