The Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior at its sites in Konstanz and Radolfzell offers an international, interdisciplinary, and cooperative environment that opens up unique research opportunities. The goal of our basic research is to develop a quantitative and predictive understanding of the decisions and movements of animals in their natural environment.

The Max Planck Department for the Ecology of Animal Societies would like to fill the following position starting in February, March or April 2024. The workplace will be primarily in Konstanz.

PhD position (m/f/d) on
Vocal interactions in animal groups

as part of the EU-funded BioAcoustic AI Consortium

The Consortium

The BioAcoustic AI Consortium is a new doctoral network focused on training the next generation of researchers at the interface of bioacoustics & AI. The network includes ten fully-funded PhD positions based in various countries: The Netherlands, Germany, France, Belgium, Czechia, Finland, and the UK. PhD candidates in the network will be based at an institution in one of these countries, and will work on their projects in collaboration with experts in both AI and ecology/zoology. They will also collaborate with project partners at other European institutions, including extended research visits for in-depth teamwork. The PhD projects range from developing AI/signal processing algorithms to answering questions in ecology and animal behavior. For more de-tails about the consortium as well as other associated PhD projects, please visit https://bioacousticai.eu/. It is possible to apply for multiple positions within the consortium.

The Project

Vocal communication is central to the social lives of many species. Vocalisations are used to mediate a range of social processes, from single call-response interactions, to more extended vocal exchanges, to the ultimate development and maintenance of long-term social relationships. The dynamics and function of vocal interactions are often complex and poorly understood, and can also be shaped by environmental factors such as vegetation or wind which constrain the flow of visual and acoustic information. Understanding how these factors affect communication and coordination in social animals has important implications for the maintenance of social groups, populations, and species. This project will investigate the dynamics and consequences of vocal exchanges in social animals, across several different study species. The project will leverage recently-collected movement and acoustic data from tracking collars deployed on multiple animals within wild social groups, provided by the host supervisor and collaborators at the Communication and Coordination Across Scales Project (https://www.movecall.group/). The student will work at the interface of behavioral ecology, bioacoustics, and machine learning to address the research topic.

Your profile

Essential:

Strong interest in addressing biological questions using quantitative approaches
Prior experience with programming in R, Python, etc. is desirable
Independence and the ability to proactively develop and implement research ideas
Good interpersonal skills and enthusiasm for working with an international, interdisciplinary team
MSc degree in any scientific discipline including biology, physics, mathematics, computer science or engineering (students with only a BSc can also be considered but may need to complete additional coursework)
Strong written and verbal communication skills in English (German language is not a requirement)

Desirable:

Experience working with audio data (sound recordings)
Experience working with machine learning algorithms, especially deep learning
Experience working with bio-logging data (e.g. GPS tracking data, accelerometer, etc.)

Eligibility requirements:

Candidates can be of any nationality. You must fulfil the EU’s “mobility rule” for this funding scheme, which means you should not have resided or carried out your main activity (work, studies, etc.) in the PhD host country (Germany) for more than 12 months during the 36 months prior to starting the PhD. You must not already have a doctoral degree. You must also be eligible to work according to your host country’s regulations (e.g. visa requirements), and also to travel/work in other European countries for collaborations and workshops.

Our offer

The student will join the Communication and Collective Movement (CoCoMo) research group (www.cocomo.group) led by Ariana Strandburg-Peshkin, and will work with an international network of collaborators through both the BioAcoustic AI Consortium (www.bioacousticai.eu) and the Communication & Coordination Across Scales Project (www.movecall.group). It is also planned that they will join the International Max Planck Research School for Quantitative Behaviour, Ecology, and Evolution (www.imprs-qbee.mpg.de), a doctoral program between the MPI-AB and University of Konstanz. During the PhD, the student will also have the opportunity to collaborate with other researchers and practitioners within the consortium via secondments at Tilburg University, Netherlands (Dr. Dan Stowell) and OekoFor in Freiburg, Germany (Dr. Hendrik Reers).

The position is initially limited to three years, with an option to extend for one year. The position includes a salary of 3.267,57 € per month plus possible allowance for relocation, and allowances for family/special needs if required, under the terms of the EU MSCA funding scheme.

The Max Planck Society endeavors to employ more severely disabled people. Applications of severely disabled persons are expressly welcome. The Max Planck Society strives for gender and diversity equality. We welcome applications from all backgrounds.

Are you interested? Then we are looking forward to receiving your application until October 20, 2023 through our online portal https://bewerbermanagement.net/en/jobposting/f3ef0240eb4019169d37eca5d77850e7bfe3288a0/apply. Please include the following documents:

Letter of motivation / research statement (2-3 pages) addressing the following points:
- Describe your main scientific interests, how they developed, and how they relate to the proposed research project. Explain what scientific questions most motivate you and why. (1 page)
- Describe 1-2 biological questions you would like to ask or hypotheses you would like to test using the hyena dataset described below, and explain the analytical approach(es) you would use to address them. Include a mock figure of what your results might look like (can be hand drawn, computer-generated, or made in any other way) and explain how you would interpret them. (1-2 pages)
Curriculum vitae (CV)
Academic transcripts for your BSc and MSc degrees (can be unofficial at this stage – official records will be required before acceptance)
Contact information for 2-3 personal references (we will contact them if you are short-listed)
A sample of your scientific writing (e.g. publication or manuscript in prep, thesis, term paper, etc.)

Questions about this position will be answered by Ariana Strandburg-Peshkin (astrandburg@ab.mpg.de).

Hyena dataset description: Part of the PhD project will focus on spotted hyenas, in collaboration with the Mara Hyena Project. Spotted hyenas form large, stable social groups with strongly differentiated social relationships. Hyena clans are fission-fusion, meaning that clan members range alone or in small subgroups that split and merge with one another over time, moving over a large territory. Vocalizations are often associated with social encounters, and multiple types of vocalizations have been identified which are used in different contexts. This part of the project will focus on understanding the role of vocalizations in mediating short-term social encounters and long-term social relationships, as well as understanding and modeling the dynamics of vocal exchanges among interacting hyenas. You will have access to a dataset consisting of simultaneous GPS data (1 Hz), acoustic data (48 kHz), accelerometer data (1 kHz) and magnetometer data (1 kHz) collected from most adult members of a hyena clan over the course of 3 weeks. These data can be informed by long-term data on the demographic and social structure (relatedness, dominance, etc.) of the same clan, collected by the Mara Hyena Project over many years. We also collected some time-synchronized video data of common behaviors while collars were recording, and are in the process of labeling a subset of the audio data (start/stop time and type of each call). The exact questions addressed and approaches taken are flexible and will be developed by the student in collaboration with the research team. In the research statement described above, the purpose is to develop and present some initial ideas for what you might like to work on with the hyena dataset, as well as to demonstrate your ability to connect biological questions with analytical approaches and data visualizations.

BioacAI has received funding from the European Union’s Marie Skłodowska-Curie Action under grant agreement No 101116715.