Application deadline: August 11th, 2019
Social insects typically cooperate with their nestmates but attack intruders, and they make their decisions based on odours individuals bear on their surface. Our lab would like to better understand how ants can know what their nestmates smell like. We offer a 3-year PhD position (65% TV-L E13, DFG-funded) for studying the process of template learning in leaf-cutting ant nestmate recognition, using behavioural experiments, pharmacology, transcriptomics, and analytical chemistry. Please find more information about us, our current projects, and the institute in Freiburg on my website (you’re already on it) or that of our institute.
We are looking for a candidate with a background in animal behaviour or neurobiology and a MSc degree (or equivalent) in Biology or a related field. Experience with behavioural experiments and statistics/bioinformatics are advantageous. And yes, you will have to do field work in the tropics.
To apply, please send a single pdf file containing
- a ca. 1-page motivation letter,
- your CV (including publications and university grades),
- a max. 300 word abstract of a previous research project (typically your MSc project),
- and the names and email addresses of two potential referees
to volker.nehring@biologie.uni-freiburg.de by August 11th, 2019. Please also contact me in case you have any further questions.