Postdoc in population genomics and bioinformatics on language evolution 70

vor 4 Wochen

Zürich, Zürich, Schweiz Universität Zürich Vollzeit
Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies
Postdoc in population genomics and bioinformatics on language evolution

70-80 % The NCCR Evolving Language invites applications for a Postdoctoral Researcher in population genomics and bioinformatics to study human language diversification from the viewpoints of the spread of humans and domesticated crop species at the Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich.


The NCCR is a Swiss National Center of Competence in Research with the goal of creating a new discipline, Evolutionary Language Science, that targets the past and future of language.

The center consists of leading scientists from traditionally separated academic domains, which allows us to harvest the diverse expertise from the humanities, social sciences, computational sciences, natural sciences and medicine towards a broadscale interdisciplinary collaboration.

Your responsibilities The similarity of the genetic and linguistic evolution was pointed out by Charles Darwin. In the first phase of the NCCR, we found that both match and mismatch are common world-wide using the database of genomic and linguistic data GeLaTo (GEnes and LAnguage TOgether). Barbieri et al.

PNAS 2023 as well as local case studies:
Matsumae et al. Science Advance 2021, Arango-Isaza et al. Curr Biol 2023.

In the second phase, we plan to strengthen population genetic analysis including demographic analysis and genome-wide association studies to study the evolution of languages.

This project is a part of the "Population History" Task in the Work Package Stationarity of the NCCR which includes Prof.

Dr. Kentaro Shimizu (Main PI of this position), Prof. Balthasar Bickel (Department of Comparative Language Science), Prof. Andrea Migliano (Department of Evolutionary Anthropology), Prof. Chiara Barbieri (Univ. Cagliari) and a planned new professor in genetics of language. We expect further collaboration within and beyond the NCCR.

Furthermore, we plan to analyze genomes of crop plants to examine the farming/language dispersal hypothesis stating that many language families dispersed along with farmers and crop species.

Your profile PhD degree in biology using genome-wide polymorphism analysis to infer demography, selection or genome-wide association studies. Experience in linguistic data or machine learning will be an asset. Experience either in human or plant data is not essential but the motivation to study them is important.
What we offer We offer varied and interesting work in an inspiring and socially relevant environment.
Diversity and inclusion are important to us.
The University of Zurich offers a highly international, mostly English speaking and an interdisciplinary collaborative environment. In addition to NCCR, the opportunity to interact with colleagues in computational and experimental biology is available at the Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies (Prof. Shimizu as the Director) as well as through the University Research Priority Program Evolution in Action (as a Co-Director). Zurich offers a great quality of life, consistently ranking in the top three cities worldwide.
UZH offers excellent opportunities and strong support for career development. Salaries are internationally competitive.
The project timeframe is 4 years on the basis of a yearly renewed contract.
We take gender balance and diversity seriously in our hiring decisions.
Place of workWinterthurerstrasse, Zürich, Switzerland
Start of employment We will begin reviewing applications end of April 2024 and seek to fill the position by June 2024. Earlier or later start points may be negotiated.

Application procedure

Please submit your application including your past research achievements, a letter of motivation that highlights your interests, your CV and two or more contacts for reference (or reference letters) and one or two samples of your work in a single PDF.

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