Postdoctoral position in Biogeography of Sociality

Presentation

The Group of Prof. Cleo Bertelsmeier is proposing a Postdoctoral (Premier Assistant) position in Biogeography of Sociality at the Department of Ecology and Evolution, University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

The research project is about the evolution and macroecology of social traits in ants, exploring the environmental drivers of different forms of sociality. Ants are an ideal study system to address these questions since there are more than 15,000 described species with known spatial distributions and their societies can vary for example in the number of workers, the number of queens, colony structure, worker polymorphisms and other traits. We will use both macroclimatic and emergent global microclimatic data to assess species’ climatic niches and test how they are linked to particular social traits.

The postdoc will join a friendly and dynamic team working mainly on macroecology, biological invasions, climate change, community ecology, and ant ecology. For more information, see https://wp.unil.ch/bertelsmeiergroup/

Job information

Expected start date in position: 01/10/2026 or to be agreed

Contract length: 1 year, renewable depending on funding availability

Activity rate: 100%

Workplace: Lausanne-Dorigny

Your responsibilities

70% Personal research

25% Participation to teaching activities and master student supervision

5% Maintenance of lab equipment or other institutional tasks.

Your qualifications

We are seeking to recruit someone with a strong interest and a PhD degree in biogeography, quantitative ecology or evolution, with skills in spatial analysis, phylogenetic comparative analysis, macroecology, climatic niche and diversity analyses. Experience with social insects (in particular ants) would be an advantage.