Personal details

Name: Zoltán L. BARTA

Position: Professor of Biology

Address: MTA-DE Behavioural Ecology Research Group, Department of Evolutionary Zoology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Egyetem tér 1. 4032, Hungary

Phone: +36 52 316 666 ext. 62334

Fax: +36 52 512 941,

E-mail: barta.zoltan@science.unideb.hu

Web: http://web.unideb.hu/~zbarta/

Nationality: Hungarian

Marital status: Married, 3 children (1997, 2001, 2007)

Education

2007: Doctor of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (DSc.), 86%, Title of doctoral thesis: The adaptive value of behavioural traits.

2003: Habilitation, University of Debrecen, 100%, Title of habilitation thesis: Studying adaptive value of behavioural traits.

1996: PhD in ecology, Kossuth University, Debrecen. Final result: summa cum laude. Title of thesis: The role of information transmission in the evolution of colonial breeding.

1991: Diploma in biology, Faculty of Science, Kossuth University, Debrecen. Final result: 4/5. Title of Diploma thesis: The effects of information-gathering on foraging behaviour of colonial birds.

Employment

2019 - present: Director of the Institute of Biology and Ecology, University of Debrecen

2016 - present: Director of the Biology MSc Programme, University of Debrecen

2011 - present: Director of Zoology specialisation in Biology MSc programme, University of Debrecen

2010 - present: Director of the Evolutionary Biology and Biodiversity Doctoral Programme, Juhász-Nagy Pál Doctoral School, University of Debrecen

2010 - present: Head of Department, Department of Evolutionary Zoology, University of Debrecen

2009 - present: Professor of Biology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen

2006 - 2009: Reader in Animal Behaviour, University of Debrecen, Debrecen

2006 - 2007: Research associate, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

2002 - 2004: Marie Curie Research Fellow, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

2000 - 2001: Leverhulme Trust Linked Fellow, University of Bristol, Bristol, UK

1998 - 2006: Lecturer in Animal Behaviour, Department of Evolutionary Zoology, Kossuth University (recently University of Debrecen), Debrecen

1996 - 1997: NATO Science Fellow, Concordia University, Montréal, Quebec, Canada

1994 - 1998: Research Associate, Department of Evolutionary Zoology, Kossuth University, Debrecen

Teaching experience

Undergraduate courses at the University of Debrecen:

• Biometry (1992 - 2010)
• Introduction to Animal Behaviour (1994 - present, both in Hungarian and in English)
• Behavioural Ecology (2011 - 2016)
• Animal populations (2017 - present)
• director of Biology MSc programme (2014 - present)
• director of Zoology specialisation in Biology MSc programme (2011 - present)

PhD courses at the University of Debrecen:

• Quantitative Methods in Biology (1993 - 2010)
• Behavioural Ecology (1994 - present)
• Animal Behaviour (1998 - present)
• director of Evolutionary and Diversity Biology PhD programme in Juhász Nagy Pál Doctoral School, University of Debrecen (2009 - present)

PhD courses at Eötvös University (Budapest, Hungary):

• Biometry (2004 - 2010)

National Courses and Workshops for all Hungarian PhD students in Animal Behaviour:

• Quantitative Methods in Animal Behaviour (1998, Budapest, co-organiser and lecturer)
• New Directions in Behavioural Ecology (1999, Debrecen, co-organiser and lecturer)
• New Research Techniques in Behavioural Ecology (2000, Debrecen, organiser)
• Theoretical Models in Behavioural Ecology (2002, Debrecen, organiser and lecturer)
• Application of Linear Models in Behavioural Biology and Ecology (2005, Debrecen, organiser)
• Behavioural Ecology Meeting (2007, Cluj Napoca, organiser and lecturer)
• Conflict and cooperation in animal societies (2008, Debrecen, organiser)
• Cooperation in animal societies (2009, Cluj Napoca, co-organiser)
• The evolutionary significance of consistent behavioral variation (2014, Debrecen, organiser)

Awards

2020: Member of Academia Europaea

2018: Minjiang Scholarship, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou, China

2014: Medal of the Debrecen Chapter of the Hungarian Academy of Science for scientific achievement

