Job Description

Center for Computational Biology
Center for Theoretical & Evolutionary Genomics
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
University of California Berkeley

Details

* Lab located in Valley Life Sciences Building, University of California Berkeley campus, CA 94720, USA. 

* Annual guaranteed minimum salary $52,000 / year, yearly rises, for 5 years (set by lab in direct admit program)

* This PhD is research focused. Requirement of teaching assistance is two classes.

* National and international applicants are welcome.

* Deadline date: Dec 1 2025

* Starting date: Fall 2026

Description

Our lab asks the fundamental question: Are plants evolving to global climate change? We tackle this from a core population evolutionary genomics angle, integrating molecular biology and macroecology approaches. 

We aim to recruit up to 3 highly motivated PhD students into our lab with undergraduate backgrounds in plant biology, evolutionary biology, and/or genomics. Research experience is advantageous but not required. We are a highly interactive, interdisciplinary, and diverse lab. We target scientific excellence as well as building a positive community for growth. You can read our value statement here: www.moilab.science/our-values.

We provide support and freedom for PhD students to design their thesis with input and help from their advisor and peers. As an example, some broad possible PhD projects topics be:
How fast can rapid genetic adaptation be in plants? This would be an experimental evolution and evolutionary genetics and bioinformatics project, which may require whole-genome sequencing and plant experiments, and popgen bioinformatics data analysis. (Example research network www.GRENE-net.org and lab publication).
Are native herb populations migrating and adapting? This is an evolutionary ecology and ecological genomics project, which will require field experimental ecology work, common gardens in altitudinal California Sierras at nature.berkeley.edu/oxford-facility and University of California natural reserve system https://ucnrs.org/. Similar to these gardens: moilab.science/climate-change-evo-experiments. (Example lab publication).
Are species within plant communities in temperate or tropical ecosystems rapidly evolving?   This requires a field ecology background, statistical analyses, and/or genome assembly and population genomics work. We have tackled this bioinformatically using population genetics and biodiversity theory (Example publication) and we aim to expand with field work in California and Central America.

Contact & application

Link to all Berkeley programs and how to apply → https://grad.berkeley.edu/admissions/steps-to-apply/apply/

Informal form for MOILAB pre-submission interests → https://forms.gle/T1MN75iYn8MKdnBZA Link to Flyer → 2026_PhD_RapidEvolutionGenomicsEcology-MoiLab_Berkeley-HHMI