Department Ecosystem Services

Opportunities


Supervision of students

We offer highly motivated, qualified students and PhD students a supervision of practical training and final theses within our research projects. Since we get many enquiries, please consider the information provided about our research at our webpages and specify your interest. Please feel free to contact the responsible person directly. Further topics can only be supported if they are of exceptional high quality and independence. If you are interested in any of the research topics of the department, please send your request by E-mail in English. Convince us of your motivation and give us an insight into your education and professional qualifications. Please also include the period and the type of job (internship, bachelor thesis, master thesis, doctoral thesis).

Master thesis:
Assessing distribution and/or dispersal of an invasive fish species (Sander volgensis)

Invasive species are among the main threats for biodiversity. However, distribution ranges and dispersal routes of newly introduced species are often unknown, despite such knowledge being essential for effective conservation measures. If you are interested in learning how to model distribution and/or dispersal patterns of invasive species based on citizen-science derived occurrence information, this project might be interesting for you. You will be required to get in contact with recreational fishing clubs or individual person to get additional distribution data and to build distribution or dispersal models using the statistical software R. Consequently, the ideal applicant must be comfortable working with people and should have some prior knowledge about the statistical software R. Additionally, it would be advantageous to be good or very good in German. Large parts of the project could be done remotely, however, in some occasions it can be necessary to meet in person (Leipzig or Berlin). The project could start as soon as possible.

Master thesis:
How does nature benefit our health?

If you are keen to understand how forest biodiversity can improve our physical health and mental wellbeing, this might be the project for you. You will be required to conduct human surveys, and collect some physiological data (heart rate and cortisol samples). This will be done in a forest in Leipzig in Spring (March – May), so the ideal applicant must be comfortable working with people, be very organized and motivated, and be fluent in German. 

Research positions

Open positions for funded PhD studentships, research assistant and postdoctoral positions will be advertised at our UFZ webpages.

We welcome to hear from interested researchers with their own PhD studentship, postdoctoral or fellowship funding, or who have opportunities to apply for such funding, who would like to join our research group (please E-Mail with a short research proposal and your CV in English). At our Research and Publications website pages you can find out about our research interests. Our team is international and interdisciplinary and we welcome diversity in disciplines and experiences.


Visitors

We invite academic and non-academic visitors to the research group for collaborative research with team members. Proposals for visits with own funding, including sabbaticals, should be directed by email in English. From time to time there are opportunities to apply for sDiv funding.

Supervision of students

We offer highly motivated, qualified students and PhD students a supervision of practical training and final theses within our research projects. Since we get many enquiries, please consider the information provided about our research at our webpages and specify your interest. Please feel free to contact the responsible person directly. Further topics can only be supported if they are of exceptional high quality and independence. If you are interested in any of the research topics of the department, please send your request by E-mail in English. Convince us of your motivation and give us an insight into your education and professional qualifications. Please also include the period and the type of job (internship, bachelor thesis, master thesis, doctoral thesis).