Two professors, Margaret C. Crofoot (in 2018) and Anke Hoeffler (in 2019), have accepted appointments as Humboldt Professors at the University of Konstanz. The researchers work in the Konstanz research priorities "Collective Behaviour" as well as "Social and Cognitive Sciences with a Special Focus on Inequality Research". With funding of up to 5 million euros, the Humboldt Professorship is Germany’s most highly endowed research prize.
Margaret C. Crofoot has accepted the Humboldt Professorship (funding: five million euros) in the research priority "Collective Behaviour and Ecology" at the University of Konstanz. She is one of the world's leading scientists in the field of data-based analysis of group behaviour in animals. Using GPS technology, the biologist was able to solve one of the key problems of field research: The GPS transmitters can register and record to the very second the positions and movements of each individual animal in a group. In order to understand collective decision-making behaviour, Margaret C. Crofoot analyzes the group dynamics of the many small-scale interactions for the entire animal collective by combining the transmitters with remote image recordings from drones. Crofoot, who is a pioneer in the still young research field of "Movement Ecology", previously conducted research at the University of California, Davis (USA), and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. She complements the team of top international researchers at the Cluster of Excellence "Centre for the Advanced Study of Collective Behaviour" at the University of Konstanz as a W3 professor of the ecology of animal societies. She joined the team in July 2019. "Collective Behaviour" is one of two Clusters of Excellence in Konstanz funded in the context of the German Excellence Strategy.
Professor Margaret C. Crofoot was born in the United States in 1980. Starting in 2017, she was an associate professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Davis, USA, and since 2010, a research associate at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, where she had been a postdoctoral researcher. She earned her bachelor's degree at Stanford University in California and continued her studies at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, where she completed her doctorate in 2008. Margaret C. Crofoot has received many honours, including the Provost’s Fellowship for Diversity in Teaching at the University of California in 2016. She is a member of numerous scientific bodies, for example at the American Association of Physical Anthropologists, the International Primatological Society and the Animal Behavior Society. Moreover, she serves on the Executive Board member of the ICARUS Initiative, led by Max Planck Research Award winner Martin Wikelski.
Konstanz's second Humboldt Professor: Dr Anke Hoeffler
The second Humboldt Professorship at the University of Konstanz has been accepted by the internationally renowned social scientist Dr Anke Hoeffler from the University of Oxford, who is one of the world's most cited social scientists. The professorship is in the field of political economy and is funded with of 3.5 million euros. Anke Hoeffler's research focuses on the causes and effects of interpersonal and political violence. Crucial to the academic and public debate on this topic has been the "greed and grievance approach" that Anke Hoeffler developed in collaboration with the British migration researcher Sir Paul Collier. They investigated whether civil wars develop mainly out of the strain caused, for instance, by political oppression or out of religious motives and to what extent economic aspects, such as advantageous financing options, facilitate rebellion. The professorship is closely connected to the Cluster of Excellence "The Politics of Inequality: Perceptions, Participation and Policies", that investigates the links between inequality and political processes. In addition to the further development of internationally recognized conflict and development research at the University of Konstanz, the appointment as a Humboldt Professor also involves the establishment of a centre for "Conflict Research and Development Policy". Its tasks include research into the situation in Liberia and the treatment of Syrian refugees in Jordan, for instance.
Dr Anke Hoeffler was born in Germany. Before joining the University of Konstanz, she was a research officer at the Centre for the Study of African Economies at the University of Oxford. She had been a researcher in Oxford since 1999, where she also earned her doctorate after completing her studies in Würzburg and London. For her research, Hoeffler has received funding from institutions such as the World Bank and the European Commission. In 2014, she was a visiting scholar at the University of Mannheim. She is a member of various academic organizations such as the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) and the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo, Norway.