Contact
email: barbara.caspers (at) uni-bielefeld.de
Department of Behavioral Ecology
Bielefeld University
Morgenbreede 45
33615 Bielefeld
Website
Foto: „Mirko Krenzel für VolkswagenStiftung“
Curriculum Vitae
___________________________________________________________________
Research positions / scientific career
since 11/2021 Speaker of InChangE
since 2021 Director of the Joint Institute for Individualisation in a Changing Environment JICE
since 2020 Professor of Behavioral Ecology, Bielefeld University
since 01/2019 Treasurer of the Deutsche Ethologische Gesellschaft e.V.
since 09/17 Associate Editor of Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B
2015-2018 Sprecherin der Fachgruppe Verhaltensbiologie der DZG
from 10/15-03/16 Fellow at the College for Life Sciences, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
since 2015 listed in AcademiaNet
since 07/2014 Junior Research Group Leader: Function and mechanism of olfactory kin reocgnition in a songbird, the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) funded by a Freigeist Fellow (VolkswagenStiftung) at Bielefeld University (Department of Animal Behaviour)
10/12 – 04/14 Postdoc with Oliver Krüger at Bielefeld University (Department of Animal Behaviour)
07/09 – 06/12 Postdoc with Sebastian Steinfartz at Bielefeld University (Department of Animal Behaviour, “eigene Stelle” DFG, CA 889/1)
02/09 – 06/09 maternity leave and childcare
02/08 – 02/09 Research assistant at Bielefeld University, Group Sebastian Steinfartz: Mechanisms of adaptive speciation and intra- and interspecific olfactory communication in the fire salamander
10/07 – 12/07 Research assistant at the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research in Berlin (IZW)
03/06 – 10/07 maternity leave and childcare
09/02 – 10/05 Research assistant at the IZW (Berlin), Group Christian Voigt: Olfactory communication in the greater sac-winged bat
Grants // prices // fundraising
10/15-03/16 Fellow at the College for Life Sciences, Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin
04/14 Freigeist-Fellowship of the VolkswagenStiftung
07/12 Niko-Tinbergen Prize of the Ethological Society e.V. for outstanding research on the role of olfactory communication in animal behaviour
01/12 Research grant of the Ethological Society e.V.
01/11 Research grant from the Bielefeld University Young Researcher Fund
11/10 Research grant from the DGHT
01/10 Research Grant University Bielefeld
07/09-06/12 Post-doc grant DFG “eigene Stelle” (CA889/1)
01/06-11/06 Grant of the Berliner Chancengleichheitsprogamm (Humboldt University Berlin)
Presentations // invited talks (selected)
10/19 Key note speaker at the joint Graduate Meeting (DZG/Etho-Ges), in Plön
03/17 Universität Bern, Olfactory kin recognition – are birds really an exception?
03/17 Friedrich Löffler Institute, Celle: Chemical signalling in vertebrates
02/16 Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin: Adpotion, Alloparental Care and Smelling Birds
08/15 symposiums speaker at the EUO in Badajoz, Spain (invited talk): Olfactory parent recognition in songbird hatchlings
09/14 section speaker behavioral biology, 107th Meeting of the DZG, Göttingen, Germany
The neglected sense: Olfactory Communication in Zebra Finches (invited talk)
07/14 CSIV Champaign-Urbana, USA
Olfactory kin recognition as an efficient mechanism against
inbreeding
11/13 Biologisches Kolloquium, Universität Siegen (invited talk)
Ein (fast) vergessener Sinn: Olfaktorische Kommunikation bei Zebrafinken
08/12 World Congress of Herpetology, Vancouver, Canada
Mechanisms of adaptive speciation in the Fire Salamander
07/12 European Conference on Behavioural Biology 2012, Essen (invited talk)
The sense of scent: The use of chemical cues for social communication in vertebrates
Refereeing
Proc B, Scientific Reports, Hormones and Behaviour, Animal Behaivour, Behavioural Ecology, Animal Cognition, Biology letters, Naturwissenschaften, Amphibia-Reptilia, Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology, Molecular Ecology, Journal of Experimental Biology
Education
11/2008 PhD in Biology at the Humboldt University of Berlin
“Olfactory communication in the sac-winged bat Saccopteryx bilineata“
03/2002 Diplom of Biology, University Bielefeld:
Sexual imprinting on a novel blue trait in the zebra finch Taeniopygia guttata
04/1997 Vordiplom at the Johannes-Gutenberg-University, Mainz
06/1994 Abitur; Einstein Gymnasium Rheda-Wiedenbrück,