The Research Project "ROCEEH – The role of culture in early expansions of humans" at Heidelberg Academy of Sciences invites applications for a

3 year PhD position (50% 13 TV-L) with a starting date of 1 September 2016.

The Research Center "The Role of Culture in Early Expansions of Humans" (ROCEEH) asks the pivotal questions: When, where, and in what form did the interplay of changing environmental conditions, biological evolution and cultural development allow the genus Homo to develop new culturally defined constrained ecological niches within and beyond Africa. The ROCEEH project aims to reconstruct the spatio-temporal and phylogenetic systematic expansions of the various hominin species, the expansions of habitat use, and as well as the expansion of cultural capacities between 3 million and 20,000 years before present, while shedding light on their causal relationships and, respectively interdependencies.

Your tasks:

The successful candidate will be part of the ROCCEH palaeoenvironment working group. Within the project 'High-resolution analysis of the Early Pleistocene regional environment before, during and after the first expansion of early Homo into Southern Spain' he/she will reconstruct climate and vegetation successions in the area based on pollen data and assess the relevance of changing environments on early human expansions into Europe.

Your profile:

• MSc. or equivalent degree in Geo- or BioSciences
• Experiemce in palynological
• Solid background in quantitativ/statistical methods
• Excellent written and oral communication skills (English)
• Willingness to engage in international, interdisciplinary Research Cooperations

We support equal opportunity of men and women and therefore strongly invites women to apply. Equally qualified handicapped applicants will be given preference.

Work location will be Frankfurt am Main, Germany (Senckenberg Research Institute). The university for the finalization of the PhD will be Tübingen, Germany.

Please send your application before or on July 10th 2016, preferably by e-mail (attachment in a single pdf document), including a letter outlining your suitability for the post, a detailed CV, Publications, contact details of 2 references) to:

Heidelberg Academy of Sciences
Postfach 102769
69017 Heidelberg.

For scientific enquiries please contact PD Dr. Angela Bruch
angela.bruch@senckenberg.de

More information on ROCEEH