We are looking for one or two PhD students to join the Department of
Behavioural Ecology, Faculty of Biology, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań,
Poland
Students will be supervised by
Prof. Tomasz Osiejuk and will closely collaborate with a postdoc Dr. Pavel
Linhart on his project „Evolution of identity signalling in vocalizations“.
Background: Recognition of individuals
and association of individuals with particular experiences is a key aspect of
different social behaviours. Vocalizations of many animal species are
individually distinct and allow for individual recognition. However, in most of
the cases, it is not well known whether this individual variation is
consequence of individual variation or evolved to signal identity. The project
will investigate different aspects of how individual identity is signalled
through vocalizations ranging from theoretical investigations of how identity
information can be measured to important basic questions like what life-history
factors lead to evolution of true identity signals and to potential application
of this knowledge on identity signalling for acoustic monitoring of
individuals.
The topic of the thesis is partly flexible and final questions for PhD
thesis will be developed with the chosen candidates to suit hers / his
qualifications and interests as long as it is within the scope of the project.
It can be adapted to suit candidates preferring field work as well as those
preferring office / lab work. There is a broad scope of possible approaches
that can be used to address project questions: recording and analysis of
vocalizations, playback experiments, modelling, programming, comparative
analyses, review, etc... Candidate will most likely work with one or more
species used in the past studies by Prof. Osiejuk or Dr. Linhart: ortolan
buntings, corncrakes, pigs, little owls, chiffchaffs, willow warblers, duetting
bird species... But it is possible to use other model species including humans.
Work may include field work in Europe (Poland, Czech Republic) and / or Africa
(Cameroon). Communication of the results to public audiences is important part
of the project.
Financial
support comes from NCN grant POLONEZ 1 funded under the Marie
Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 665778. The monthly salary for the PhD
student is 3000 PLN gross which allows for reasonable living in Poland. The
funding is available for 2 years (2017-18). Funding for the rest of the PhD is
expected to be gained from other sources (university studentships).
The candidates will be evaluated on the basis of
scientific excellence criteria, their publication record, and previous experience
in research and how she / he could contribute to the project.
Requirements:
• MSc in biology, zoology, ecology or similar
• good verbal and written communication in English
Advantages:
• experience with acoustic analyses and / or playback experiments
• experience with behavioural analyses
• experience in field work on birds (recognition,
catching, finding nests, measurement, sampling tissues etc.)
• experience with ecological modelling, programming
• experience with communicating science to public
audiences: social media, audio / video editing, photography
• speaking Polish
How to apply:
The applications containing motivation letter (why you
are good candidate for the position, why you are interested, how could you
contribute to the project, etc.), CV, publication list, and contact on 2
persons that can provide references about you, written in English should be
mailed to Dr. Pavel Linhart (pavel.linhart83@gmail.com) and Prof. Tomasz Osiejuk (osiejuk@amu.edu.pl) by October 31
2016. The best candidates will be interviewed during December.
Deadline of sending offers: 31 October 2016, 23:59
Please include in your application the following
statement: “In accordance with the personal data protection act from the 29th
of August 1997, I hereby agree to process and to store my personal data by the Institution
for recruitment purposes”.
The position will be available from the February 2017.
Please share this information
with anyone who may be interested. Any questions regarding the positions should
be directed to Pavel Linhart (pavel.linhart83@gmail.com) and Tomasz Osiejuk (osiejuk@amu.edu.pl).
This project has received
funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation
programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 665778.