2009: Master Teacher of the Year, Hungarian Council of Science Students

2008: Best publication of the Year 2008, University of Debrecen

2006: Öveges Scholarship

2001: Marie Curie Research Fellowship of the European Union, Centre for Behavioural Biology, University of Bristol, UK. Hosts: Profs. J.M. McNamara & A.I. Houston

2001: György Békési Postdoctoral Fellowship of the Hungarian Ministry of Education

2001: Bolyai Research Fellowship of the Hungarian Academy of Science, Budapest

1999: Leverhulme Trust Linked Fellowship, Centre for Behavioural Biology, University of Bristol, UK. Host: Profs. J.M. McNamara & A.I. Houston

1999: Travel grant of Soros Foundation (Budapest) to visit the Centre for Behavioural Biology, University of Bristol, UK. Host: Profs. J.M. McNamara & A.I. Houston

1998: Bolyai Research Fellowship of the Hungarian Academy of Science, Budapest

1996: Magyary Postdoctoral Fellowship of the Hungarian Ministry of Culture, Budapest

1996: NATO Science Postdoctoral Fellowship, Department of Biology, Concordia University, Canada. Host: Prof. L.-A. Giraldeau

1994: Travel grant of Soros Foundation (Budapest) to visit the Centre for Behavioural Biology, Bristol University. Host: Prof. J.M. McNamara

1993: Research grant of Universitas Foundation (Debrecen)

1991: PhD scholarship of the Hungarian Academy of Science

Research grants

2020 - 2021: Using Artificial Intelligence to monitor wild Przewalski-horse populations, Microsoft AI for Earth Azure Grant. Dr. Z. Barta, USD 15,000

2020: Artificial intelligence in the footprints of Przewalski’s horses. Microsoft Hungary, MS-AI grant. PI: Dr. Z. Barta, USD 15,000

2020 -: TKP-DE Behavioural Ecology Research Group, PI: Dr. Z. Barta, 20 million HUF annually

2018 - 2020: FIK Lendület Behavioural Ecology Research Group, PI: Dr. Z. Barta, 18 million HUF annually

2017 - 2022: Social behaviour: co-evolutionary effects and consequences. Hungarian Academy of Science, PI: Dr. Z. Barta, 100 million HUF

2015 - 2019: Group functioning and patterns of social interactions. National Research, Development and Innovation Office, PI: Dr. Z. Barta, 26.512 million HUF

2012 - 2017: Why are we so different? Evolutionary consequences of individuality on sociality. Lendület Program of the Hungarian Academy of Science, PI: Dr. Z. Barta, 178.9 million HUF

2009 - 2012: Effects of environmental stochasticity on optimal timing of annual behaviour. Hungarian Research Fund (OTKA), PI: Dr. Z. Barta, 28.8 million HUF

2007 - 2010: INCORE: Integrating Cooperation Research across Europe. EU FP6. Contractor: Dr. Z. Barta, 33000 EUR

2006 - 2008: Optimal annual routines: a path from physiology to populations. Hungarian Research Fund (OTKA), PI: Dr. Z. Barta, 23.2 million HUF

2006 - 2007: The relationship between the health status and feather quality in the great tit. TéT Foundation, Hungarian PI: Dr. Z. Barta, 2.8 million HUF

2004 - 2005: Optimal annual routines of non-migratory birds: the effects of state. Marie Curie European Return and Re-Integration Grants (ERG), PI: Dr. Z. Barta, 40000 EUR

2004 - 2008: Optimal moult strategies. Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA), PI: Dr. Z. Barta, 10.3 million HUF

2000 - 2002: Incubation behaviour in birds: dynamic game theoretical models and their tests, Research and Development Grants for Higher Education (FKFP), PI: Dr. Z. Barta, 3 million HUF

1999 - 2002: The economy of scrounging: a study of social foraging in sparrows. OTKA, PI: Dr. Z. Barta, 4.3 million HUF

1999 - 2001: The inheritance of status-signalling in tree sparrow. OTKA, PI: Dr. Z. Pénzes Co-investigator: Dr. Z. Barta, 1.6 million HUF

