[Employment] Announcement postdoctoral position on modelling phenotypic plasticity

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A 24 months post-doctoral position is available starting end of 2008 at 
the Research Unit on Improvement, Genetics and Physiology of Forest 
Trees (http://www.orleans.inra.fr/les_unites/ur_agpf) at INRA Orleans 
(France).

This project is to gain insight through mathematical simulation on how 
phenotypic plasticity responds to different causal genetic mechanisms 
subjected to environmental shifts and evolutionary forces. This will 
involve several successive objectives: a) to explore theoretically the 
underlying mechanisms responsible of the expression of given levels of 
phenotypic plasticity, b) to compare the constraints to the evolutionary 
progress that are implicit to each of these identified mechanisms, c) to 
evaluate the adequacy of population based response curves as measures of 
individual plasticity under the different mechanisms. These mechanisms 
will be studied by means of allelic models structured into gene 
networks. Two complementary modelling approaches will be used, a 
“model-to-result” approach and an “expectation-to-model” approach. The 
fulfilment of objective (c) will allow a first validation over results 
from dendrochronological records, where families and individuals were 
simultaneously evaluated for temporal and spatial phenotypic plasticities.

The position is funded by a grant from the French Ministry of Research. 
More details about the announcement are given at INRA’s institutional 
website 
(http://www.international.inra.fr/join_us/positions/postdoctoral_positions/annual_campaign_for_postdocs/research_projects_2008)

QUALIFICATIONS: Applicants MUST have a Ph.D. degree by the time of 
appointment, along with experience in quantitative and population 
genetics and development of mathematical models, and training and/or 
experience in one programming language (FORTRAN, C++, etc). An interest 
in plant and/or forest tree improvement is also highly desirable.

APPLICATION: Application forms will be provided upon request at one of 
the addresses below (or downloaded from previous INRA’s website). Send 
fulfilled forms as soon as possible to

leopoldo.sanchez from orleans.inra.fr,
or
jean-charles.bastien from orleans.inra.fr,
catherine.bastien from orleans.inra.fr



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ATTENTION NOUVELLE ADRESSE!
____________________________________________________________
Leopoldo Sanchez
Institut National de la Recherche Agronomique (INRA) - Centre d'Orléans
Unité Amélioration, Génétique et Physiologie Forestières
2163 Avenue de la Pomme de Pin
CS 40001 ARDON, 45075 ORLEANS Cedex 2, France
Tél: +33 (0) 2 38 41 78 14      Fax: +33 (0) 2 38 41 78 79
e-mail: sanchez from orleans.inra.fr
http://www.orleans.inra.fr/AGPF
____________________________________________________________