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Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
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Department of Invertebrate Zoology

Opportunities

Project Opportunity: Assembly, annotation, and upload of mitogenomes and ribosomal repeats for 768 fish samples to GenBank 

The contractor shall provide professional, technical, non-personal services to the Smithsonian Institution Barcoding Network (SIBN) and the Division of Fishes, NMNH, to assemble, annotate, and upload mitochondrial genomes and ribosomal repeat regions to the public sequence database, GenBank, for 768 fish specimens using Illumina short read sequences (150 bp paired end, approximately 13 million reads per specimen). 

Deadline is midnight February 18, 2022. Contract to begin approximately March 1, 2022.

Please send questions to Allen Collins and Katherine Bemis e-mail: CollinsA@si.edu; BemisK@si.edu 

 

 

 

Ocean DNA Program ‘Environmental Profiles’ Project

The Ocean DNA Program of the Smithsonian NMNH is seeking a consultant to create a COI amplicon sequence variant (ASV) registry that will scale with projected growth of environmentally derived samples in the Ocean DNA Program. The Consultant will scope material sample metadata, mapping to existing standards where available and determine augmentation sets where applicable. The Consultant shall also build a taxonomic classification engine that can create versioned classification sets of the ASV registry based on a curated voucher-based reference library. The Consultant will work with the Ocean DNA team to create visualization toolkits to present biodiversity data occurrence data across taxa, time and space. 

Deadline is midnight November 15, 2020. Contract to begin approximately January 1, 2021.

Please send questions to Katharine Barker; barkerk@si.edu 

Visiting Researcher

The Department welcomes qualified scholars and professionals from around the world who are interested in utilizing the collections and facilities of the NMNH for on-site research and study. Visiting researchers must request a visit well in advance of the anticipated arrival to ensure approvals, availability of collections, appropriate workspace, and other details. Researchers must comply with all export compliance regulations.

For additional information contact: Karen Reed

Fellowships

Fellowships provide an opportunity for scholars to conduct resident, independent study under the guidance of an NMNH staff advisor.

The Kenneth Jay Boss Fellowship in Invertebrate Zoology provides support to graduate students interested in conducting resident, independent collections-based research in the Department of Invertebrate Zoology (IZ) at NMNH. The fellowships range from one week to up to six months and are awarded preferentially to students researching mollusks, although proposals focused on other invertebrate groups will be considered.

Edward B. and Phyllis E. Reed Fellowship for Research on North American Freshwater Copepods supports endeavors that clarify systematics, taxonomy, ecology, and biogeography of freshwater copepods of North America, and, in particular, seeks to strengthen career development of a graduate student, postdoctoral trainee or young professional.

Fellowships for research and study in the Department are available through the Smithsonian Institution Fellowship Program (SIFP), which provides funding for graduate students, post-doctoral scholars, and senior investigators to conduct research in association with Smithsonian scientists. Fellowship durations range from three months to three years depending on fellowship category. 

The Department hosts fellows through the Peter Buck Fellowship Program for full-time, resident, independent research focused on utilizing the NMNH collections and facilities. Multi-year postdoctoral fellowships are generally awarded, often paired with first year awards through the Smithsonian Institution Fellowship Program (SIFP), to external postdoctoral scholars who have received a Ph.D. or equivalent within the last five years.

For a complete listing of fellowship opportunities available for placement at NMNH visit the Smithsonian Office of Fellowships & Internships.

Internships

Internships offer undergraduate, graduate and advanced high school students a mentor-guided experience designed to meet their learning objectives.

Students selected for participation in the Natural History Research Experiences Internship Program may be placed in the Department. Through NHRE undergraduate students are paired with a scientific mentor of their choice to develop and investigate a research project.

A variety of other internship opportunities are available, including paid and unpaid appointments, resident and virtual projects, and short and long-term tenure.

For a complete listing of internship opportunities at NMNH visit the Smithsonian Office of Fellowships & Internships.

For a complete listing of internship opportunities at the Smithsonian, many available for placement at NMNH visit the Smithsonian Office of Fellowships & Internships.

Volunteering

The Department hosts many volunteers who assist in research and collections task. A minimum commitment of 3 consecutive months is required and at least 6 hours per week.

For more information visit our volunteer page.