Curriculum vitae


Scientific Career

09.2003 - 10.2008
Dissertation. Thesis: Function of female Barbary macaque (Macaca sylvanus) copulation calls.
Advisors:
Prof. Dr. J. Fischer, German Primate Center, Göttingen
Prof. Dr. J. K. Hodges, German Primate Center, Göttingen
Prof. Dr. R. Rübsamen, Leipzig University

10.2002 - 08.2003
Diploma. Thesis: Sounds and Size - Identification of acoustic variables that reflect body size in Hamadryas baboons (Papio hamadryas).
Advisors:
Prof. Dr. M. Tomasello, MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig
Prof. Dr. R. Rübsamen, Leipzig University
Dr. J. Fischer, MPI for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig

10.1997 - 08.2003
Study of Biology (Zoology, Neurobiology, Behavioural Physiology, Psychology and Genetics) at the Universities of Leipzig (Germany) and Aberdeen (UK)

07.1997
Abitur Wirtschaftsgymnasium BSZ I.


Work Experience

11.2008 - 03.2009
Research Fellow. Contributing project: diversity of baboons, Research Group Cognitive Ethology, German Primate Center, Göttingen

07.2001 - 08.2003
Research assistant. MPI EVA, Leipzig, Germany
Projects: foraging and feeding strategies in chimpanzees, discrimination abilities of great apes
Advisors:
Dr. Josep Call, MPI EVA, Leipzig
Dr. Julia Fischer, MPI EVA, Leipzig

04.1998 - 08.1999 & 10.2000 - 08.2003
Zoo Guide. Guided tours for school classes, students and other visitors, Ape House/Zoo Leipzig, Germany

10.2000 - 02.2001
Student assistant. Department of Botany, University of Leipzig, Germany, preparation of the Botany lecture


Field Experience

11.2008 - 12.2008
Collection of faecal samples to analyse the genetic diversity of baboons, Namibia and South-Africa.

11.2006
Dissertation field research. Playback experiments, Rocamadour, France.

09.2005 - 02.2006
Dissertation field research. Vocal-, hormonal- and behavioural- data collection, Rocamadour, France.

10.2003 - 02.2004 & 09.2004 - 02.2005
Dissertation field research. Vocal-, hormonal- and behavioural-data collection, Gibraltar.


Grants

03.2007 - 02.2008
German Science Foundation (DFG), Project: "Hormonal control of the structure and usage of sexual signals in female Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus)."

07.2006
German Science Foundation (DFG), travel Grant for the 21st Congress of the International Primatological Society in Uganda

09.2003 - 08.2006
German Science Foundation (DFG), Project: "Tell-tale mating calls? Vocalizations as reliable indicators of reproductive state - a study in free-ranging Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus)."


Methods

Hormone analysis:
Extraction (Ziegler et al. 2000)
Enzymeimmunoassay (EIA: oestrogen and progestagen; Heistermann et al. 2007, Möhle et al. 2005)

Playback experiments/Behavioural observations:
Animal focal observation (Pendragon Form on Palmone)

Sound analysis:
Avisoft SASLab Pro 3.92 (Avisoft, Berlin, Germany) CoolEdit 2000 (Syntrillium, Phoenix, AZ)
Speechstation2 (Sensimetrics, Somerville, MA): LPC analysis
PRAAT: script writing for a automatically determination of fundamental frequency and formants
LMA: Sound analysis program developed by Kurt Hammerschmidt

Statistic programs:
SPSS 15.0: In my Ph.D. thesis I specifically used GLMM analysis, but are also familiar with other parametric and non-parametric tests
Cytel Studio 7 (LogXact): logistic regression
Psam: developed by Roger Mundry (Mundry 1999); statistic program specifically designed to analyse data sets with missing values
G-Power: statistical power analysis program