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The Comparative BioCognition Research Group (Prof. Dr. Simone Pika) of the Institute of Cognitive Science invites applications for

1 Postdoctoral Research Associate (m/f/d)
(Salary level E 13 TV-L, 100 %)

to be filled as soon as possible until 12/2025 (extension may be possible).

Description of Responsibilities:

The position involves analysing and supervising the coding of behavioural and video data of wild living central chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) with a special focus on social behaviors, tool-use, and cultural behaviour.

One crucial way in which chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) exploit their complex social worlds is to selectively tap the expertise already acquired by others, especially family members and close friends. This ability resulted in an exceptionally large and varied technological repertoire, involving the deployment of tools made from diverse plant sources to feed on social insects, but also percussive technology to open hard-shelled fruits, termite mounds, nuts and tortoises.
Although the social dynamics, tool-use and the transmission of behaviours has been extensively studied in Eastern and Western chimpanzees, relatively little is known about the social dynamics of central chimpanzees, the diversity of tool-use, and the factors driving the invention of new behaviors, technologies, and cultural traditions.

The project will address these scientific gaps by maintaining and further developing an existing data base of behavioral and video data and analysing data on social dynamics, proto-tool-use, tool-use behaviors, and possible cultural behaviors in central chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes), Loango National Park in Gabon.

Required Qualifications:

Applicants are expected to have an academic degree (Master/Diploma) and an excellent PhD degree in Primatology, Comparative Psychology, Anthropology, Biology, or related fields and good knowledge of nonhuman primate behaviour, tool-use and culture.
Experience in the following areas is expected:

• Using demographical, behavioral, and socio-ecological data collected via cybertracker and video-cameras.
• Expertise in carrying out behavioral studies with a focus on demographic, social, and ecological contexts, particularly in non-human great apes.
• Conducting statistical analyses using R, LMM’s, GLMM’s or Bayesian statistics and possibly Machine Learning.

Successful applicants would have an excellent track record of scientific publications in high-quality journals, excellent skills in spoken and written English, good French skills, would have strong social and communicative skills, and enjoy collaborative work in an international research environment. Programming skills will be a plus.

The position involves the opportunity to supervise and mentor junior researchers (e.g., PhD-students or master interns), publish first author papers, contribute to related projects as a co-author and present the work at international conferences and institutions.

The position is available on a full-time or part-time basis.

Osnabrück University is a family-friendly university and is committed to helping working/studying parents balance their family and working lives.

Osnabrück University seeks to guarantee equality of opportunity for women and men and strives to correct any gender imbalance in its schools and departments.

If two candidates are equally qualified, preference will be given to the candidate with disability status.

Applications with the usual documentation should be submitted by e-mail in a single PDF file to Prof. Dr. Simone Pika (spika@uos.de) with a cc to office@ikw.uni-osnabrueck.de no later than May 21, 2024. Further information can be obtained from Prof. Dr. Simone Pika (spika@uos.de).