Laboratory Research Assistant

The University of Texas at Austin • Austin, TX

15h • Onsite

About The Position

This position will be located in Port Aransas, Texas. Only applicants authorized to work in the United States will be considered. The goal of the overall project is to investigate the importance of intertidal mangroves on the Texas coast as sources of atmospheric methane. The main goal of this position is to determine where in association with mangrove plants (e.g., within mangrove tissue, surrounding mangrove soils) microbial methane production takes place.

Requirements

• High school diploma or equivalent
• Prior experience in the extraction of DNA or RNA.
• Prior experience in the analysis of DNA sequences.
• Prior experience using R or other programming language(s) (e.g. Matlab, Python, Linux).
• Basic organizational and computer skills (MS Word, Excel, and PowerPoint).
• Ability to work in a team of researchers with various backgrounds.
• Basic swimming skills.

Nice To Haves

• Bachelor's degree in marine, biological, or environmental science, or environmental engineering.
• Prior experience in the phylogenetic analysis of DNA or RNA sequences from complex environmental samples.
• Prior experience in the bioinformatic analysis of metabarcoded DNA or RNA sequences from complex environmental samples.
• Prior experience doing field work.

Responsibilities

• Conduct multi-disciplinary field work to study the coastal methane cycle.
• Extract DNA and RNA from mangrove tissue and mangrove soil.
• Quantify populations of methane-cycling microorganisms using real-time PCR.
• Perform metabarcoding and DNA sequence analyses of methane-cycling microbial populations in mangrove tissue and mangrove soil
• Analysis of stable carbon isotopic compositions of methane and other carbon compounds present in environmental samples.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level
• Education Level: High school or GED
• Number of Employees: 5,001-10,000 employees