PhD in Molecular Ecology

PhD opportunity to study social immunity and immune-sharing traits in wild-living African birds, focusing on immune sharing between family and group members during breeding (study species: speckled mousebird)./nResearch involves fieldwork, lab work, video-analyses and data analyses, and aims to determine what immune components are shared between members of breeding groups and whether mousebirds adjust immune-sharing strategies according to identity and infection status of group members and environmental conditions./nField data collection involves stays of 3+ months at a field research centre in Mbuluzi Game Reserve, Eswatini, between October and January each year. Candidates must be able to commit to doing fieldwork in this period to be eligible for the position./nThe research is embedded within the chair Wildlife Ecology and Conservation at Wageningen University & Research, daily supervision by Dr. Kat Bebbington, co-supervision by Dr. Kevin Matson and Dr. Sjouke A. Kingma. Location: Wageningen, Netherlands (with fieldwork in Mbuluzi Game Reserve, Eswatini).