Professional research experience                                                                                                                

04/2016 – present Assistant professor, Animal Behaviour, Division Animals in Science & Society, Department of Population Health Sciences, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, the Netherlands.

01/2015 – 04/2016 Postdoctoral researcher, Animal Welfare & Laboratory Animal Science, Department Animals in Science & Society, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, the Netherlands.

11/2012 – 12/2014 Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Animal Behaviour, University of Bielefeld, Germany: Evolution of transgenerational effects: function & genetics of epigenetics. Funded by the Volkswagen Foundation

03/2012-08/2012 Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University/ Kalahari Meerkat Project, South Africa: Mechanisms of female dominance and reproductive skew in meerkats. PI: Prof. Christine Drea

11/2009-03/2012 Postdoctoral researcher, AVIAN Behavioural Genomics and Physiology Group, University of Linköping, Sweden: Endocrinology of domestication. PI: Prof. Per Jensen

08/2009-10/2009 Postdoctoral researcher, University of Antwerpen, Belgium: Heritability of yolk hormone deposition. PI: Dr. Wendt Müller

 Education                                                                                                                                                     

01/2005-06/2009 PhD project: “Manipulative Mothers – Maternal steroid hormones and avian offspring sex ratio. Studies in the homing pigeon.” Advisors: Prof. Ton Groothuis and Dr. Cor Dijkstra, Behavioural Biology, University of Groningen (RUG), The Netherlands

01/12/2004 Diploma in biology, Ludwig-Maximilian University, Munich, Germany

03/2004-12/2004 Master thesis: “Altitudinal modulation of the stress response in black redstarts, Phoenicurus ochruros." Advisors: Prof. Eberhard Gwinner and Dr. Wolfgang Goymann, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Andechs, Germany

05/2003 –08/2003 Field assistance in the Cheetah Research Project promoted by the Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Berlin), Namibia

10/1998 Studies in the Department of Biology at the Georg-August University, Göttingen, and the Ludwig-Maximilian University, Munich, Germany. Major subject: Ecology, Minor subjects: Zoology,Wildlife Biology and Management, Land-use Management and Conservation.