jeudi 7 avril 2016

PhD Position in Primate Behaviour -- University of Neuchatel, Switzerland



We seek to fill a 3-year position for a PhD student in the area of primate communication and cognition, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.
Our overall goal is to make progress in how primates socially learn to communicate, especially in the vocal mode. To this end, we will carry out a set of observational and experimental studies to make progress in this domain, such as how acoustic structures are acquired and how sound-meaning linkages are established. The entire project will encompass research with chimpanzees, both in captivity and in the wild, and several monkey species, particularly Diana monkeys, sooty mangabeys and vervet monkeys in their natural habitats in Uganda, the Ivory Coast and South Africa.
The successful candidate will have a strong academic background in a relevant discipline (zoology, anthropology or psychology) and ideally some prior experience in collecting data in wild populations. She/he will by supervised by Klaus Zuberbühler and join a strong team of Master and PhD students and postdoctoral researchers at the Laboratory for Comparative Cognition at the University of Neuchatel (http://www2.unine.ch/compcog). The position is fully funded for three years with an annual salary of around CHF 48,500.
We seek to fill the position by July 2016, although the starting date is negotiable. We aim to generate a work programme that maximally fits the candidate’s own interest -- within the limits of the project’s goals – so personal initiative, independent work ethics, and a strong interest in theory will be essential prerequisites.
If you are interested in this position, please email a cover letter, your CV and the names of three referees to Dr Andrea Bshary (andrea.bshary@unine.ch).