1 PhD position on Evolutionary endocrinology of birds in Germany | International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) for Organismal Biology

The International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) for Organismal Biology is jointly organized by the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in See­wiesen and Radolfzell and the University of Konstanz. More than 25 internationally recognized research groups actively participate in the PhD program and offer challenging, cutting-edge PhD projects in the fields of Beha­vioral Biology, Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, Physiology and Neuro­biology.

All students accepted to the program will be supported by stipends or contracts. The program offers a dedicated teaching program, high quality research experience, and outstanding research facilities in an inspiring research and living environment. The working language is English. Each PhD student receives individual supervision and mentoring and is guided in her/his research work by a PhD advisory committee.

Interviews with the applicants are scheduled for Mid-March. Candidates accepted into the program may start latest September 2014. The Max Planck Society and the University of Konstanz are equal opportunity employers.

Qualification: Applicants should hold a MSc or equivalent degree in biology or a related discipline at the point of enrollment.

For the online application process visit here.

Project description:Our main research interest is to understand the ways in which animals evolve physiological adaptations to the environment in which they live. At present we focus on the evolution of the endocrine control of behavior. We investigate, for example, how individual variation in corticosterone and testosterone profiles translate into fitness, whether hormone profiles are heritable and how plasticity in hormonal responses comes about. Our main study species is the great tit, Parus major, a well-studied and abundant species across Europe. We approach microevolutionary questions using natural variation in the wild, phenotypic engineering (hormone manipulations), telemetry, and behavioral observations, eventually extending into quantitative genetics approaches.

Further Information

Application Deadline : 15 January 2014