Last update: July 2009

Full name: Thomas Hesselberg                     Sex: Male
Birthday: 22nd of July 1975                      Nationality: Danish
Address
Phone:
Email: thomashesselberg@gmail.com

Research interests: Animal Behaviour, Arachnology, Behavioural Ecology, Biomimetics, Comparative Biomechanics, Comparative Physiology, Invertebrate Zoology, Neuro-ethology, Sensory Biology

Other interests: Badminton, Chess, Hiking, History, Reading, Science communication

Employment history

Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, U.K. (Oct. 2009 – present)
Marie Curie Fellow at the Spider Silk Group, where I conduct research on behavioural plasticity and biomechanical aspects of orb web design built under different environmental conditions under the supervision of Prof. Fritz Vollrath.

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama (Aug. 2008 – July 2009)
Smithsonian Postdoctoral Fellow at the Laboratory of Behavior and Evolutionary Neurobiology, where I conducted research on behavioural plasticity in tropical orb-spiders under the supervision of Prof. William Eberhard.

ZenSci Consult, Denmark (Nov. 2007 – present)
Science consultant with a focus on biomimetics and co-founder of the science communication and consultancy company ZenSci Consult. Since August 2008 working in an advisory role, only.

Department of Neurobiology. University of Ulm, Germany (July 2006 – Aug. 2007)
Postdoctoral Researcher at the BioFuture Research Group, where I conducted research on flight control and sensory integration in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster under the supervision of Dr. Fritz-Olaf Lehmann.

Education

Department of Mechanical Engineering. University of Bath, U.K. (Oct. 2002 – June 2006).
Postgraduate Research Student at the Centre for Biomimetics and Natural Technologies (Supervisor: Prof. Julian F.V. Vincent).
Thesis title: An analysis of the locomotory behaviour and functional morphology of errant polychaetes (PhD degree awarded – June 2006).

Department of Biological Sciences. University of Aarhus, Denmark (Jan. 2001 – Oct. 2002).
Master student at the Department of Zoology (Supervisors: Prof. Fritz Vollrath -external: University of Oxford and Dr. Mark Bayley - internal).
Thesis title: Web-building behaviour in Araneus diadematus Cl.: Effects of temperature and neurotoxins on the behaviour and web-geometry (Master of Science degree awarded – Oct. 2002).

School of Biological Sciences. University of Edinburgh, U.K. (Oct. 1999 – June 2000).
Non-graduating studies (visiting student)

Department of Biological Sciences. University of Aarhus, Denmark (Aug. 1996 – Dec. 2000).
Undergraduate student

Part-time/student work experiences

Teaching

Hertford College. University of Oxford (2009).
Tutor in Comparative Animal Behaviour in the Michaelmas Term.

Department of Biology and Biochemistry. University of Bath (2003-2005).
Laboratory demonstrator in the second year course Insect Biology
Laboratory demonstrator in first year courses Biodiversity I and II

Department of Biological Sciences. University of Aarhus (1999, 2001-2002).
Student teacher in the second year course System Ecology
Instructor at the first year field course in Zoology.

Academic related

International Office. University of Bath (2003-2006).
Student helper on excursions by coach for international students.
Induction assistant. Helping newly-arrived international students.

Department of Biological Sciences. University of Aarhus (2001-2002).
Student assistant responsible for maintaining spiders in the department and their food, fruit and house flies.
Mentor for international students in the department

Department of Coastal Zone Ecology. National Environmental Research Institute, Denmark (2000-2001).
Student assistant for Dr. Bregnballe. Sorting of seaweed, data transfer to database, data manipulation.

Department of Landscape Ecology. National Environmental Research Institute, Denmark (1999).
Student assistant for PhD stud. Thorgård. Collecting and sorting of spiders in organic farmland.

Other

Private Tutor (2005-2006).
Associated with the tutor agency 3A Tutors, Ltd, which refers GSCE or A-level students that require one-to-one tuition in biology.

Awards and Funding

Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship for Career Development (24 months, University of Oxford, U.K.)
Smithsonian Institution Postdoctoral Fellowship (12 months, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama)

Academic memberships and duties

Wolfson College, University of Oxford, U.K. (Jan 2010 – present)
Non-stipendiary research fellow. An additional association with the college that requires me to carry out research at the University of Oxford.

Society memberships
Society for Experimental Biology
the American Arachnological Society
The British Arachnological Society
Danish Science Journalists Association

Ad hoc reviewer
Animal Behaviour, Behavioral Ecology, Journal of Evolutionary Biology, Journal of the Royal Society Interface, Journal of Theoretical Biology, Naturwissenschaften, Oikos, Proceedings of the British Royal Society B, Zoology

Computer skills

Languages – MATLAB (high), LabVIEW (intermediary), C++ (low)
Content management systems - Drupal
Software - Microsoft Office (high), Corel Draw (high), SPSS (high), Endnote (high), Origin (intermediary), SolidEdge (low)

Language skills

Danish – Mother tongue
English – Fluent
German – Conversational
Spanish – Conversational