Assistant Curator of Ichthyology
The Florida Museum of Natural History at the University of Florida (UF) seeks qualified applicants for a 12-month tenure-track Assistant Curator of Ichthyology. This position will be filled at the Assistant faculty level in the Florida Museum’s Department of Natural History. The UF fish collection at the Florida Museum of Natural History is one of the largest collections of its kind worldwide, with around 2.5 million specimens. In specimen records, it is the second largest fish collection in the United States. Strengths include elasmobranchs (sharks, skates and rays), western Atlantic reef fishes, western and eastern Atlantic shelf and deep-water marine fishes, North American freshwater fishes, and freshwater fishes from SE Asia. The modernized collection is 97% georeferenced, has tissue samples and 2D and 3D images for thousands of species, and during 2022–2025 was moved to a state-of-the-art facility with an adjoining 900 sq ft collection laboratory and office suite. The collection is the first to implement a modern data and collections management system that tracks the movement and use of specimens in real-time (https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/fish/). The Florida Museum supports a diverse research community studying vertebrates in neontological, paleontological, and anthropological contexts. In addition to collections at the Florida Museum, research is facilitated by UF resources in genetics and genomics, 3D-imaging, research field stations and marine labs.
Candidate Qualifications
We seek to hire an innovative ichthyologist whose research and teaching are collections-based. We invite candidates who address questions in the broad field of ichthyology and who will contribute to, and make use of, the Florida Museum’s extensive and world-renowned fish collection. We anticipate that the successful candidate’s research would bolster current strengths (e.g., evolutionary biology, systematics, biodiversity exploration, global change biology, biogeography, AI and bioinformatics) and grow others, through sustained mentorship and formal academic advising. An ideal candidate will contribute to the museum’s goals of understanding, preserving, and interpreting biological and cultural diversity, and conduct research with opportunities for integrative collaborations with other faculty and divisions within the Florida Museum and across the 16 colleges of the University of Florida. Candidates using multidisciplinary approaches are highly encouraged to apply. Successful candidates should have a Ph.D. in Biology or a related field, conduct specimen-based research on fishes, and have evidence of excellence in research, as demonstrated through publication record, grant record, or potential to conduct grant-funded research. Preference will be given to applicants who would leverage the current fish collection and collaborate across disciplines within the museum. Starting salary range for this position is $90,000 to $105,000, negotiable based on experience.
Assistant Curator is equivalent in rank to Assistant Professor and is a faculty appointment at the University of Florida. This is a 12-month and tenure-accruing position with the tenure home in the Florida Museum’s Department of Natural History.
About the Florida Museum
The Florida Museum of Natural History is the official state museum of Florida. It is located on the campus of the University of Florida, which is ranked no. 7 among the nation’s public research universities by U.S. News and World Report, and is the flagship of the state university system. The Florida Museum’s mission includes stewardship of 40 million specimens and artifacts, award-winning exhibitions, diverse public programs, and emerging virtual and digital engagement. The research and collections programs of the Department of Natural History are world class and attract about $10 million annually in government and philanthropic support. The Florida Museum is a national and international leader in AI and biodiversity informatics, enhanced by its formative role in iDigBio, the national hub for digitization of natural history specimens.
The Department of Natural History, a college-level unit within UF, is a vibrant community of about 300 employees, including 30 full-time faculty, ~80–100 graduate students, ~20 postdoctoral research associates, hundreds of undergraduates engaged in research, curation, and education, as well as administrative, collections and research support staff. The department has dedicated labs for digital imaging, molecular genetics and genomics, and preparing skeletal specimens. Natural History enjoys cross-campus collaborations with many of the 16 UF colleges, including those of potential relevance to this new faculty position: Agricultural and Life Sciences (Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences), Education, Engineering, Libraries, Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Veterinary Medicine. Other campus resources relevant to this position include the UF Genetics Institute, UF Biodiversity Institute, the Whitney Lab at Marineland, and the Ordway-Swisher Biological Station that is part of the National Ecological Observatory Network (NEON), and the UF Tropical Aquaculture Lab (TAL).
The University of Florida is an equal opportunity employer.
