PhD Position

Konstanz, Geramany

We are seeking a PhD student (m/f/d , 100%) to study the social behavior, tool use, and ecology of wild gracile capuchin monkeys (genus Cebus), linking theory to data to address biological and anthropological/archaeological questions. Ideal candidates have a quantitative background, field experience, and/or systems expertise. The student will collaborate with an international team of researchers in the Inheritance and Social Learning Across Scales group at Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior (MPI-AB) and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) to develop their project and conduct field research.

Our Offer
We offer an interesting job in an open-minded team, a responsible and varied workplace in a growing interdisciplinary and international research institute. The payment is made in accordance with your experience and qualification and the collective agreement for the public service (TVöD-Bund).

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.
Location
Konstanz is a vibrant small city located on the border between Germany and Switzerland, on the shores of the Bodensee (Lake Constance). It is easy to get out into the beautiful German and Swiss countryside and the Alps, as well as to neighboring Zürich.

The Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior at its sites in Konstanz and Radolfzell offers an international, interdisciplinary, and collaborative 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.

Funding: This position and associated costs of field research are fully funded up to 4 years. Opened to students of any nationality.
Deadline: December 1, 2026
Starting Date: Summer/Fall 2027
Location: Konstanz, Germany
Apply via: The IMPRS application system (details below).
Questions? Please contact Brendan Barrett (email: [email protected])

Background
The Inheritance and Social Learning across Scales (ISLaS) group investigates how extragenetic modes of inheritance– namely cultural transmission via social learning and the ecological inheritance of home ranges and territories— affect and are affected by social behavior, ecology, and genetic evolution. We aim to integrate quantitative theory with reproducible Bayesian statistical modeling grounded in an appreciation for natural history. Our work integrates theory and tools from cultural evolution, animal behavior, population biology, spatial ecology, and the quantitative social sciences. We are based out of Konstanz, Germany, but our group does field research in Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia, Mozambique, and California. Our current group has projects focused on the adaptive significance of tool use, parasitology, social behavior and ecology in capuchin monkeys, methods development in social network analysis, and computer vision tools for studying longitudinal behavior and population demography using camera traps. We prioritize theoretical and methodological rigor and embracing uncertainty over prestige, and are sympathetic to many social and methodological calls for science reform (i.e. reproducible, open science and in-country field-partnerships and collaboration).

PhD Project Details
We will hire one student for one of two possible projects:
[A] Community Ecology of Stone Tool Use in Gracile Capuchins
This project will focus on combining field experimentation and data collection, analyzing existing data, and analytical or agent-based modeling to tackle varying questions related to stone tool use by white-faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus imitator) living in the archipelago of Coiba National Park, Panama. Most of these groups are unhabituated and highly terrestrial, so camera trapping is central to our research. Field work may consist of a few 2 week trips or longer multi-month stays in Panama depending on the nature of the project. Potential projects include:
Linking Tool-Use Behavior to Below-ground Ecological Processes: Does stone tool-use behavior and the localized accumulation of lithic and organic material structure below-ground community ecology? This includes an investigation of soil chemistry and microbial and/or invertebrate diversity in tropical systems at both local and global scales using chemical and genetic sequencing. Can observing these ecological impacts in real time inform our interpretation of the hominin fossil record?
Promises and Pitfalls of Capuchin Tool-use to Heterospecifics: Does tool-use at anvils act as an ecological trap for invertebrate prey items, and/or open up access to otherwise inaccessible resources to other community members?
The Metapopulation Ecology of Stone Tool Sites: Tool sites at anvils are like metapopulations spread across a landscape. They intermittently get populated by different “species” (individual hammerstones that differ in material properties, type of processed foods). The population and extinction of these “species” at anvils are determined by the behavior of tool-using monkeys (material selectivity and movement), location on the landscape relative to resources, and taphonomic processes (tides, floods, animal movement). This project will ask how observing and modelling the spatio-temporal metapopulation dynamics of these processes in real time can inform us about the nature of primate tool-use, taphonomic bias, and/or our interpretation of the behavior, cognition, and ecology of ancient hominins. Analyzing longitudinal georeferenced tool-site data, surveys, mapping, and behavioral experiments in front of camera traps are potential tools to investigate this question.
[B] Multi-site comparisons of the social behavior, ecology, and/or movement of gracile capuchin monkeys (genus Cebus)
This project is opened up to a motivated and independent PhD student with systems expertise in Cebus trying to answer broad scale questions about the social behavior, population demography, community ecology, movement ecology or any other aspect of Cebus behavior, evolution, and ecology. A desire to develop indirect approaches to measure these biological or environmental traits (camera trapping, remote sensing, biological samples) is a plus. Potential students may work within our study systems in Panama, or foster collaboration between long-term studies where they have previous research experience and support from senior collaborators. The project should dovetail with long-term research goals of our group and yield within group collaborations.
Supervision and Research Community
The student will join the Inheritance and Social Learning across Scales (ISLaS) research group led by Dr. Brendan Barrett (he/him) and integrated within the Department for the Ecology of Animal Societies. They will work closely with a team of collaborators both within the department, outside of the department and at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. The University of Konstanz and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior together form a thriving research community representing a global hotspot for behavioral ecology, collective behavior, and animal movement research, including the Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour. The student will join the International Max Planck Research School for Quantitative Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution from lab to field (IMPRS-QBEE), a cooperative doctoral program between the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and the University of Konstanz.

