The Hobson Lab started in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Cincinnati in August, 2019.
You might be a good fit for the Hobson Lab if you:
- Are interested in sociality, cognition, network methods, or social complexity
- Have experience or interest in working with social birds (like parakeets or quail) or fish (like betta)
- Have skills in data analysis (especially networks), observational data collection, vocal recording, and/or animal experiments (or you are interested in developing these skills)
- Like tinkering with Raspberry Pi and/or Arduino systems
UC undergrads interested in gaining research experience
** We are not currently recruiting undergrads, please check back in Fall 2025 for updates ** If you’d like to get research experience or help with animal care, please see this page with our current opportunities.
Postbac field assistants
The field crew is currently filled, but we will likely be recruiting again fall 2025. Please visit this page for more information.
Grad students
** I may be recruiting 1-2 new students to start in Fall 2026 ** More information on the department and grad program is here. General advice on applying to ecology/evolutionary biology grad programs can be found here. The deadline to apply to UC is 01-Jan. Students interested in working with me are HIGHLY ENCOURAGED to contact me prior to applying to the program (more information here).
General advice on contacting potential advisors:
For the biology department here at UC, it is critical for potential grad students to contact potential advisors prior to applying. Please refer to the following advice about reaching out for making that first contact:
- Ten simple rules for choosing a PhD supervisor
- “So, you want to go to grad school? Nail the inquiry email”
- “How to Write an Email to a Potential Ph.D. Advisor/Professor”
- “How to Correspond with Potential Graduate School Advisers”
- “Some tips on writing an email of interest to potential graduate school advisors”
Postdocs
I am not currently recruiting postdocs for funded work. However, I’d be very interested in discussing options for anyone interested in writing a fellowship proposal to work with me.
Funding
Graduate Fellowships
- NSF GRFP – I would be interested in working with potential students on developing proposals focused around social interactions, social structures, and computational methods for better testing hypotheses about the drivers of sociality (deadline in Oct).
Postdoc Fellowships
- NSF PRFB Fellowships: Independent funding (mostly salary, with some limited research/professional development funds). I’d be interested in working with people to develop their applications for working with me (Area 1, deadline in Nov).
- Database of postdoc opportunities, started by Dr. Allison Barner
Faculty Fellowships
- Simons Foundation Pivot Fellowship: Are you a faculty member working outside animal behavior and sociality, but interested in learning about network approaches? This is an interesting fellowship aimed at bringing researchers from a different field and embedding them with a lab in a new field that might be of interest! Please get in touch if you would like to discuss options.