You can now get more information on my lab at Konstanz University (our research, our team, opportunities — and NEWS) at insect-vision.com. So no more news at this venue, sorry…

I received funding for an independent research group, which will start in late 2022 at the University of Konstanz. We will investigate how insects perceive and recognise patterns - such as those on flowers they use to select and approach their food sources. The team will use a combination of neurophysiological, behavioural and computational methods to approach this question from multiple angles.

In spring of 2022, I was selected as a 5 year fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study in Konstanz, the Zukunftskolleg. I am extremely excited to have joined the interdisciplinary community in this wonderful place in September, and look forward to fascinating research and inspiring exchanges!

At the beginning of 2020, I was accepted into the Young Academy of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities, where I have the unique opportunity for interdisciplinary exchange with other young researchers from all over Bavaria. Currently, I am engaged in the Science Communication working group within the Young Academy.

My PhD student’s progress report reminds me that a milestone in both of our academic careers was reached almost a year ago - when I was awarded funding from the German Research Foundation for our project Parallel spatial channels in the insect visual system and she joined my mini group - which then officially became the Stöckl lab - shortly afterwards.

I am overjoyed to receive support from the Volkswagenstiftung’s funding initiative Experiment! for one of my research projects. I will be investigating the neural basis of a fascinating behaviour of hummingbird hawkmoths: they use their proboscis to essentially scan visual patterns on flowers - expecting them to help them find the nectary. This funding will help me dissect how the nervous system of the hawkmoths is controlling this behaviour - and whether they might use similar strategies for the task as we mammals do when reaching out for a visual goal.

In the middle of July I made my way to Brisbane, to attend the  International Congress of Neuroethology (ICN) . Here I had the great honour to present a talk about my past and future research in the Young Investigator Session after winning this year's Young Investigator Award of the Society. As always, the conference was incredibly inspiring, and it was great to see all my dear friends and colleagues united in science heaven, discussing the brains and behaviours of all our weird and wonderful creatures.

I just spent a week in San Francisco the fantastic team from IBiology and 3 other brilliant Young Scientists to receive coaching in science communication and record a talk for their website. What a great experience! The results of this project will be out by October on the iBiology Young Scientist Series website.

I have just started my new job as a research associate (wissenschaftliche Assistentin) at Würzburg University, in the group of Prof. Keram Pfeiffer. I am super excited to return to working with my beloved hawkmoths and their impressive visual abilities, and to design and execute more of my own research ideas. https://www.biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de/zoo2/personen/wissenschaftler/anna-stoeckl-persoenliche-seite/

At the start of this month, I had the chance to engage in some science communication in unchartered territory: at Slush, a massive startup and tech event in Helsinki. Slush was definitely the place with the greatest aggregation of colourful light beams that night, and it was super fun to be part of the show.