Join the Lab: Research Opportunities for Students
Are you a motivated and curious student with a strong interest in sensory ecology and animal communication? Our lab offers a dynamic environment for hands-on research. We welcome inquiries from all interested candidates. Please contact Dr. Andreas Fischer for details.
A list of ongoing projects can be found here.
We offer several avenues for student involvement:
- Research Internships (B.Sc. & M.Sc.)
- Bachelor’s and Master’s Thesis Projects
- PhD Positions
We focus on novel scientific questions with the goal of publishing our findings in peer-reviewed journals. Students who make a significant contribution to a project are offered co-authorship on resulting publications.
Experimental Approaches
Our research integrates behavioral ecology with advanced analytical chemistry.
Projects in the lab provide training in a range of methods and may involve:
- Designing behavioral assays (e.g., olfactometers) to test the function of chemical signals.
- Identifying pheromones using metabolomics based on LC-MS/MS and GC-MS analyses.
- Investigating multimodal communication by exploring the of chemical and physical signals.
- Testing the efficacy of botanicidals as sustainable deterrents for urban arthropods pests.
Our primary study systems include a range of spiders (Latrodectus, Araneus, Pisaura, Zoropsis) and other understudied arthropods like the house centipede (Scutigera).
While our work is mainly lab-based, projects often include local fieldwork.
Animal Metabolomics & Ecology 