POSTDOC POSITIONS (3) TO WORK ON THE NEUROETHOLOGY OF ACOUSTIC COMMUNICATION AND MATE CHOICE IN NORTH AMERICAN TREEFROGS
Newly funded NSF-BSF collaborative project on acoustic communication in treefrogs is recruiting up to three postdoctoral fellows. The project integrates cutting edge behavioral and neurophysiological approaches to determine how female treefrogs evaluate a series of male signals in complex signaling environments. Behavioral approaches will tackle how female preferences for male call rate and regularity depend on the number of competing signalers, including application of new sensor technology to measure detailed movement dynamics for insight into female perceptual processes. Neurophysiology experiments will use newly developed flexible electrodes to evaluate how female preferences for a series of calls are dynamically coded by neural circuits. The project is a collaboration between Kim Hoke (Colorado State University), Mark Bee (University of Minnesota), Erik Zornik (Reed College), and Mark Shein-Idelson (Tel Aviv University). The postdocs will be part of an international team and work in the labs of Kim Hoke (Ft. Collins, Colorado, USA), Mark Bee (St. Paul, Minnesota, USA), and/or Mark Shein-Idelson (Tel Aviv, Israel). Required qualifications include: a Ph.D. in neurobiology, behavioral biology or related disciplines; and a deep desire to discover how the natural world works by rigorously applying the scientific method. Preferred qualifications include: a background in electrophysiology and/or quantitative behavioral analyses; and strong coding skills (e.g., in MATLAB, Python, and/or R). Familiarity with animal behavior and sensory ecology (generally) and acoustic communication (specifically) is also desirable. Prospective PhD students are also invited to contact us about opportunities. All PIs are attending the 2022 International Congress of Neuroethology in Lisbon, so please contact us if you are attending and interested in learning more about these positions. All formal inquiries should include a CV and a description of the applicant's research interests and experience and be sent via email to the project PI, Dr. Kim Hoke (Kim.Hoke@colostate.edu). Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until the positions are filled.