1995 - 1997: Genetic algorithms in models of behavioural ecology, OTKA, PI: Dr. Z. Barta, 1.05 million HUF

1998 - 2001: Phonetically limited foraging strategies in house sparrows: experimental studies. OTKA, PI: Dr. A. Liker, Co-investigator: Dr. Z. Barta, 1.4 million HUF

1992 - 1995: Ecological factors determining coloniality in sand martin, Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA), PI: Dr. T. Szép, Co-investigator: Dr. Z. Barta, 1.2 million HUF

Professional activity

• Membership
  • Hungarian Biological Society,
  • Hungarian Ethological Society,
  • Zoological Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Science (2001 - 2004),
  • Diversity Biology Committee of the Hungarian Academy of Science (2012 - present),
  • Council of Complex Environmental Sciences, National Research Development and Innovation Office, Hungary (2012 - 2015)
  • Supraindividual biology panel of the Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (2016 - 2018)
  • ECOEVO (Ecology and Evolution) panel of the National Research Development and Innovation Office, Hungary (chairman, 2019 - 2020)
  • General Assembly of the Hungarian Academy of Science (2012 - 2015, 2019 - present)
  • Environmental Science Committee of the Debrecen Chapter of the Hungarian Academy of Science (chairman, 2009 - 2017)
• Refereeing grants
  • Hungarian Scientific Research Fund (OTKA),
  • the Council for the Earth and Life Sciences (ALW) of the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO)
  • TéT Foundation
  • Marie Slodowska Curie Fellowships, European Committee (2018)
  • The Cyprus Research Promotion Foundation (RPF)
  • The Estonian Research Council (ETAG)
• Refereeing manuscripts for Animal Behaviour, American Naturalist, Behavioral Ecology, Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, Biology Letters, Ethology, Emu, Functional Ecology, Ibis, Journal of Avian Biology, Journal of Animal Ecology, Oikos, Ornis Hungarica, PLoS ONE, Proceedings of the Royal Society and Trends in Ecology and Evolution
• Refereeing and committee member for several PhD applications
• Editor of Ornis Hungarica (2004 - 2010)
• Academic editor of PLoS ONE (2009 - 2014)
• Co-organiser: Animal migration: linking models and data beyond taxonomic limits, Leiden, 2009
• Chair of Science Programme Committee, European Ornithologists’ Union conference in Turku, 2017 (https://eounion.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/EOU2017_abstracts.pdf)

Skills

Language: Hungarian (native), English (good)

Computer programming: C, R, Perl, Julia, Bash, LaTeX on UNIX, LINUX (some of my code can be found here: https://github.com/zbartab)

Computational models: genetic algorithms, state-dependent dynamic games, optimal annual routines, state-dependent life histories

Statistical analyses: generalised linear models, mixed effect models, multivariate models, random forests

Study visits

2017: University of Cardiff, Cardiff, UK, Host: Prof. Michael Bruford, 3 months

2016: Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France, Host: Dr. Philipp Heeb, 2 months

2006 - 2007: Univeristy of Bristol, Bristol, Hosts: Profs. J.M. McNamara & A.I. Houston (1.5 year)

2002 - 2004: University of Bristol, Bristol. Hosts: Profs. J.M. McNamara & A.I. Houston (2 years)

2000 - 2001: University of Bristol, Bristol. Hosts: Profs. J.M. McNamara & A.I. Houston (1 year)

1996 - 1997: Concordia University, Montreal. Host: Prof. L.-A. Giraldeau (1 year)

1994: University of Bristol, Bristol. Host: Prof J.M. McNamara (4 months)

1992: Cornell University, Ithaca, USA. Host: Prof. T.J. DeVoogd (1 month)

1991: Cornell University, Ithaca, USA. Host: Prof. T.J. DeVoogd (4 months)

Supervised students

• Currently 4 PhD students are supervised.
• 8 PhD student (of which 4 co-supervised, details at https://doktori.hu/index.php?menuid=192&lang=HU&sz_ID=352) and 60 diploma students have completed their thesis.

Publications

See my Google list here: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ukRrqKEAAAAJ&hl=en.

My ResearchGate profile is here: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Zoltan_Barta.