Solothurn in October

Size the day! Especially in autumn, when you can find some rare, but amazingly colourful sunny days. That’s what we told ourselves and planned this recent group hike.

Well, sun? No. Colours? Yes! And a warm and welcoming Solothurn with all it’s (eleven?) wonders. We didn’t drink an “öufi” (swiss german for eleven), the famous beer of Solothurn, but fortunately the cake made up for it.

 

Heidi Colleran visiting

Our recent guest we could welcome at kokkonuts was Heidi Colleran. Heidi is working at the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse and is interested in interactions between demography and culture, with a special focus on reproductive decision-making during the process of demographic transition. We hope you had a successful time in Zurich and you can proceed with new ideas for modelling!

 

GFS Istanbul

On a regular basis the orange pony is given the opportunity to observe a group of enthusiasts in cooking, and, of course, enjoying the gourmet menus they produce. They call themselves the “Good Food Society” (GFS) – and the pictures can only verify this title, I would say.

Last time’s topic was Istanbul. Have a look yourself and decide what would have been  your favourit bites – the sweet Baklava with pistachios, the spicy filled peppers or maybe the really very pink bulgur salad? Enjoy!

 

Xiang-Yi visiting

We are very happy to host our next visitor; Xiang-Yi Li stepped by from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Biology in Plön where she is doing her PhD in the Department of Evolutionary Theory. We had a very fun time with Xiang-Yi, and, who knows, maybe her next habitat will be in the Kokkonuts group?

 

Welcome Nick!

We are glad to host another interested and interesting visitor these days! Nick Davies is a doctoral student at the Zoology Department at the University of Oxford, where he works on coevolution between transposons and their hosts, and on the origin of helping in arthropods. His visit to the kokkonuts has been about meeting this fabulous group (his words – thank you! 🙂 ) and discussing thoughts about bet-hedging and cooperation.

We hope you enjoyed your time here in Zurich and wish you a good flight back!

Ben Hopkins visiting

Ben is a PhD Student on the Doctoral Training Programme in Interdisciplinary Bioscience at the University of Oxford. In his PhD project he would like to deepen his interests and experiences in reproductive biology and evolution, already fascinating him as an undergraduate.

During his visit to the kokkonuts’ lab at the end of September Ben was initiating an intriguing side project on two-sex models of monogamous partnerships. We’re keen on hearing more about the progress of your work, Ben!

Kokkonuts is growing

We are very pleased to welcome two new group members – Andri Manser and Noëlle Ahr just joined kokkonuts!

Andri is about to finish his PhD in animal behaviour, here at the university of Zurich. Well, actually he’s looking deep inside the evolutionary and genetic background that can influence social behaviour. Solid background for his next project with kokkonuts – sexual selection.

From a bit further away, namely from Nancy, France, Noëlle joins us until the end of December. She wishes to expand her knowledge she gained during her masters in modeling in ecological and evolutionary questions. And, maybe, there will pop up some ideas for a PhD thesis?