Qualifications
REQUIRED: Applicants are required to have a Masters degree in any scientific discipline including biology, ecology, anthropology, archaeology, or the quantitative sciences and have some previous field research experience.
DESIRED: The candidate should be enthusiastic about integrating observational and/or experimental field collected data with quantitative approaches in Bayesian data analysis, causal inference, or theoretical modelling. Broad thinking and a desire to link fields and questions across disciplines is a plus. Previous field research experience in remote environments, the desire to conduct field research in the tropical Americas, and the ability to work and communicate in a cross-cultural context is highly desirable. Prior experience with programming (e.g. in R, Python, Julia, Mathematica, NetLogo, etc.) is also highly desirable.
Researchers with systems expertise, who feel they may be lacking in quantitative skills are encouraged to apply as well, if they are willing to put in considerable effort to develop them with the group’s guidance. The student will be expected to proactively co-develop and implement research ideas to move the project forward, thus a high degree of independence, and ability to know when to ask for help if needed, is crucial.
The working language of the group is English and knowledge of Spanish is beneficial. German language skills are not a requirement. Applicants who are shortlisted for interviews are encouraged to talk to current lab members and alumni to feel out if a PhD position in the group is a mutually beneficial fit.

Applicants should apply via the IMPRS application system, and are also required to include a research statement (see below for details). The deadline is December 1, 2026. The application requires: a 1. CV, 2. contact info for two references, a 3. Letter of Motivation and 4. A Research statement (see below). We will review applicants in early December 2026 and reach out to contacts of long-listed applicants. Online interviews will be conducted in January 2027, followed by in person interviews if feasible. We aim to make offers before February 28, 2027. Please let us know if your availability conflicts with this schedule. All applicants will be informed of a decision once a candidate is chosen.
Research Statement Instructions. To be considered for this position, applicants must include a no more than 2 page research statement (excluding references) addressing the following points:
Research interests: Describe your main research interests, how they developed, and how they relate to the research we do in our group. (½ page)
Research proposal: Spend some time exploring our groups prior publications or relevant literature. Then, choose one of the potential project directions listed above (A or B) and describe 1-2 specific biological questions you would like to ask or hypotheses you would like to test within the scope of the project. Explain the theoretical framework and/or analytical approach(es) you would use to address your question(s). Include a mock figure (can be hand drawn) of what your results might look like, and an interpretation of your potential findings (1-2 pages).
( NOTE: this section is an opportunity for you to develop your ideas and demonstrate how you would address scientific questions with quantitative approaches. It is not meant as a full-fledged PhD proposal, and you will not be expected to carry out the exact project you propose should you join our team!)
Code example: If possible please provide an example of some code you have written, with a brief explanation of what it does (you can also link to publicly-accessible repository). The code does not have to relate to animal behavior, but it should be written by you and be something you can explain to others if needed.
AI Declaration: For transparency (and not penalization), indicate if you used AI in drafting your application, and if so describe briefly how you used it.

https://imprs-qbee.mpg.de/133244/community-ecology-stone-tool-use-and-social-behavior-in-gracile-capuchin-monkeys

24/10/2026

01/12/2026

4975319450574

[email protected]