A few months ago we opened the search for the second1 postdoc to join our project, a role which is expected to liaise with large NSF-funded clade-oriented research projects (such as in particular GoLife projects), and those developing informatics infrastructure for comparative trait analysis (such as in particular ARBOR). This search has recently concluded, and we are delighted to welcome Dr. Guanyang Zhang to our team.
Guanyang is a taxonomist, an entomologist, and an evolutionary biologist. He obtained a PhD in entomology from the University of California, Riverside (UCR), where he worked in Christiane Weirauch’s lab on the taxonomy, phylogenetics, and evolution of assassin bugs (Reduviidae). After graduating from UCR, he moved to Arizona State University to work as a postdoctoral researcher with Nico Franz. His postdoctoral research revolves around the phylogenetics and evolution of weevils, but his interests also expanded to bacterial endosymbionts, weevil-host plant associations, taxonomic concepts and environmental ontology.
Throughout his research, Guanyang found an imminent need to augment the precision and universality of taxonomy for communicating and referencing biological information, which is why he felt the phyloreferencing project is a natural fit for expanding his training. He will be particularly involved in developing and testing testing phyloreferences for insects and bacteria.
Guanyang participated in the face-to-face project meeting last month, and will officially join the project in August. Please join us in welcoming Guanyang!
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The original proposal mentions only one postdoc. NSF agreed to fund a second postdoc to allow a more substantive interaction with large clade-oriented research projects. ↩