Courses, Defenses & Events

January 14, 2025

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Adaptation in multiple plant-insect interactions and one scientist’s career

Institute Seminar by Carina Baskett
  • Date: Apr 29, 2025
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Carina Baskett
  • Carina Baskett completed her PhD in 2018 in plant evolutionary ecology advised by Doug Schemske and Marjorie Weber at Michigan State University, USA. She did a postdoc with Nick Barton at Institute of Science and Technology-Austria outside Vienna, studying flower color variation in wild snapdragons. In 2021, she transitioned from research to grant writing and professional development in an interdisciplinary microbiology research center at Georgia Tech, USA. After three years, she moved back to Vienna and is coordinating a collaborative grant and a graduate program at Vetmeduni. When not at work or moving across the Atlantic, she is chasing after two kids and/or climbing.
  • Location: Bückle St. 5a, 78467 Konstanz
  • Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Bücklestrasse + Online
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
  • Contact: aashbury@ab.mpg.de
A fundamental question at the intersection of ecology and evolution is how do biotic and abiotic environments differentially influence adaptation and diversification? The abiotic environment can change, but it cannot coevolve (a process of reciprocal adaptation). This profound difference is ... [more]

Ombudspersons in Science – Structures in Germany, Duties of an ombudsperson

Ombudspersons in Science – Structures in Germany, Duties of an ombudsperson
  • Date: Apr 29, 2025
  • Time: 11:30 AM - 12:30 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Wolfgang Fiedler & Michael Mende
  • ​In cases of conflict or matters of good scientific practices (GSP), scientific staff can contact locally appointed or elected ombudsperson. For the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior, Michael Mende and Wolfgang Fiedler have been elected to fulfill this role.
  • Location: University of Konstanz + online
  • Room: ZT1201 + online
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
[more]

Reciprocity in animals

Institute Seminar by Gerry Carter
  • Date: May 6, 2025
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Gerry Carter
  • I'm an Associate Professor at Princeton University, a Research Associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), and a Freeman Hrabowski Scholar at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. I was previously an Associate Professor at The Ohio State University, a Humboldt Fellow at MPI-AB (then Ornithology) in Konstanz, and a Smithsonian Postdoc Fellow at STRI. I did my PhD with Jerry Wilkinson at the University of Maryland. Outside work, my hobbies are that my kids are 4 and 2 years old.
  • Location: MPI-AB Möggingen
  • Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Möggingen + Online
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
  • Contact: ehurme@ab.mpg.de
Reciprocity has been a controversial topic in behavioral ecology for over 40 years. How often is cooperation between animals stabilized by conditional responses to each partner's helping (reciprocity)? How often are cooperative investments explained by product returns (pseudo-reciprocity)? I argue ... [more]

Natural history museums: bridging research and society

Rado Seminar by Paquita Hoeck + Lukas Keller
  • Date: May 9, 2025
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Paquita Hoeck + Lukas Keller
  • Location: MPI-AB Möggingen
  • Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Möggingen + Online
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
  • Contact: ddechmann@ab.mpg.de
Natural history and science museums are more than just showcases for scientific facts - they are dynamic interfaces between research and society. They captivate a wide audience, often providing the first contact of children with science and research. They make complex scientific topics tangible and ... [more]

Unravelling the Past and Present: Marine Phytoplankton Population Dynamics in the face of the Anthropocene

Doctoral defense by Alexandra Schmidt, supervised by Laura Epp
  • Date: May 9, 2025
  • Time: 11:00 AM - 01:30 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Alexandra Schmidt
  • Location: University of Konstanz
  • Room: U307a + online
[more]

The role of epigenetic inheritance in rapid evolutionary adaptation of invasive plants

Doctoral defense by Jasmin Herden, supervised by Mark van Kleunen
  • Date: May 12, 2025
  • Time: 01:30 PM - 04:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Jasmin Herden
  • Location: University of Konstanz
  • Room: M 801 + online
[more]

Institute Seminar by Blair Costelloe

Institute Seminar by Blair Costelloe
  • Date: May 13, 2025
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Blair Costelloe
  • Location: Bückle St. 5a, 78467 Konstanz
  • Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Bücklestrasse + Online
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
  • Contact: cberthelot@ab.mpg.de
[more]

Working in Germany – Labour Market and Job Search Strategies for International and German STEM Researchers

  • Date: May 13, 2025
  • Time: 11:45 AM - 01:15 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Eva Maisel, Career Service University of Konstanz
  • Location: University of Konstanz
  • Room: M629
  • Host: KoRS-CB and IMPRS
  • Contact: imprs@uni-konstanz.de
[more]

IMPRS PhD student retreat 2025

IMPRS PhD student retreat 2025
  • Start: May 14, 2025 12:00 PM (Local Time Germany)
  • End: May 16, 2025 12:00 PM
  • Speaker: Dr. Dagmar Sigurdardottir
  • Location: Jugendherberge Burg Wildenstein
  • Host: IMPRS
  • Contact: imprs@uni-konstanz.de
[more]

Knowledge and culture in savannah elephants: What do we know, and what should we do next?

Institute Seminar by Lucy Bates
  • Date: May 20, 2025
  • Time: 10:30 AM - 11:30 AM (Local Time Germany)
  • Speaker: Lucy Bates
  • My research considers the evolution of social skills and cognition in mammals, particularly elephants. My current work concerns the acquisition of information and the role of ‘knowledgeable’ individuals in elephant society. This has implications for elephant conservation and management policy, which is an important part of my interest, and I endeavour to use my research to contribute to and enable sustainable, fair and effective conservation practices. My passion for studying elephant cognition began with my first post-doctoral research position, conducted between 2005 and 2008 at the University of St Andrews. Working with Professor Dick Byrne, I conducted some of the first field studies exploring social cognition in savannah elephants, working in collaboration with the Amboseli Trust for Elephants. Before that I completed my PhD on chimpanzee behavioural ecology, also at St Andrews. After the post-doc I took a break from academia, working as a consultant for various conservation projects in southern Africa between 2009 and 2015 before returning to research with a part-time Daphne Jackson Trust Fellowship held at the University of Sussex, working alongside Professor Karen McComb. I then worked as an Associate Lecturer at the Open University, before joining the University of Portsmouth as a (part-time) lecturer in 2022.
  • Location: Bückle St. 5a, 78467 Konstanz
  • Room: Seminar room MPI-AB Bücklestrasse + Online
  • Host: Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior
  • Contact: rthillaikumar@ab.mpg.de
In this talk, I will explore what we know about the acquisition of information and the role of knowledgeable individuals in elephant society. It is something of a mantra for elephant biologists that older elephants are ‘repositories of knowledge’, but I will question what this means in two ways ... [more]
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