PhD position in modelling microbial evolution, University of Leuven, Belgium

We offer an interdisciplinary PhD position at the University of Leuven (Belgium).

The research will concern mathematical and/or computational modelling of microbial evolution in changing and uncertain environments, and will be mainly supervised by Prof Piet van den Berg and co-supervised by Prof Jan Michiels.

This set-up ensures close supervision on the modelling part (Prof van den Berg) but also the direct involvement of a world class experimental evolution lab (Prof Michiels), both to direct attention to the most relevant research questions and to test model predictions.

Research questions include (but are not limited to):

• How do environmental change and uncertainty affect the evolutionary response to antibiotic stress in bacteria (i.e. evolution of resistance vs persistence)?
• Do different genetic backgrounds make some evolutionary responses to environmental change and uncertainty more likely than others?

The position is relatively flexible – the course of the project can to a reasonable extent be adapted to the interests and background of the candidate.

Benefits