Position Summary: The primary role of this position is to assist in a research project aiming to understand the biogenesis and function of piwi interacting RNAs (piRNAs) in insects, particularly Anopheles mosquitoes. The new employee will design, perform, and interpret experiments to better understand the role piRNAs play in insect immunity to pathogens. The project will characterize piRNAs in natural populations of Anopheles mosquitoes and use population, evolutionary, and functional genomic methods to investigate the evolution of these piRNAs and the genomic integrations they target.  In so doing, our research group will produce high quality manuscripts on findings and generate pilot data to support future applications for external funding.