We should be very grateful if you could
forward the below advertisements for PhD positions at the Max Planck
Department of Collective Behavior at the University of Konstanz,
Germany. All positions are fully funded, and successful candidates will
be fellows of our International Max Planck Research School for
Organismal Biology http://www.orn.mpg.de/2453/Short_portrait
Further information about our collective behaviour research can be found here: http://collectivebehaviour.com/
We welcome informal inquiries.
PhDs in Collective Animal Behaviour
Couzin Lab
Understanding
collective action in biological processes is a central challenge,
essential for achieving progress in a variety of fields including the
coordinated communication among cells, or animals, to the dynamics of
information exchange among sophisticated organisms, and the emergence of
complex societies. Consequently the study of collective behaviour
naturally spans scales, from how neural circuits control individual
behaviour in a social context, to the analogous issue of determining the
structure and function of the communication network among organisms
that gives rise to emergent group, and population-level, behaviour.
We seek multiple PhD candidates
to join our highly international, collaborative and interdisciplinary
research group to investigating the behaviour and evolution of
collective animal behaviour in the lab and/or field. We are interested
in both invertebrates (e.g. locusts) and vertebrates (e.g. fish, birds)
and those applicants who wish to apply and/or develop modern
technologies (e.g. in automated tracking, virtual reality, GPS,
drone-based imaging, machine learning, neurobiology, genetics,
computational modelling) to understand how animals sense their world and
make decisions in the face of uncertainty and risk.
Given
the broad nature of this search it will be extremely helpful if
applicants can clearly state what excites them about collective animal
behaviour, and what they may want to work on. Our positions are fully
funded for 4 years to allow students time to develop their own ideas and
to follow ambitious and creative research directions.
PhD in Collective behaviours and social structure in animal populations
Farine Lab
How
do collective behaviours and social structure emerge in animal
populations? Seemingly simple mechanisms can often be amplified to
produce remarkable group-level behaviours or population-level patterns.
For example, highly cohesive collective movement patterns can emerge
when animals respond to the movement cues of nearby neighbours.
Similarly, groups of animals can solve complex problems, such as sensing
their environment or finding cryptic new food sources, by eavesdropping
on information being generated by nearby individuals. While natural
selection acts on the behavioural phenotypes of (often selfish)
individuals, collective behaviours are a group-level, or sometimes
population-level, property that themselves can shape selection, and
therefore form part of a complex evolutionary process. To understand how
collective behaviours evolve or social structure emerges, one must
understand (1) the mapping between individual phenotypes and collective
behaviour, (2) the link between collective behaviour, the environment
(both social and physical), and individual fitness, and (3) how
selection arising from ecological or social conditions drives the
expression of the phenotypes that are linked with collective behaviour
or particular decisions that lead to consistent social structure.
We
are seeking one or more PhD students to join an exciting new group
investigating the ecology and evolution of social and collective animal
behaviour. The student(s) will have the opportunity to conduct
pioneering studies on both new and well-established study systems, with a
major focus on conducting observational and experimental studies in the
wild. Our current projects include whole-group high-resolution GPS
tracking, experimental manipulation of social networks, and simultaneous
tracking of predators and prey. Our strength is to integrate technology
and novel analytical techniques in studies of wild animal groups, with a
particular focus on birds. Applicants are invited to contact Dr. Damien
Farine to discuss potential project ideas or research topics to work
on. We seek highly motivated students, particularly those with an
empirical background, a broad interest in social behaviour, and who wish
to work with animals in the wild. Quantitative skills are not a
prerequisite for consideration, but positive attitude towards doing
great science is!
PhD in The mechanisms and evolution of social influence
Jordan Lab
The
production, perception, and cognitive processing of social cues can
have far reaching effects on the social structure and behaviour of
individuals within animal groups. Studying how the nature, frequency,
and fine-scale detail of these interactions leads to emergent properties
at the level of the collective is essential for understanding social
and collective behaviour generally.
An
aspect of social interaction that is commonly overlooked in studies of
collective systems is that interacting nodes within social networks are
not of equal status – a hierarchy exists that affects the nature and
frequency of interactions among individuals, and ultimately the
influence an individual will have in its social network. This hierarchy
may be based on size, sex, familiarity, or reputation, and has the
potential to influence numerous aspects of sociality and collective
behaviour.
In
this project, we seek to understand how relationships among group
members can mediate the flow of information within natural groups of
either Lake Tanganyikan cichlid fish or colonial spiders in Central
America. We aim to characterise social influence at numerous levels –
from behavioural interactions in the lab to studies of massive
populations in the field, examining the neurobiological basis of social
influence and socio-cognitive abilities that facilitate social
interactions.
We
seek students who wish to employ multidisciplinary approaches to
explore their own research questions around this central theme. In our
department, students have access to cutting edge digital tracking of
animal behaviour and leading molecular techniques, which can be combined
with in-depth lab and field experiments examining the adaptive
significance and mechanisms of social influence.