Postdoctoral position opportunity on Leadership in horses
Project: What makes a good leader? The animal origin of leadership.
Hiring Organization: USIAS - University of Strasbourg Institute for Advanced Study
Supervisor: Odile PETIT
Date Posted:
2013-11-08
Position Description: full-time Post-doctoral researcher position (24 months) to investigate how horses reach consensus about group movements and what characterizes a leader. The successful candidate is expected to spend a considerable amount of time observing and conducting behavioural experiments on groups of horses and to build global indicators to explain interindividual differences in leadership success.
Qualifications/Experience:
Required: we invite applications from researchers holding (or expecting to obtain prior to March 2014) a PhD in Biology/Anthropology with a strong expertise in animal behaviour and societies. Previous experience in analyzing behavioural and social data will be highly advantageous. Applicants should be proficient in written and spoken English, have excellent social skills, and be able to work both independently and in a large, interdisciplinary team.
Beneficial: fieldwork experience with horses (at least social mammals), R and/or SAS, Social Network Analysis, good knowledge of French
Salary/funding:
The salary will be in accordance with French national regulations for post-doctoral researchers and amounts to ca. 3996euros per month (gross, i.e. ca. 2200euros net basic salary).
Support provided for positions:
One national and one international Congress
Term of Appointment:
The appointment will be for 2 years and will begin on 1 April 2014.
Application Deadline:
8 December 2013
Comments:
Applications consisting of a cover letter stating research experience and interests, a detailed curriculum vitae, and the names and e-mail addresses of two referees can be sent electronically to Dr. Odile PETIT, odile.petit [ chez ] iphc.cnrs.fr.
Contact Information:
Odile Petit
odile.petit [ chez ] iphc.cnrs.fr
Ethologie Evolutive; Département d'Ecologie, Physiologie et Ethologie
Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien
23, rue Becquerel, 67087 Strasbourg Cedex France
Website: http://www.iphc.cnrs.fr/-Odile-Petit-
Summary of the Project
What makes a good leader? The animal origin of leadership.
Every day, humans make decisions about issues of interest for the community they represent. The influence of particular individuals on others opinions and behaviours has long been studied by social and political scientists. It is often suggested that certain individuals can act as leaders because they have more influence over others. Understanding how animal species successfully reach an optimal decision could permit a more efficient assessment of how humans reach decisions. Synchronization of activity is one of the major challenges of any society, and animals depend on their congeners to reach common goals and maintain cohesion. Therefore, collective movements are the most obvious manifestation of consensus decisions we can find in animals.
This project contains both observational and experimental procedures for studying collective movements in the domestic horse. During my fellowship, I will establish leader’s profiles by determining the respective weights of individuals and the role of their various attributes and characters in collective decisions. The main innovative aim of this project is to disentangle the social influences from the intrinsic (more physiological) attributes of individuals in explaining successful leaders.
The project will finally allow us to predict which individuals can become leaders in any society and thus make real progress in the understanding of the origins of human decision-making.
Project: What makes a good leader? The animal origin of leadership.
Hiring Organization: USIAS - University of Strasbourg Institute for Advanced Study
Supervisor: Odile PETIT
Date Posted:
2013-11-08
Position Description: full-time Post-doctoral researcher position (24 months) to investigate how horses reach consensus about group movements and what characterizes a leader. The successful candidate is expected to spend a considerable amount of time observing and conducting behavioural experiments on groups of horses and to build global indicators to explain interindividual differences in leadership success.
Qualifications/Experience:
Required: we invite applications from researchers holding (or expecting to obtain prior to March 2014) a PhD in Biology/Anthropology with a strong expertise in animal behaviour and societies. Previous experience in analyzing behavioural and social data will be highly advantageous. Applicants should be proficient in written and spoken English, have excellent social skills, and be able to work both independently and in a large, interdisciplinary team.
Beneficial: fieldwork experience with horses (at least social mammals), R and/or SAS, Social Network Analysis, good knowledge of French
Salary/funding:
The salary will be in accordance with French national regulations for post-doctoral researchers and amounts to ca. 3996euros per month (gross, i.e. ca. 2200euros net basic salary).
Support provided for positions:
One national and one international Congress
Term of Appointment:
The appointment will be for 2 years and will begin on 1 April 2014.
Application Deadline:
8 December 2013
Comments:
Applications consisting of a cover letter stating research experience and interests, a detailed curriculum vitae, and the names and e-mail addresses of two referees can be sent electronically to Dr. Odile PETIT, odile.petit [ chez ] iphc.cnrs.fr.
Contact Information:
Odile Petit
odile.petit [ chez ] iphc.cnrs.fr
Ethologie Evolutive; Département d'Ecologie, Physiologie et Ethologie
Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien
23, rue Becquerel, 67087 Strasbourg Cedex France
Website: http://www.iphc.cnrs.fr/-Odile-Petit-
Summary of the Project
What makes a good leader? The animal origin of leadership.
Every day, humans make decisions about issues of interest for the community they represent. The influence of particular individuals on others opinions and behaviours has long been studied by social and political scientists. It is often suggested that certain individuals can act as leaders because they have more influence over others. Understanding how animal species successfully reach an optimal decision could permit a more efficient assessment of how humans reach decisions. Synchronization of activity is one of the major challenges of any society, and animals depend on their congeners to reach common goals and maintain cohesion. Therefore, collective movements are the most obvious manifestation of consensus decisions we can find in animals.
This project contains both observational and experimental procedures for studying collective movements in the domestic horse. During my fellowship, I will establish leader’s profiles by determining the respective weights of individuals and the role of their various attributes and characters in collective decisions. The main innovative aim of this project is to disentangle the social influences from the intrinsic (more physiological) attributes of individuals in explaining successful leaders.
The project will finally allow us to predict which individuals can become leaders in any society and thus make real progress in the understanding of the origins of human decision-making.